Case study · A vegetation management provider for electricity utilities
Vegetation reporting on Microsoft Fabric in 17 days
An assessment and a proof of value, back to back, with nothing built ahead of agreement.
Proved Microsoft Fabric over live works management data in 17 days, taking crew reporting from an overnight batch to near real time and putting it behind a data agent supervisors can ask questions of.
- 17 daysfrom kick off to a live Microsoft Fabric data agent
- 5 daysfor the assessment, target architecture and migration roadmap
- 2 phasesdelivered back to back, with no gap between them
- Near real timecrew reporting, down from an overnight batch
About the client
The client delivers vegetation inspection, scoping, cutting and compliance work for major electricity utilities across Australia. Its largest vegetation contracts run on an in-house works management system built on Azure Database for PostgreSQL.
It wanted to know whether Microsoft Fabric was the right foundation for the next phase of growth, and it wanted to know before committing to a broader migration.
The challenge
The reporting platform had been built incrementally and had reached its limit. Works management data flowed overnight into an Azure SQL reporting database, where views, stored procedures and functions fed the Power BI estate. The logic was fragmented and duplicated, and the platform was under performance pressure.
- Reporting refreshed once a day, so supervisors could not see how crews were tracking until the next morning.
- Fast regrowth vegetation risk was still managed reactively, in spreadsheets.
- The question had to be answered on a working platform rather than on a recommendation, because a broader migration was riding on the answer.
What we delivered
We ran the assessment and the proof of value back to back, with no gap between the phases. The client confirmed the proof of value scope at the close of phase one, so nothing was built ahead of agreement, and a working Microsoft Fabric slice over live data still landed in 17 days.
Assess, then set the target
- A rapid review of the works management PostgreSQL database, the Azure Data Factory ingestion, the Azure SQL reporting database and the Power BI estate.
- A Microsoft Fabric target architecture, workspace topology and governance model, with a prioritised migration roadmap and its risks flagged.
Prove it end to end
- Works management tables mirrored into Microsoft Fabric as the bronze layer.
- A medallion structure that reused the existing SQL view logic rather than rewriting it.
- A Direct Lake, AI optimised semantic model, built in the client's own tenant.
Put it in plain English
- A Microsoft Fabric data agent over the semantic model, so supervisors and operations managers can ask which high growth species need checking in a given zone, against near real time data.
Outcomes
Same day, not next morning
- Crew progress readable against near real time data instead of last night's batch.
Answered in 17 days
- Kick off to a live data agent, with the assessment inside that.
Nothing built ahead of agreement
- The proof of value scope was confirmed at the close of the assessment, so the build followed a decision rather than an assumption.
A migration with a map
- A findings report, a target architecture and a prioritised roadmap, with the risks named rather than discovered later.
Asked in plain English
- Operational questions answered by a data agent instead of by a request for a report.
What is next
The findings report, the target architecture and the prioritised roadmap set up the broader move: a paid Microsoft Fabric capacity, migration of the wider works management estate and its Azure Data Factory pipelines, and extension beyond vegetation into metering, fleet, finance and human resources.
Your route
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