Short on time, but ready to strengthen your data foundation?
Explore eight concise sessions that help you connect, automate, and visualize data with today’s most relevant Microsoft and low-code technologies.
These 20-minute videos combine technical depth with practical insight, giving you both the why and the how of modern data strategy.

Why watch these sessions

Modern organizations run on data. Yet many teams still struggle to translate potential into results — overwhelmed by the number of tools, features, and platforms.
That’s why we created these on-demand masterclasses: to give you clarity in a fast-changing landscape.

You’ll learn:

• How to automate repetitive work with Power Automate and Logic Apps
• How PowerApps accelerates app development without heavy coding
• How to design IBCS-compliant dashboards in Power BI and Zebra BI
• When to choose Microsoft Fabric or Databricks for scalable data integration
• How to modernize your architecture with an Azure data back-end
• What AI Agents and Copilot can (and cannot) do for working more efficient
• How TimeXtender enables governed, low-code data warehousing

Each session is led by experts who work daily with these technologies, sharing proven patterns, pitfalls to avoid, and real-life examples from enterprise environments.

Who it’s for

These on-demand sessions are designed for:

• Data and IT managers who want to modernize their architecture.
• Business analysts looking to automate manual processes.
• Developers and engineers eager to explore low-code tools and AI frameworks.

No matter where you are in your data maturity journey, you’ll find practical next steps to increase efficiency and impact.

About this webinar

In this short but powerful webinar, we’ll show you how to successfully embed data solutions in your organization—and how to prevent them from losing effectiveness over time. You’ll get practical, actionable tips from real cases and learn how our support team can help ensure continuity.

We’ll cover:

• What data adoption really means (and why it often fails)
• Practical tips that actually work in the field
• How to keep your solutions healthy: common issues and how to avoid them
• When it makes sense to engage our support team

What’s in it for you

In just 20 minutes, you’ll learn:

• How to accelerate adoption within your team
• How to prevent technical issues before they impact you
• How to keep dashboards and reports consistently valuable

Want your data solutions not just to launch, but keep running smoothly? Watch this webinar now and discover how we can help.

Why many data strategies stall

Big ambitions die in execution when teams ship impressive prototypes that users don’t adopt, or when priorities drift away from business goals. Maarten shares the tell-tale signals:

• Teams can’t name the user, the decision, or the measurable outcome.
• Success looks like “we built it,” not “it’s used and it improved X.”
• Initiatives run in silos, costs climb, benefits aren’t captured.

Bottom line: strategy only matters if it’s executed—and used.

What actually works in practice

From rail and construction to aviation, the patterns repeat. The wins come when you:

• Anchor to business outcomes – tie every data product to a concrete operational or commercial goal.
• Design for adoption, not just accuracy – remove friction in the real context of work (sometimes that means paper, not a tablet on a vibrating machine).
• Keep the human in the loop – automate the boring, elevate expert judgment where it adds value.
• Focus on rate of adoption, not rate of change – pace your roadmap to what the organization can truly absorb.

Example discussed: repurposing advanced computer vision from a long-horizon R&D track into a maintenance use case that delivered immediate, visible value for front-line teams.

How to align teams and reduce waste

Great data teams can build almost anything; great strategies help them build the right things:

• Translate corporate strategy into a clear portfolio of data products.
• Set explicit user, decision, and metric for each product.
• Cut duplication across teams; standardize where it saves time; differentiate where it drives impact.

Keeping it alive after the first quarter

Momentum fades unless you make progress visible and leaders accountable:

• Publish a simple “highlight report” every half-year mapping business objectives → data products → realized outcomes.
• Practice radical transparency with sponsors – what’s used, what’s not, and what stops.
• Codify ownership in the business – adoption, feedback, and action live there, not just in the data team.

When you should watch this

If you lead data, analytics, or IT and want your investments to show up in operational KPIs—not only in demos—this conversation gives you the playbook and the pitfalls to avoid.

What you’ll take away in 20 minutes

• How to link data products to real business goals and user decisions.
• How to diagnose adoption gaps fast—and fix them.
• How to pace your roadmap to organizational absorption.
• How to make value visible so sponsorship and momentum stick.

