Case study · A national financial advisory network
Board reporting on Microsoft Fabric in 24 days
A funded proof of value that became the platform, and a team that extends it themselves now.
Took a national advisory network from legacy warehouse extracts to a governed Microsoft Fabric platform running in production in 24 days, then built the board and investor reporting on top of it.
- 24 daysfrom assessment to Microsoft Fabric running in production
- 5 engagementsconsecutive, from the funded proof of value into production
- Production firstthe data cube in production before the reporting build began
- Team ownedtheir own engineers drive the enhancements
About the client
The client runs a national financial advisory network: member firms operating under one group, with client, account, financial advice, accounting and mortgage broking data spread across all of them.
New investor and board reporting obligations meant the group had to be able to report on its own network as one thing, and there was a deadline on it.
The challenge
The group was running on legacy data warehouse assets and fragmented extracts, with a board reporting deadline approaching and no consolidated view of the network it owned.
- No environment separation, no deployment path and no security model, so there was no production grade platform for anything to land on.
- Every reporting build in prospect risked landing on a foundation that would have to be refactored later.
- The group wanted to own and extend the platform with its own team rather than stay dependent on outside expertise.
What we delivered
We started with a partner funded proof of value and carried the work through to production, sequencing five engagements that each built on the one before. The client directed priorities throughout while we guided the day to day build, owned the complex development and led the reporting layer.
Proof of value, then extension
- A funded Microsoft Fabric assessment and proof of value set the target state architecture, the medallion patterns and PostgreSQL mirroring.
- The platform then extended across further sources and workloads.
Operationalise and deploy
- Source control in Azure DevOps, secret management in Azure Key Vault, role based access control, service principals and capacity sizing.
- A development to production deployment path, with the data cube moved into production before the reporting build started.
Scale and embed
- Accounting, human resources and practice system feeds onboarded into the data cube.
- The reporting architecture and semantic model built on top, which proved the reporting the board needed early rather than at the end.
- The client's own engineers trained in their own environment, on the platform they were going to keep.
Outcomes
Board ready
- The reporting the board and the investor asked for, proved on foundations that were already in production.
Production grade
- Environment separation, a deployment path and a security model, in place before the reporting build rather than retrofitted after it.
Fast
- 24 days from the start of the assessment to Microsoft Fabric running in production.
Owned by the team
- Their engineers build in the platform themselves now, under coaching rather than instruction.
Change management and enablement
The training happened in the client's own environment rather than in a sandbox, on the platform they were keeping. That is why the handover was a change of driver rather than a document.
What is next
The programme is in its fifth engagement: extending Microsoft Fabric to further priority sources and workloads, scaling capacity as demand grows, and building reporting workloads on foundations that are already in production.
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