Our Client

Kanzo is a social impact organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of generational poverty, together with and for young people and families in vulnerable situations.

At Kanzo, the mission is always central: direct impact on individuals and families. To maximize that impact, data must not merely live inside systems - it must actively support strategic decision-making.

A significant part of Kanzo’s operational data is registered in Salesforce. However, as the organization grew, so did the complexity of extracting meaningful insights from that data.

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The Business Case

Data silos and manual work

Kanzo’s Salesforce environment contains a wealth of information. Yet obtaining strategic insights was time-intensive and often dependent on manual exports and Excel combinations

Key challenges included:

• Data locked in complex Salesforce tables
• Manual exports without structural data quality checks
• Limited availability of real-time insights to consistently support decision-making
  

For an organization focused on societal impact, this meant valuable time was spent on spreadsheets rather than on people.

Kanzo wanted to:

• Gain faster insight into its operations
• Improve transparency toward policymakers and funders
• Better steer workload and resource allocation
• Lay the foundation for a future Data & AI roadmap

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The Approach

An initial student project as starting point

This case concerns the initial student project carried out in collaboration with AP Hogeschool.

A team of students worked on designing and building a first structured data solution for Kanzo. Tropos took on a guiding, steering, and supporting role throughout the project:

• Translating Kanzo’s strategic needs into a feasible technical scope
• Coaching students on architecture, data modeling, and best practices
• Ensuring professional quality standards
• Safeguarding alignment between mission, data, and usability

Rather than executing the project independently, Tropos deliberately positioned itself as an expert partner and mentor - strengthening both the students and Kanzo.

This approach ensured that the outcome was not only a technical proof of concept, but also a learning trajectory and a sustainable starting point.

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The Solution

Within the scope of the student project, a modern data flow was designed to transform Salesforce data into structured insights

The architecture included:

• Salesforce (Source) – Operational data registration
• Fivetran (Transport) – Secure and automated data transfer
  
• Snowflake (Storage) – Central cloud data warehouse
• dbt (Transformation) – Translating raw data into meaningful business concepts
• Power BI (Reporting) – Intuitive dashboards for strategic insight

For end users, the result is a simple dashboard experience.

Behind the scenes, a scalable and automated architecture was introduced as a foundation for future growth

Key use cases developed

During the analysis phase, several use cases were defined

• Use Case 1 – Geographic visualization of families
  Location-level insights with filtering on school and postcode.
• Use Case 2 – Workload monitoring for management
  Clear visibility into interactions, workload distribution, and operational effort.
• Use Case 3 – AI component (LLM integration)
  Automatic summarization of meeting notes and categorization according to Impactster domains

What makes this project unique?

• A real-life impact project for students
  Students worked on a real societal challenge, supported by both Kanzo and Tropos.
• Professional guidance with long-term vision
  Tropos ensured architectural quality, scalability, and alignment with a broader Data & AI roadmap.
• Knowledge transfer and ownership
  Kanzo was closely involved throughout the process, ensuring internal understanding and adoption.

As Kanzo reflects:

“Tropos helped us lay a sustainable foundation for our Data & AI roadmap, step by step. They combine strategic thinking with technical depth, while staying sharply focused on practical applicability. That makes the difference for an organization like Kanzo, where impact is always central.” - Rik Rijnders (Project & Quality Coordinator at Kanzo)

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The Results

• A validated proof of concept
  The student project delivered a working foundation for automated reporting and insight generation.
• Reduced manual reporting effort
  The architecture replaces manual exports with structured and automated flows.
• Improved managerial insight
  Kanzo management now has clearer visibility into workload and operational dynamics.
• AI-readiness established
  The technical foundation enables future AI applications, including further expansion of meeting note automation.

The Next Steps

This case marks the starting point of Kanzo’s data journey. The student project laid a solid technical and conceptual foundation on which Kanzo will continue to build in the coming years.

As the project evolves, Tropos will remain involved through additional consulting guidance, helping to further strengthen the data foundation in line with Kanzo’s broader Data & AI ambitions.

What began as a student initiative is gradually developing into a long-term collaboration - reinforcing Kanzo’s ability to make informed decisions in support of its social mission and lasting societal impact.

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What Tropos can do for you

In today’s complex data landscape, organizations need more than reporting - they need a scalable and reliable data foundation that drives real business value.

Tropos delivers end-to-end data solutions, combining strategy, architecture, governance, and implementation. We embed business logic in robust data models, ensure strong data quality controls, and design secure, future-proof cloud environments.

Whether your goal is operational efficiency, cost optimization, transparency, or AI-readiness, we turn raw data into actionable insights that enable smarter decisions.

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