Case study · An Australian private equity group's insurance premium funding business
Merging a group and its two funding brands onto one Microsoft Fabric platform
A fractional technology chief first, then the platform, then the support model that keeps it running.
Set the data strategy for a private equity group, then merged an insurance premium funding business and its two brands onto one governed Microsoft Fabric platform in 8 months, with four AI use cases live behind it.
- 8 monthsfrom programme start to completed handover
- 7 systemscore business systems ingested into Microsoft Fabric
- 4 use casesAI, machine learning and agentic use cases live
- 3 engagementsconsecutive, from the strategy seat to managed support
About the client
The client is an Australian private equity group. Its insurance premium funding business lends to businesses paying their insurance premiums by instalment, through two brands serving a national broker network.
nexwave has worked with the group continuously since the first engagement, in the strategy seat to begin with and as its delivery and advisory partner now.
The challenge
The group had a substantial programme of cloud, data and AI work planned across its portfolio, and no senior technology owner to steward it.
- The funding business ran on fragmented reporting and duplicated effort across its two brands, with no single source of truth.
- No governance model, and no route to AI.
- Every reporting build risked landing on foundations that would need refactoring later.
- The architecture had to be able to absorb future acquisitions, and the group wanted its own team to own the platform.
What we delivered
We sequenced three engagements, each landing on the foundations laid by the last. The group directed priorities, and we co-delivered so its own engineers could learn and build alongside us.
Steer
- A fractional chief technology officer and chief data officer engagement for the group.
- The data strategy, target state architecture and governance model, with workshops across finance, operations, experience and sales.
- Early tactical wins, then the modern data platform roadmap and the investment assessment behind it.
Build
- Microsoft Fabric with OneLake and a medallion architecture, across development, test and production with CI/CD and Git source control.
- Role based access control with row and column level security, and Microsoft Purview for lineage.
- Seven core business systems ingested, covering funding, finance, human resources, telephony, customer relationship management and collaboration.
- Governed Power BI models for sales, finance, executive and board reporting.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot enablement, and four high value agentic use cases.
Run and extend
- A support agreement across four streams: reactive break fix against severity targets, proactive detection and cost optimisation, planned drawdown against a prioritised backlog, and a centre of excellence covering capability uplift, advisory and benefits reporting.
Outcomes
One source of truth
- Two brands and the group above them reporting from one governed platform, instead of three sets of numbers that had to be reconciled.
Delivered and handed over
- 8 months from programme start to completed handover.
AI in use, not in a pilot
- Four AI, machine learning and agentic use cases live, alongside Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption and a trained champions cohort.
Built for the next acquisition
- An architecture that absorbs a new business rather than forcing another reporting rebuild.
Supported
- A four stream support model, with benefits tracked monthly against the business case.
Change management and enablement
We co-delivered rather than delivered. The group's engineers built alongside us throughout, a champions cohort was trained for Microsoft 365 Copilot at the same time, and the centre of excellence stream exists to keep both going after the handover.
What is next
The support agreement is running now, against a prioritised backlog that includes an AI pricing engine, broker performance and portfolio health reporting, a further customer relationship management source, and turning manual quote intake into a digital one with optical character recognition.
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