Rockfeather and Zebra BI tackled the biggest challenges in dashboarding: too many KPIs, lack of context, and reports that look polished but fail to support decision-making.

At the heart: every dashboard should answer four questions:

1. Is performance good or bad?
2. How good or how bad?
3. Why is it so?
4. What are we going to do about it?

This framework ensures dashboards don’t become cluttered with KPIs and visuals that confuse instead of clarify.

Key takeaways from the webinar

• Always add context: benchmark against plan, forecast, or last year.
• Standardize: the same visual should always convey the same message.
• Simplicity over decoration: highlight only what matters.
• Build hierarchy: top KPIs first, with drill-downs for detail.
• Connect data to action: make it clear what decisions follow from the numbers.

Real-world examples

Heijmans standardized reporting across units, leading to faster, more consistent decision-making. KPN created a self-service dashboard aligned with IBCS standards, giving users ownership of insights and reducing BI workload.

Your next step

Want dashboards that truly make a difference? Start by applying the four-question test to your reports, or let Rockfeather help you build dashboards that support faster, smarter decisions.

What Will You Learn in This Webinar?

• Why many dashboards fail – and how to fix them.
• How IBCS helps you create clear and standardized reports.
• Which companies successfully use IBCS and how it improves their decision-making.

Bring Clarity and Structure to Your Reports with IBCS

The International Business Communication Standards (IBCS) help you create clear and standard reports. This makes it easier to understand insights and make better decisions.
A study from Technische Universität München (TUM) shows that using IBCS correctly can reduce analysis time by 46% and improve decision-making by 61%.

Curious to see how this works? We explain everything in just 25 minutes.

How can organizations ensure every critical decision is genuinely supported by data? Maarten van den Outenaar, Chief Data Officer at Schiphol Group, emphasizes a strategic vision built around empowering employees to integrate data into their daily decisions. Schiphol’s vision “Data at the heart of every key decision”, reflects a broader organizational transformation towards data-driven decision-making.

Why data-driven decisions matter

Organizations continuously face the challenge of timing their technology adoption effectively. As history shows through various industrial revolutions, adopting technology too early or too late both carry risks. Schiphol recognized that integrating data effectively into the organization’s decision-making processes required a balanced and strategic approach.

Van den Outenaar highlights three primary ways data can improve organizational outcomes:

• Efficiency: Streamlining existing processes.
• Effectiveness: Enhancing decision quality and outcomes.
• Diversification: Applying successful practices across various organizational domains.

Schiphol’s strategic vision: Autonomous Airside

Schiphol Group’s strategic goal, encapsulated as “Connecting your world with the most sustainable and high-quality airport,” focuses on quality network connections, customer service excellence, employee satisfaction, community engagement, and sustainability.

Central to this vision is the concept of an autonomous airside: a fully electrified airport area leveraging data and IT to minimize environmental impact and optimize operational efficiency. However, reaching full decision automation remains cautious, with human judgment playing a vital role even at advanced stages.

Aligning data strategy with organizational decisions

To achieve meaningful integration of data into everyday decisions, Schiphol approached departmental leaders, asking them to identify their top three decisions. This approach ensured:

• Clear prioritization of data initiatives.
• Strong alignment with strategic objectives.
• Practical focus on measurable outcomes.

By clearly defining and supporting key decisions, Schiphol ensures that data initiatives genuinely impact strategic objectives.

Empowering employees through data

Effective data strategies require putting employees at the center. Employees are empowered through education, support, and the integration of digital expertise from Schiphol’s Center of Excellence. Van den Outenaar emphasizes a collaborative approach, combining technical knowledge with domain expertise to effectively bridge the gap between rapid technological developments and employee adoption rates.

Navigating technology adoption

Organizations face continuous pressure from rapidly advancing technologies, often outpacing organizational readiness. Schiphol tackles this issue using the S-curve model—common in investment circles—to carefully time technology adoption. The S-curve approach:

• Guides incremental maturity growth in data capabilities.
• Enables timely assessments and adjustments.
• Facilitates agile, strategic progression towards data maturity.

This incremental and evaluative approach ensures organizations adapt at a sustainable pace, avoiding technology fatigue and resource misallocation.

