Out of Excel Hell: Koru Medical’s Data-Driven Growth Surge
Background: "It was terrible. You couldn't quickly look at last year, this year, month to month—what’s going on, where are we hitting, where are we missing?"
- VP of Sales, Rob Cannon
Koru Medical, a leader in specialty infusion therapy, faced significant challenges in sales reporting, forecasting, and data accessibility. The existing systems relied on cumbersome spreadsheets and manual reporting processes that hindered efficiency. Sales leaders like VP of Sales Rob Cannon, Account Executives Alicia and JC, and Finance Senior Manager Brian Rafferty struggled to extract meaningful insights quickly.
Without a centralized platform, account executives couldn’t easily track sales trends, customer purchasing patterns, or product performance. Leadership meetings often stalled as teams waited for data retrieval. As JC Speer put it, "I couldn’t quickly look at last year, this year, month to month—where are we hitting? Where are we missing?".
Challenge: "You don’t realize how much time you’re wasting until you have something better. We were constantly checking, validating, and rechecking numbers."
- JC Speer, Regional Sales Director
Lack of a Centralized Sales Dashboard
Key account data was scattered across multiple spreadsheets, making it difficult to generate reports efficiently. Sales leaders often had to manually compile insights from various sources.
Data Fragmentation & Delays
With different teams using their own methods to track sales and performance, inconsistencies arose. Account executives and finance teams spent excessive time validating numbers.
Manual Reporting & Human Error
JC Speer described the previous process as "terrible"—relying on massive Excel sheets that slowed down even basic queries. Small errors could cascade into larger miscalculations, impacting decision-making.
Backlog & Bottlenecks
With only a handful of individuals able to generate reports, sales teams waited for answers rather than acting on real-time insights.
Limited Scalability
Reports were designed for specific individuals, making it difficult for the entire team to leverage insights across departments. There was no seamless way to provide live updates for leadership or external partners.
Solutions: "Now, instead of wrestling with numbers, we’re having conversations about strategy." - Robert Canon, Global VP of Sales
Automated Reporting with Intuitive Dashboards – Instead of waiting for spreadsheets to load, account executives could now log in, click, and instantly see sales trends, missing targets, and growth opportunities.
A Single Source of Truth – Stratus centralized data sources, eliminating discrepancies between finance and sales reports. As Brian Rafferty noted, "We can now dive into customer demand trends without dealing with 500,000-line Excel files slowing us down.".
Enhanced Forecasting Capabilities – With machine learning-driven sales forecasting, leadership meetings shifted from data-wrangling to strategic discussions. Instead of questioning numbers, they planned actions based on accurate projections.
Self-Service Analytics for Sales Teams – Account executives like Alicia and JC no longer had to rely on finance to pull reports. Instead, they could filter and analyze their accounts instantly, leading to faster client conversations and better decision-making.
Real-Time Customer Insights – Rob Cannon emphasized how the new system even changed client interactions: "Optum, one of our largest customers, was so impressed with our speed and data accuracy that they realized they needed a better system themselves.".
Impact: "We’re seeing orders increase just from being able to have these data-driven discussions. The insights are driving real revenue."
- Brian Rafferty, Sr. FP&A Manager
Efficiency: Decisions instead of Debate
- 25% reduction in manual data requests, saving finance and sales teams weeks of work annually.
- Seconds instead of days to generate QBRs, enabling more strategic discussions rather than time-consuming data gathering.
- Live customer reporting, allowing account executives to react to conversations on the fly.
Tangible Revenue Impact
- $300k immediate return from a key distributor after AE identified purchasing inconsistencies in seconds—a task that would have taken days before.
- 18% year over year revenue growth across US and International regions.
A Culture Shift Towards Data-Driven Decisions
- Sales team focused on strategy instead of debating numbers.
- Leadership discussions became more proactive, using real-time insights rather than waiting for outdated reports.
Takeaways
Manual Reporting Kills Speed and Accuracy
Koru Medical's previous reliance on spreadsheets slowed decision-making and introduced inconsistencies. Automating reporting freed up time for high-value work instead of repetitive data pulls.
