Where we fit
Five ways to answer
a district question.
Most teams answer questions about their district in one of five ways. Each has its place. Here’s an honest look at where Community Pulse fits, and where something else is the better choice.
1Doing it by hand
2A BI tool on your own data
3A one off consultant report
4A general AI chatbot
5Community Pulse
Side by side
How the approaches compare.
| What matters | Doing it by hand | A BI tool on your own data | A one off consultant report | A general AI chatbot | Community Pulse |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official NZ data, cleaned and aligned | Your analysts do it | Only what you load | For that report | Not built in | 40+ sources, done for you |
| Same definitions across every district | Manual and error prone | Only what you build | Within the report | Not guaranteed | 13 themes, one geography |
| Every figure shows its source and period | If someone notes it | Depends on the build | Yes | Not always | Every answer |
| Says when the data can’t answer | No safeguard | No safeguard | Yes | May guess | Refuses rather than guesses |
| Time to an answer | Hours to days | Fast once built | Weeks | Seconds | Seconds to minutes |
| Stays current | Re-download each release | Your own pipeline | A snapshot | Unclear | Refreshed on each source’s schedule |
| How you pay | Analyst time | Licences plus build | Per project | Per seat | Pay per product, no module locks |
YesPartly, or with extra workNoA general comparison of approaches, not of any named product.
An honest answer
When we’re the right fit, and when we’re not.
We’d rather you choose well than choose us. If another approach serves you better, we’ll say so on the first call.
Community Pulse is the right fit when…
You need the same answer to hold up across districts, themes and years.
Figures go in front of elected members, funders or the public and must be cited.
Several teams keep asking the same questions of the same official data.
You want answers in your BI tools, our dashboards, maps, AI or Claude, and pay only for what you use.
Something else may suit you better when…
You need an independent evaluation with recommendations: commission a consultant.
Your question is only about your own operational data: a BI build on that data is enough.
It’s a single one off figure you can download in five minutes from the source.
Works with what you have
It isn’t either or.
Community Pulse sits underneath the tools you already use. Keep your BI licences, your analysts and your consultants. Give them better data to start from.
Your BI tools
Connect the data lake to Tableau or Power BI and keep the reports you already have.
Our dashboards
380+ community dashboards across 13 themes, ready on day one.
AI insights
Plain English summaries and questions on the dashboards your team already uses.
Claude
Ask the Connector in Claude and get answers with the source attached.