Matching employee needs with technological capabilities

Successful implementation of data initiatives relies on identifying and prioritizing employee tasks that most benefit from technological assistance. Schiphol pairs employee needs with technological potential, creating actionable matrices that highlight optimal implementation opportunities.

Key considerations include:

• Identifying tasks suitable for automation or enhancement.
• Recognizing employee openness to technology.
• Prioritizing initiatives with significant impact potential and high employee enthusiasm.

Practical Impact and Real-world Application

Van den Outenaar underscores the importance of tangible improvements. By clearly demonstrating how data initiatives enhance employee performance and organizational outcomes, Schiphol achieves broader organizational buy-in. Specific reports and dashboards illustrate the practical benefits directly linked to employee needs, reinforcing strategic alignment.

Continuous Improvement through strategic alignment

Schiphol’s approach to data strategy highlights the importance of continuous improvement through strategic alignment, employee empowerment, and agile technology adoption. By placing data at the heart of key decisions and strategically aligning technological maturity with organizational readiness, Schiphol demonstrates a robust blueprint for successful data integration.

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the video at the top of this page to hear Bernie Smith explain it himself.

Bernie Smith, a recognized expert in KPI development, emphasizes this challenge through a compelling analogy: poorly coordinated decisions, much like a street renovation immediately followed by tree removal, lead to meaningless outcomes despite good intentions and substantial investments.

The Persistent Challenge: Aligning KPIs with Strategy

Smith notes a recurring issue in organizations, the disconnection between chosen KPIs and strategic objectives. Many KPIs, although individually logical, fail collectively because they are not aligned or prioritized correctly. This misalignment results in wasted effort, resources, and ultimately confusion rather than clarity.

To address this challenge, Smith developed the Results Orientated KPI System (ROKS), known informally as the ROKS method, a structured seven-step process focused on aligning KPIs directly with strategic outcomes.

Introducing the KPI Tree Concept

Central to the ROKS method is the idea of KPI Trees, an evolution of the traditional strategy mapping approach popularized by Kaplan. KPI Trees visually break down broad strategic objectives into specific, measurable elements, enabling better alignment and clarity.

Smith illustrates the KPI Tree method with a simple personal example: aiming for good health. The top-level strategic objective—being healthy—is broadly accepted but not directly measurable. Breaking it down, Smith identifies measurable components such as exercise frequency, sleep quality, and dietary habits. Each subsequent level adds specificity, eventually reaching clearly measurable KPIs, like daily calorie intake.

Benefits of KPI Trees:

• Clarity and Simplicity: Complex strategies become clear and actionable.
• Alignment and Engagement: Collaborative construction of KPI Trees fosters consensus and team buy-in.
• Visualizing Conflicts: Clearly illustrates potential conflicts between KPIs, ensuring balanced decision-making.

Dealing with KPI Overload: The Importance of Shortlisting

Despite their advantages, KPI Trees can lead to an overwhelming number of potential KPIs. Smith identifies two typical mindsets regarding KPIs:

• Dreamers: Those inclined to measure everything imaginable.
• Pragmatists: Those cautious about adding KPIs, mindful of measurement complexity and workload.

To manage this tension, the ROKS method employs a rigorous shortlisting process, prioritizing KPIs based on their strategic importance and ease of measurement. This critical step ensures that only relevant, manageable, and impactful KPIs remain.

Practical Scalability and Adaptability

A significant advantage of KPI Trees and the ROKS method is their scalability. They are designed for adaptability across different organizational contexts—from banks and universities to manufacturing firms. Smith highlights that, although KPI Trees can initially appear complex, they become practical and reusable tools, easily adjusted to fit unique organizational processes.

Strategic Alignment as the Ultimate Goal

Ultimately, effective KPI selection is less about having many KPIs and more about choosing the right ones. Smith’s ROKS method and KPI Trees help ensure every KPI directly supports strategic objectives, clearly linking performance measurement with organizational goals.

In conclusion, organizations need a systematic approach like the ROKS method to avoid common pitfalls in KPI selection. Aligning KPIs clearly with strategic objectives ensures clarity, relevance, and actionable insights; critical components for sustainable organizational success.