Slashing Shipping Costs: How we Saved a Retailer Hundreds of Thousands
Behind Stella Source’s reporting transformation: a leaner data workflow, smarter insights, and zero guesswork.
Team Members
Your embedded expert at Stella Source provides direct access, weekly check-ins, and taps in specialists as needed—working with trusted vendors to deliver fast, effective solutions.
Context
Manual workflows. Hidden costs. Shrinking margins.
Stella Source is one of North America's largest steel fabrication providers, processing thousands of custom quotes monthly. With limited data infrastructure, disconnected systems, and manual estimation processes, profits suffered while competitors gained ground.
Quote calculations locked in spreadsheets. Pricing formulas in emails. Material costs in disconnected systems.
No visibility into cost breakdowns. Inconsistent markup strategies. Competitors winning on speed.
Core fabrication software embedded in operations. No budget for rip-and-replace approach.
Challenge
Without a single source of truth, Stella's team struggled to optimize their fabrication process.
The result? Lost opportunities, unpredictable margins, and no way to identify bottlenecks.
Solution
To help, we built The Stella Data Platform, a unified data architecture that gives fabrication teams complete visibility into quoting, costs, and customer insights.
Results
The Stella Data Platform quickly became the go-to tool for fabrication teams, cutting quote times, boosting accuracy, and driving profitability. With rapid adoption and strong feedback, it's now central to Stella's fabrication workflow.
reduction in quote turnaround time
cost estimation accuracy achieved
time to actionable insights
Impact
We didn't just fix quote calculations. It transformed how the entire organization makes decisions and serves customers.
From pilot to company-wide
Expanded from estimation team to production and executive visibility in 8 weeks
No workflow disruption
Integrated with existing fabrication systems without replacing core infrastructure
Blueprint for data success
A proven model for any manufacturing business with disconnected information
See what our clients said
Brainforge helped us streamline support by organizing our documents and building an AI assistant our team actually uses. What stood out most was their dedication — they took time to understand our needs and worked closely with us every step of the way. Our agents are faster, more focused, and no longer waste time digging for answers. We'd absolutely recommend them.
We needed fast, reliable data engineering support — and Brainforge delivered. They spun up quickly, laid strong foundations, and brought in the right people for every stage, from infra to modeling. Their team made onboarding seamless and scaled with our needs. Highly recommend.
Brainforge expertly resolved a complex issue with seamless communication, strong organization, and deep expertise in single-page applications and data analytics. His professionalism and clarity with non-technical stakeholders make him highly recommendable.
If you’re looking for a world-class, experienced, easy to work with product analytics expert, Robert is it! He was an absolute pleasure to work with, easy to communicate with, and a reliable expert.
Brainforge set up our product analytics from scratch, including Amplitude implementation, tracking priorities, and dashboards. Robert’s sharp expertise and clear guidance made the handoff smooth and effective.
Robert had an answer to every obscure and nuanced question we had! We were looking for a well-rounded, world-class product analytics expert for our project, and we’re SO grateful for his help
Robert from Brainforge was a tremendous asset, helping us identify needs, close gaps, and implement solutions with speed and precision. His thorough, organized approach made every interaction focused and productive—we’d gladly work with him again.
