Power BI Consulting for Cincinnati Suppliers, Logistics Firms and Agencies
Cincinnati is a headquarters town, and the businesses around those headquarters, suppliers, agencies, carriers and contractors, are measured by their biggest customers' scorecards. Power BI lets you see your own numbers before the customer does. We build it with you, remotely.
Power BI consulting Cincinnati businesses can book this week: Lightray Solutions connects the systems you already run, builds the data model, designs the reports and trains your team, with every session delivered over screen share by Edward Pinela, MBA. Lightray is based in Fullerton, California, and has no Cincinnati office; the work is remote from the first call to the last training session, and the price is the same as for a client down the street from us.
REDI Cincinnati, the region's economic development organisation, describes an economy built on advanced manufacturing (aerospace and aviation, automotive, chemicals, and food and flavor production), life sciences, logistics, and business services such as consumer insights and finance, with eight Fortune 100 companies headquartered in the region. That concentration shapes the small and mid-size businesses around it: packaging and ingredient suppliers to the consumer-goods giants, carriers and 3PLs around the CVG air hub, marketing and research agencies, and contract manufacturers in Blue Ash and Mason whose customers send a vendor scorecard every month.
Work begins with a free 30-minute strategy call. Power BI Flex Support starts at $2,500 for a 20-hour prepaid block at $100–$125 per hour, no retainer, hours that never expire; larger builds are quoted as a fixed scope in writing. The Power BI guarantee applies: if you don't like working with us within the first 4 hours, you get your money back.
“Amazing! Lightray Solutions built us a Power BI dashboard based on my busy restaurant’s quickbooks data that allows me to see my entire business on a daily basis which has been a game-changer! Excellent communication and service!”
— Quinn R., Google review
Why do suppliers to large companies need their own dashboards?
Because the customer's scorecard arrives after the fact and in the customer's categories. A supplier that tracks fill rate, on-time-in-full and quality holds in its own Power BI model sees the problem weeks earlier, by SKU and by shift, and walks into the quarterly review with the explanation already in hand. The same logic applies to an agency reporting campaign results or a carrier reporting tender acceptance: your data, modelled your way, before the customer's version lands.
Which Cincinnati businesses do you build Power BI for?
Owner-led and department-led companies of 10 to 250 people with a system of record and a customer who expects numbers. Typical Greater Cincinnati engagements:
- Packaging, ingredient and component suppliers. On-time-in-full, fill rate, quality holds and margin by customer and SKU from the ERP.
- Carriers, brokers and 3PLs around the CVG air hub. Loads, tender acceptance, cost per shipment and lane profitability from the TMS.
- Marketing, research and consumer-insights agencies. Utilisation, project margin and client profitability from the time system and QuickBooks.
- Contract and food manufacturers. Batch yield, downtime causes and cost per unit from the MES or line exports.
- Healthcare and life-science businesses. Encounters, payer mix and collections; or batch and stability data for small producers.
- Construction and facilities contractors. Job cost against estimate, work in progress and cash position.
How does remote Power BI consulting work for a Cincinnati company?
A standing weekly call on Teams or Zoom, your data on screen, the model and reports built live and corrected by the people who will use them, with notes after every session. Cloud systems connect directly; an on-premises ERP connects through Microsoft's gateway. Reports are published in your Microsoft tenant with row-level security, so a customer-facing account manager sees one account and leadership sees all of them. No part of the work needs a visit, and none is offered.
What do Power BI licenses cost, and which do we need?
Our consulting is priced separately from Microsoft's licenses. Flex Support is $2,500 for 20 hours, with 40 and 80-hour blocks at $100 per hour and unused hours kept on your account; a first dashboard from one system plus accounting usually fits inside the first block. Licenses are paid to Microsoft, and the right one depends on who views, who builds and how big the model is. Microsoft's license-type comparison is the reference; the table below is the short version for a Cincinnati supplier or agency. We are not a reseller and earn nothing from the choice.
| License | Who needs it | Price | Typical case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power BI Desktop | The person building the model | Free | Edward builds in Desktop, then publishes to your tenant |
| Power BI Pro | Everyone who views or shares reports | $14 per user per month | A 15-person supplier where six managers open the dashboard |
| Premium Per User | Viewers of large models or frequent refreshes | $24 per user per month | A 3PL refreshing TMS data more than eight times a day |
| Fabric capacity | Organisations sharing with many free viewers | Capacity-priced; quoted by Microsoft | Rarely needed under 250 staff |
Why work with Lightray Solutions in Cincinnati?
The person on the strategy call is the person who builds the model: Edward Pinela, MBA, with 20+ years in data and web work and 200+ delivered projects. Lightray holds a 4.9★ Google rating and an A+ BBB rating, and the Power BI guarantee returns your money if you don't like working with us in the first 4 hours. The review above is from a restaurant owner whose QuickBooks became a daily view of the whole business; a supplier's ERP gets the same treatment.
Elsewhere in Ohio, Cleveland has its own page written for Northeast Ohio's job shops and medical-device suppliers, and Columbus and Toledo are covered separately. The Power BI consulting locations page lists every city by state, and the Power BI consulting services hub explains the full service; Power BI report automation covers scheduled refresh and distribution for the monthly customer pack.
Further reading: REDI Cincinnati — Regional industries and economic data.
Want your numbers before your biggest customer sees them?
Book a free 30-minute call with Edward Pinela, MBA. You get an honest read on what to fix first — and if we are not the right fit, you will hear that on the call.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have consultants in Cincinnati?
No. Lightray Solutions is based in Fullerton, California, and every Power BI engagement is delivered remotely over video and screen share, with reports built in your own Microsoft tenant. Cincinnati clients work with the same senior consultant at the same published rate as clients anywhere else.
Can the dashboard match our customer's scorecard categories?
Yes. We model your measures the way you run the business and add a view that maps them to the customer's definitions of on-time, in-full and quality, so you can explain any gap between the two. That mapping is usually the most valuable hour of the engagement.
What does Power BI consulting cost in Cincinnati?
Flex Support starts at $2,500 for 20 hours at $100–$125 per hour, prepaid with no retainer, and unused hours never expire. A fixed-scope build across several systems is quoted in writing after the free strategy call. Power BI licenses are paid to Microsoft, at $14 or $24 per user per month.
How long before the first report is usable?
A first working report typically appears in the first week when the data is in an ERP, TMS or accounting system, and a finished dashboard follows in two to three weeks. Spreadsheet-only data or several disconnected systems add modelling time, which we tell you after the data review.
What is the Power BI money-back guarantee?
Within the first 4 hours of a Power BI engagement, if you don't like working with us, you get your money back. It is a Power BI-only guarantee. Four hours is roughly the data review plus the first modelling session, which is long enough for a supplier's controller to see whether the numbers are going to reconcile.
You Won’t Get Handed Off to Junior Staff.
At most consulting firms, the senior person who sold you shows up for the kickoff — then you get handed to a team of juniors learning on your dime. That’s not how we work.
When you hire Lightray Solutions, you work directly with Edward Pinela, MBA — a principal consultant with 20+ years of experience across Power BI, web development, SEO, and CRM systems. Edward architects every engagement personally, stays involved through delivery, and answers his own phone.
Read Edward’s Full Bio“Mid-market companies deserve senior-level expertise without paying enterprise-agency prices. That’s the gap Lightray fills.”
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