Cascade connector

Use your Cascade strategy data for reporting, automation and AI.

Data Panda pulls your Cascade plans, focus areas, objectives, key results, KPIs and initiatives into the same warehouse as your finance, sales and operations data. From one place we turn it into dashboards, automations, AI workflows and custom apps that the leadership team uses through the quarter, not only on the morning of the strategy review.

Cascade

About Cascade

The strategy execution platform that gets the plan out of the boardroom and into the work.

Cascade was founded in 2014 in Sydney by Tom Wright and Eric Perriard, with the conviction that strategy should be something an organisation runs every day rather than presents once a quarter. The platform now sits behind plans at customers like Caterpillar, AstraZeneca, US Bank, Roche, Telefónica and Mercedes, with thousands of teams using it to keep mid-term plans visible to the people executing on them.

The Cascade model is built around a small set of objects that map onto how strategy gets written and tracked. A plan holds the mid-term ambition. Focus areas split it into the few themes leadership wants to push on. Objectives and key results sit under each focus area as the measurable outcomes. KPIs and metrics carry the recurring numbers the business already tracks. Initiatives are the projects that move the objectives. Snapshots and dashboards roll the lot up into views the executive team and BU heads read each cycle. The competitive frame is OKR-only tools at the lighter end and full strategic-PMO suites at the heavier end: Cascade lands in the middle, where the plan, the goals, the metrics and the initiatives live in one record. Pulled into a warehouse next to Salesforce, HubSpot, Jira and the finance system, the Cascade record finally answers the question a Cascade dashboard alone cannot: are the initiatives moving the KPIs that the objectives promised, and is the operating data agreeing.

What your Cascade data is for

What you get once Cascade is connected.

Strategy and execution reporting

Plans, focus areas, objectives, KPIs and initiatives on one page next to the operating numbers they are supposed to move.

Plan-to-KPI traceability across focus areas, objectives and the metrics they promise to move
Initiative throughput and stalled-initiative count per focus area, BU and owner
KPI red, amber, green status against the operating numbers from finance, sales and operations

Process automation

Turn Cascade KPI movement, snapshot cadence and initiative state into the downstream work the rest of the stack expects, without manual handoffs.

Refresh KPI actuals from the warehouse the moment the source system posts the underlying number
Open initiative records or tasks in Jira, Asana or monday when a new objective is created in Cascade
Push snapshot-due reminders and red-KPI alerts to the right Slack channel and owner per focus area

AI workflows

Put plans, objectives, KPIs and initiative state behind AI that reads the full strategy picture next to the operating data.

Initiative-risk scoring on initiative state, owner load and the KPI movement the initiative was meant to drive
Natural-language Q&A across plans, objectives, KPIs and the operating numbers they map to
Draft snapshot narratives that reference the actual KPI movement and the initiatives behind it, ready for a strategy lead to edit

Custom apps on your data

Lightweight tools on Cascade data for owners and BU heads who should not need a Cascade seat to read their own slice of the plan.

Owner cockpit with the objectives, KPIs and initiatives on one page per focus-area lead
Executive plan-progress board that ties each red KPI back to the initiatives meant to move it
BU-head review pack that auto-builds from the Cascade snapshot and the operating numbers underneath

Use cases

Use cases we deliver with Cascade data.

A list of concrete reports, automations and AI features we have built on Cascade data. Pick the one that matches your situation.

Plan-to-KPI traceabilityEach KPI traced back to the objective and focus area it belongs to, with the operating number it tracks named.

Initiative throughput per focus areaInitiatives moved from open to done per focus area, owner and quarter, against the cadence the plan assumed.

Stalled-initiative agingInitiatives with no update past the agreed window, per focus area, owner and BU.

KPI status reconciled with sourceCascade KPI status compared to the underlying operating number from the source system, with mismatches named.

Snapshot cadence by ownerSnapshots posted on time per owner and focus area, against the cycle the strategy office set.

Objective-versus-actual deltaKey result target versus actual to date, per objective, owner and quarter.

Owner load across the planObjectives, KPIs and initiatives owned per leader, with the people carrying more than is realistic flagged.

