A Klipfolio business intelligence case study by Light On Analytics

From one dashboard to 25: how Brookaire changed the way it uses data

Between April 2025 and July 2026, Geta Viasu-Räisänen of Light On Analytics built 25 Klipfolio dashboards for Brookaire Company, a US air filtration manufacturer, covering finance, sales, operations, and maintenance. It was during this engagement that Geta developed the 15-Second Standard: the essential answer in 15 seconds, and the "why" right underneath it. Brookaire's sales planning, maintenance, and personnel needs align to forecasts built by Light On Analytics.

Client
Brookaire Company — US manufacturer and distributor of air filtration products
Industry
HVAC manufacturing and distribution, B2B
Engagement
April 2025 – July 2026
Tools
Klipfolio
Delivered
25 dashboards across finance, sales, operations, and maintenance; forecasting for sales planning, maintenance, and personnel needs

Who is Brookaire?

Brookaire Company is a U.S. industry leader in the manufacturing and distribution of air filtration products for B2B markets. This third-generation, family-operated business credits its continued growth to a strong "Customer First" approach, proudly serving clients across the U.S.

What challenges were they facing?

Brookaire had been in business for 50 years, and its reporting had grown the way reporting usually grows: one Excel file at a time. Many files, mostly static, each needing manual maintenance, each showing one slice of the business in isolation.

The data existed. What was missing was a way to see it: current, connected, and fast enough to actually inform decisions.

How did I approach the project?

The engagement started small and deliberately practical: take an existing report and rebuild it as a live dashboard in Klipfolio.

But the real work was never just conversion. Before building anything, I focused on understanding the business itself — how Brookaire operates, what each team is responsible for, and which questions each report was actually trying to answer. That understanding is what made the difference between a spreadsheet on a screen and a tool people rely on.

It was during this work that I developed the rule I now build to, the 15-Second Standard: the essential answer in 15 seconds, and the "why" right underneath it.

What changed for Brookaire?

From maintenance to availability. Reports that needed manual updating became live dashboards that are simply current.

From isolated files to a connected view. What began as a single dashboard is now 25, spanning finance, sales, operations, and maintenance.

From looking backward to planning forward. The work grew beyond reporting on what happened. Brookaire's sales planning, maintenance, and personnel needs align to forecasts I built — data used not just to review the past, but to shape decisions ahead.

From replacing reports to new ways of using data. Much of what exists today had no Excel predecessor. Once the foundation was in place, the question changed from "can you rebuild this report?" to "what else could we see?"

Or, in the words of Brookaire's Business Excellence team:

"Before we had very simple, boring dashboards, now we have bold, sophisticated dashboards — but highly communicative and you can see what is happening very quickly."

And the outcome, in one sentence:

"The biggest impact of this project on my business was: we are back in the driver's seat and are intelligent as to our real performance again."

What do Brookaire's leaders say?

"Geta was responsible, reliable, and, most importantly, delivered an excellent product. She not only knows how to build the required visualizations but also understands the underlying business use case, which makes her work especially impactful."

David Mornan, CEO, Brookaire

"Dashboards were created quickly and communication and follow up after meetings with emails was great."

Lucas Walker, NJ Operations Manager, Brookaire Company

"Geta is a charm to work with, she is a true professional in this space, and she puts great thought into her work — producing great results."

Business Excellence, Brookaire Corp

Asked what they would tell someone hesitant about bringing in an outside consultant, Brookaire's answer was simple: "Go for it! You can not do great things alone."

Why it worked

Dashboards fail when they are treated as a purely technical deliverable. This engagement worked because it was treated as business work: understanding the use case first, building second. Most dashboard problems are not visualization problems. They are definition problems, prioritization problems, or structural business problems that become visible through reporting.

The collaboration ran continuously from April 2025 to July 2026. What started as a single dashboard request became something closer to a business intelligence partnership: a company that spent decades collecting data, now able to see itself clearly.

About the author

Geta Viasu-Räisänen is the founder of Light On Analytics, a human-centered analytics and business intelligence practice. She has worked in data analysis for a decade, is Klipfolio-certified, and created the course "Klipfolio for Beginners: Stop Guessing. Start Building," which Klipfolio featured in its newsletter and on its blog. Her work spans dashboard design, KPI strategy, forecasting, and reporting architecture.

Do you face similar challenges?

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