Senex Global

How a three-phase data and application architecture transformed years of poorly-scraped data into an API-driven, client-facing business intelligence tool.

From messy data to market insight: building Senex Global’s construction pricing intelligence platform

Senex Global is a market intelligence and analytics firm that provides granular data and insights on market share, pricing, distribution, and demand. The company supports manufacturers, distributors, and retailers by transforming complex data into actionable intelligence for strategic and operational decision-making.

The challenge

Senex Global sought to launch a new, proprietary pricing intelligence platform for their construction material manufacturer clients. However, their initial attempts to gather market intelligence had stalled:

  • Unusable Data: A prior, years-long effort to scrape market data resulted in a massive but “poorly architected and messy” dataset that required significant remediation.
  • Technical Bottleneck: The company founder was unable to clean, normalize, or derive useful insights from this data using conventional tools like Excel spreadsheets and pivot tables.
  • Stalled Product Launch: The inability to structure and query the historical data meant the core business value of the new platform could not be realized.

The approach

To solve the foundational data problem and productize the offering, a three-phased platform was developed:

  • Phase 1: Data Importer & Normalization. A custom data importer was built to process the vast volume of raw pricing data from key distributors (Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Menards). This process cleaned, normalized, and structured the data into a usable format, overcoming the primary data quality challenge.
  • Phase 2: API-Driven Graph Generation. An API-driven module was created to serve the normalized data. This allowed for dynamic querying and filtering based on user-selected facets like time, distributor, and high-level product categories (doors, windows, appliances).
  • Phase 3: Client Portal. A client-facing portal was established to manage user accounts and deliver the final product experience.

Tools and Tech Stacks: The core data and API modules were built with Laravel, and the client portal for user/subscription management was built with WordPress.

=Testimonials, as authentic endorsements from satisfied customers, serve as potent social proof, significantly inspiring trust in potential consumers.

– Bob Tancula / Senex Global

The solution

The project delivered a complete, end-to-end pricing intelligence platform that successfully leverages years of previously unusable data:

  • Structured Data: The data importer successfully cleaned and organized the market data, making it ready for business intelligence use.
  • Filtered and Relevant Insights: The platform focuses on specific, relevant product subsets (e.g., standard-sized windows, interior/exterior doors, semi-permanent appliances) and excludes irrelevant market verticals like patio doors and custom-sized products.
  • Customizable Reporting: Users can customize their portal interface to filter results by specific product attributes (e.g., window type, door core) and generate historical pricing graphs and charts.
  • Productized Features: The portal manages user subscriptions, includes tiered access controls, offers report sharing capabilities with authentication measures, and allows for the export of all graphs and charts for use in client presentations.

The results

  • High-Value Asset: Senex Global now owns a proprietary, architected pricing intelligence platform that transforms raw data into a monetizable consulting product.
  • Actionable Intelligence: Years of unusable scraped data are now clean, structured, and available for complex querying and analysis.
  • Go-to-Market Readiness: With the product built, the next critical step is to collaborate on a sales strategy to launch the platform to customers.