Real-Time Data Changes Customer Interactions
With instant access to insights, sales reps no longer had to delay responses or defer decisions. Instead, they could address customer concerns mid-conversation, improving both service and outcomes.
Forecasting Shouldn’t Be a Guessing Game
By eliminating gut-feel estimations and leveraging machine learning, Koru shifted from reactive adjustments to proactive, data-backed strategies.
The Right Tools Reduce Friction Between Teams
Misalignment between sales, finance, and leadership caused unnecessary bottlenecks. With a centralized dashboard, all teams worked from the same source of truth, reducing friction and improving collaboration.
Scalability Requires a Strong Data Foundation
The previous system couldn’t scale with Koru’s growth. A cloud-based platform not only solved immediate issues but also positioned the company for future expansion and continuous improvement.
Why Stratus: "We looked at other vendors, but Stratus understood our needs from day 1." - Senior Director of Finance
Deep Industry Knowledge & Proven Success
- "Ken had worked with you before and spoke highly of you. We trusted his judgment and saw immediate value." – Rob Cannon
- "We looked at other vendors, but Stratus understood our needs from day one." – Brian Rafferty
Speed, Flexibility, and Hands-On Support
- "You didn’t just hand us a dashboard and walk away. You stayed engaged, answered every question, and made adjustments as we needed them." – Rob Cannon
- "Stratus actually helped us discover issues in our own data that we didn’t even know existed." – Brian Rafferty
Seamless Integration & Immediate Impact
- "We saw results right away—faster reports, better accuracy, and more useful insights." – JC Speer
- "I used to wait days for reports. Now I log in, and everything I need is there instantly." – JC Speer
About Stratus Data
Stratus creates unreasonable competitive advantage for mid-market companies through analytics and AI solutions that drive measurable ROI.
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Listen Carefully Listen Carefully. Organizations don't come out of a box, neither should their solutions. Listen for what each person actually needs. Partner Longterm Think about the client's longterm goals. Place what you build into their longterm vision. Drive ROI Focus on solutions that drive measurable value by targeting key actions and decisions. Focus on Quick Wins Build momentum by creating solutions that prove value quickly, then go big. Start Simple Start simple then add complexity. 80% of value can be harvested with 20% of the effort.
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Charles Pensig, Co-Founder Analytics and Business Intelligence Data Scientist and business translator generating results such as immediate 5% revenue lift and 2% gross profit lift through deep dive analyses finding key levers to big outcomes. Built data science functions at early- and mid-stage Silicon Valley IoT, Wearables, and SaaS companies, with 2 acquisitions; and the Wharton School's Center for Analytics & AI. Derek Chang, PhD, Co-Founder Machine Learning and Optimization Data Scientist and engineer developing algorithms and data automation systems saving clients 1,000 hours per year, reducing SG&A by 15-40%, and reducing CoGS by 5-7%. PhD Stanford EE, BS Caltech EE, former nuclear fusion researcher Speaker at Caltech, Stanford, HBS, and Wharton. Applied Experience from Silicon Valley and Beyond Tech: Google, Amazon, Meta, IoT, Wearables Consulting: McKinsey & Co. Finance: Goldman Sachs, Maveron, Fintech Government: NASA, Livermore National Labs Research Degrees from Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, MIT Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Statistics Physics Electrical Engineering Computational Biology Applied Degrees from Wharton, Caltech, Stanford, Georgetown Statistics Finance Financial Engineering Operations Research
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Analytics Strategy In the world of big data and AI, there are many ways to take on the future. Our team helps you find the right path into longterm success. AI-Assessment and AI-Powered Automation AI is estimated to grow in use by 10x between no and 2030. How should you be using it? Using out of box tools or custom built ones, with training for your team. AI Prediction and Pattern Detection Machine learning models can see the future and find hidden patterns that go well beyond Excel and the human eye. What would you do if you had a crystal ball? Deep Dive Quantitative Analysis Modern data science methods and tooling enable root cause analysis in a way and at scale, that traditional tools like Excel don't. Automated Reporting Tableau and Power BI dashboards enabling realtime monitoring of key aspects of your business
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