Red-KPI to operating-data drillEach red KPI linked to the same number on the finance, sales or operations dashboard so the cause is one click away.

Initiative-to-Jira mappingCascade initiatives joined to the Jira epics or projects executing them, with delivery state next to strategy state.

Plan refresh participationOwners who updated their objectives, KPIs and initiatives ahead of the cycle close, per BU and focus area.

Focus-area health rollupOne health number per focus area built from KPI status, initiative throughput and snapshot cadence together.

BU-head review packQuarterly review pack per BU built straight from the Cascade snapshot and the operating numbers underneath.

Real business questions

Answers you will finally get.

Are the initiatives in the plan moving the KPIs the objectives promised?

Each initiative joined to the KPI it was meant to move, with the KPI trend before and after the initiative landed. The strategy office sees which initiatives shifted the number they were attached to, which ones closed without moving anything, and which focus areas have a pile of completed initiatives next to a flat KPI line, instead of trusting that a green initiative status implies a green outcome.

Does the Cascade KPI status agree with the same number on the finance and sales dashboards?

Cascade KPI value compared to the underlying operating number from the source system, on the same period and the same definition. The CFO and the strategy lead see the KPIs where Cascade and the warehouse disagree, the period in which the gap opened, and which side the gap sits on, before the gap reaches the board pack as two different numbers for the same metric.

Which owners are carrying more of the plan than is realistic?

Objectives, KPIs and initiatives owned per leader, against the count the strategy office considers a workable load. The exec team sees the heads who quietly own a third of the plan, the focus areas where ownership is concentrated on one or two people, and the snapshot cadence that slips on the same names quarter after quarter, in time to redistribute before the next cycle.

Value for everyone in the organisation

Where each function gets value.

For finance leaders

Cascade KPIs that promise a finance outcome (revenue per segment, gross margin per BU, opex against plan) lined up with the same number from the finance system. The CFO stops chasing two versions of the gross-margin KPI on review day, and the finance team sees the period the Cascade actual drifted from the GL number it should have read.

For sales leaders

Revenue and pipeline KPIs in Cascade reconciled with the Salesforce or HubSpot pipeline they came from, per segment and BU. The CRO sees the focus area where pipeline is on plan but won-revenue is not, and the initiatives that were supposed to lift conversion that have closed without lifting it.

For operations

Initiative state in Cascade joined to the Jira, Asana or monday work executing it. The COO sees the focus areas where strategy says the initiative is on track but delivery says half its tickets are stalled, before the snapshot pack catches up with reality.

Ideas

What you can automate with Cascade.

Cascade

Pair with Salesforce

Reconcile Cascade revenue KPIs with Salesforce pipeline and won-revenue

Revenue and pipeline KPIs in Cascade are joined to the same Salesforce pipeline and closed-won numbers per segment, BU and quarter. The strategy office sees the focus areas where Cascade and Salesforce disagree on the same metric, the period the gap opened, and which side reads higher. The CRO sees the segment where pipeline tracks plan but won-revenue does not, weeks before the next snapshot picks the gap up.

Cascade

Pair with HubSpot

Feed Cascade marketing and pipeline KPIs from HubSpot

MQLs, SQLs, pipeline created and source-attributed revenue from HubSpot land as the actuals behind the marketing and demand KPIs in Cascade, per segment and quarter. The CMO sees which marketing focus area is on plan and which is not, and the strategy lead stops manually pasting a HubSpot screenshot into the snapshot the night before the review.

Cascade

Pair with Slack

Push Cascade snapshot deadlines and red-KPI alerts to the right Slack channel

Snapshots due, snapshots overdue and KPIs that flipped red post into the focus-area Slack channel and ping the named owner, per the cycle the strategy office set. Owners stop missing the snapshot deadline because the reminder lived in an email they did not read, and the exec team sees the red KPIs in the channel where the work happens, not only on the next review day.

Cascade

Pair with monday.com

Tie Cascade initiatives to the monday boards executing them

Each Cascade initiative is joined to the monday board or item that is doing the actual work, on a shared key. The strategy office sees the focus areas where the Cascade view says the initiative is on track but the monday board shows half its items stalled, and the BU-head review pack stops carrying two opposing stories about the same project.

