This client struggled to unify data across seven disparate systems for financial and operational insights. Trility rapidly implemented a modern data platform using Microsoft Fabric, delivering a core MVP. Crucially, this effort exposed and resolved fundamental data integrity flaws, enabling clear, holistic, and accurate profitability reporting for the first time.
The client’s data was siloed across seven disparate sources, preventing them from answering key questions about operational efficiency and true profitability. With this project representing a significant investment, the CIO needed to demonstrate tangible and rapid value to the board. The organization also lacked the foundational data integrity required to confidently pursue future AI initiatives. Some existing reports relied on manual spreadsheets and led to stakeholders questioning the data and information.
The immediate technical challenge was the absence of a unified data warehouse. Their existing systems, including an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, suffered from data integrity and accuracy issues.
Trility discovered an intrinsic flaw in the ERP’s data model where project cost tracking was unreliably mapped, causing significant data gaps and breaking fundamental parent-child relationships, making accurate reporting nearly impossible from the source systems. Irregularities for employee numbers were also discovered between the ERP and the time keeping/payment system.
Trility adopted a highly iterative and consultative approach, strategically designed to deliver immediate business value and build long-term data health.
The team provided phased delivery, starting with a Microsoft Fabric Proof of Concept (POC) to rapidly build stakeholder trust and demonstrate platform capability. The team used iterative feedback loops to translate business questions into tangible visualizations. By pushing changes upstream, Trility resolved data quality issues with the client in source transactional systems instead of complex workarounds in the data warehouse. This consultative approach was vital for the client's long-term data health.
Microsoft Fabric was selected as the modern, consolidated cloud data platform. A critical mid-project refactoring was required to overcome the ERP data flaw and the irregularities between the ERP and the time keeping/payment system. The solution replaced the unreliable parent-child relationship data mapping with a robust model tied to labor code and description, which successfully reconciled all project data. Power BI was implemented for the front-end visualization and reporting layer.
Trility rapidly delivered a functional and validated data platform in approximately eight weeks, achieving several significant outcomes. The rapid, transparent delivery of value and identification of foundational business flaws established the relationship as a long-term strategic partnership.
Unprecedented Financial Insight: By integrating the client’s project management data (from the ERP) with the payroll/payout system for the first time, the client gained a holistic view of financial health. This immediately enabled reporting on actual profit margin per employee per project, an insight they had never been able to achieve before.
Data Integrity & Trust: The implementation process illuminated critical, long-standing data issues that the client was then able to fix, including: Addressing duplicated and mismatched records between systems – directly affected financial accuracy; defining clear data definitions for key metrics; exposing an issue that gave finance immediate visibility to address revenue leakage.
Future Readiness: The client now possesses a modern, clean, and reliable Fabric data foundation that positions them to leverage advanced analytics and future AI capabilities.
