Thought Industries' Near Real Time or NRT BI Connector allows companies to integrate with any business intelligence tool that can directly access and query data. The NRT BI Connector is an instance specific database hosted on Amazon Web Services. This powerful feature enables companies to visualize key learning and engagement data in unique and powerful ways, as well as combine this insight with data from other areas of the company.
Tip
Use Thought Industries' data with your Business Intelligence Tools, like Power BI, Tableau, Looker, Domo, and more.
Use Case Information
Join Thought Industries' data with other company data for cross functional insights.
When configured you can control the following:
Merge Data from Multiple Sources
- Gain access to granular data analysis.
- Customize queries and reports to fit your needs.
NRT BI Connector is a premium feature and behind a feature flag.
Reach out to your Account Team for assistance to enable this feature in your instance.
Setting Up a Database
- When you're ready to connect your Business Intelligence tool to the database, please reach out to the Thought Industries' Support Team.
Please provide the following information to quickly move forward:
- Email addresses of any team members that would need to be included on future communication related the NRT BI Connector database.
- Which instance the database should be created for (if you have more than one instance).
- The Name of the Bi Tool you will be using eg. Power BI, Tableau, Etc.
Note
Our team will create your instance-specific database and send an email containing an encrypted link to access your database information, so you and your team can proceed.
- Look out for an email from a Thought Industries' team member with the subject line similar to "Customer Name - Thought Industries BI Connector Database Access".
- Use the database information to connect the database to your BI tool.
- Data should now flow between Thought Industries and your Business Intelligence Tool.
Data Deletion Tracking
NRT BI Connector comes with complete data deletion tracking across all core tables which will help you see clear differentiation between active and deleted records in your reports.
This works by indicating deleted records in the statusgroup column alongside a statusgroupupdatedat timestamp.
- A statusgroup indication of
ashows active - A statusgroup indication of
ishows inactive - A statusgroup indication of
dshows deleted
Note
- A few edge-case tables (subscriptions, purchases, blocks) do not currently include these new fields, as deletions from those areas are extremely rare.
- The new status group columns are populated when a record is updated. Records that have not been updated since the columns were introduced will have blank or null values in these fields.
Table Reference Guide
The table reference guide can be used to learn more about the objects currently available via our BI Connector.
At the link below, you will find the fields, definitions, and relationships shared using the NRT BI Connector.
FAQs
I am still using the legacy BI 1.0 Connector what should I do to upgrade?
If you're still using BI 1.0, now is the perfect time to upgrade to the NRT BI Connector and take advantage of faster, cleaner, and more reliable data. Need help making the switch? Follow the guidlines in the Set Up section here.
What Data Warehouse does NRT BI Connector use?
Near Real Time BI Connector provides controlled access to TI’s analytics warehouse, Amazon Redshift. Redshift is a fully managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse service in the cloud, designed for high-performance analytics and querying.
How will we recieive our Encryption Key?
Our team will create your instance specific database and send an email with a link to encrypted database information for you and your team to proceed. We currently send this data via email using a one time secret key.
How do I notify Thought Industries of sync issues and stay alarted to any system updates?
We have two monitoring systems in place to track data sync health:
- Sync Monitoring Endpoint – This monitors for sync failures and data freshness issues, including delayed syncs.
- BI Connector Monitoring Endpoint – This detects any breaks in established BI Connector connections.
Our team is on a 24/7 pager duty rotation and is immediately alerted to any sync failures, delays, or connection disruptions. Once an issue is detected, our designated support team members will notify affected clients directly via email and post relevant updates on our Status Page.
If the issue is not specific to your individual connection but affects a broader set of users, we will post a general update on the Status Page as well. We recommend subscribing to receive real-time alerts and updates here.