Cascade

Pair with Exact Online

Match Cascade finance KPIs to the Exact Online ledger

Revenue, gross margin and opex KPIs in Cascade are reconciled with the Exact Online ledger per legal entity, BU and period. The CFO and the strategy lead read the same financial number on the snapshot and on the management report, and the cases where Cascade has been refreshed but Exact has moved since are flagged before the board pack picks up the older figure.

Cascade

Pair with HiBob

Read HiBob workforce data behind Cascade people-related objectives

Headcount, hiring, time-to-fully-onboarded and engagement signals from HiBob land next to the people-related objectives and KPIs in Cascade, per BU and country. The CHRO and the strategy lead see whether the people-side initiatives in the plan are moving the workforce numbers they were meant to move, and which focus areas claim a green people-KPI on a Bob trend that does not back it up.

Your existing tools

Your data lands in a warehouse. Your BI tools read from it.

You keep the reporting tool you already have. We connect it to the warehouse where your Cascade data lives.

Power BI Microsoft

Fabric Microsoft

Snowflake Data warehouse

BigQuery Google

Tableau Visualisation

Excel Sheets & pivots

Three steps

From Cascade to answers in three steps.

Connect securely

OAuth authentication. Read-only by default. We sign a DPA and your admin keeps the keys.

Land in your warehouse

Data flows into your warehouse on your schedule. Near real time or nightly, your call. You own the data.

Reporting, automation, AI

We build the first dashboard, workflow or AI feature with you, then hand over the keys. Or we stay on for ongoing delivery.

Two ways to work with us

Pick the track that fits how you work.

Track 01

Self-serve

We set up the foundation. Your team builds on top.

Cascade connector configured and running
Warehouse set up in your cloud account
Clean access for your Power BI, Fabric or Tableau team
Documentation on what's in the data model
Sync monitoring so you're warned before reports break

Best fit Teams that already have a BI analyst or data engineer and want to own the build.

Track 02

Done for you

We build the whole thing, end to end.

Everything in Self-serve
Dashboards built to the questions your team actually asks
Automations between your systems
AI workflows scoped to real tasks your team runs
Custom apps where a dashboard does not cut it
Ongoing delivery at a pace that fits your team

Best fit Teams without in-house BI or dev capacity. You tell us what you need and we deliver it.

Before you book

Frequently asked questions.

Who owns the data?

You do. It lands in your warehouse, on your cloud account. We don't resell or aggregate it. If you stop working with us, the warehouse stays yours and keeps running.

How fresh is the data?

Near real time for most operational systems. For heavier sources we schedule hourly or nightly. You pick based on what the reports need.

Do I need a warehouse already?

No. If you don't have one, we help you pick one and set it up as part of the first delivery. Common starting points are Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, or a small Postgres start.

Which Cascade objects land in the warehouse?

The connector pulls Plans, Focus Areas, Objectives, Key Results, KPIs and Metrics, Initiatives, Snapshots, Updates, Risks and the people-and-team layer that owns them. Custom fields on goals and initiatives come along where they are defined. Authentication runs through a Cascade API token scoped to your workspace.

Can the warehouse push KPI actuals back into Cascade?

Yes. Where a KPI in Cascade is sourced from a system already in the warehouse (Salesforce pipeline, HubSpot demand, Exact ledger, HiBob headcount), the connector can refresh the KPI value the moment the source system posts the underlying number. The strategy office stops keying actuals into Cascade by hand, and the KPI on the snapshot tracks the same definition the source system uses.

How do permissions and confidentiality on the plan stay intact?

Cascade plans and objectives can carry confidential context that should not surface to every dashboard reader. The warehouse mirrors the access model: restricted schemas for the parts of the plan that should stay with leadership, open schemas for the focus-area, KPI and initiative metadata the wider business reads. Access is enforced in the warehouse, so a new reporting view cannot accidentally surface an objective it should not see.

GDPR-compliant

Data stays in the EU

You own the warehouse

A first deliverable live in four to six weeks.

We review your Cascade setup and the systems around it. Together we pick the first thing worth building.

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