Case study · Industry
Unifying legacy CRM, finance and API data into one connected platform
Building the Azure Data Factory integration layer behind a new Power Platform Dataverse for a founding member of the UK's High Value Manufacturing Catapult.
Power Platform Dataverse
Azure Key Vault
Azure Data Lake
3
Legacy sources unified: CRM, finance and API feeds
2
Daily standups keeping every team aligned
On time
Every pipeline live, fixed deadline held
The client
IO Analytics were engaged as a supplier to a leading independent technology innovation centre and a founding member of the UK Government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult.
We were brought in to help develop a new MI and reporting solution: a new Power Platform Dataverse driving both regulatory and ad-hoc reporting through a Power BI front-end. The first task was building a Data Integration suite in Data Factory, connecting the organisation’s existing data sources (CRM, finance databases and various API subscriptions) into the new environment.
The challenges
- •Scheduling: the project ran to a hard, fixed deadline, leaving each milestone very little leeway.
- •Constant communication: multiple layers of stakeholders and subcontractors needed to work in tandem, so our team provided technical leadership across all data areas and responsive support throughout.
- •Data exploration: some legacy datasets weren’t fully documented, surfacing incorrectly specified fields and missing link tables mid-build. Every discovery had to be communicated to both the customer and the Power Platform development team before work could continue, without causing delays.
What we delivered
- ✓Azure SQL Server database design.
- ✓An Azure Data Factory integration suite, pulling from on-premise SQL databases and web API sources into the Power Platform Dataverse.
- ✓Power BI dashboards, pulling directly from the Dataverse with further modelling in Power Query.
- ✓Knowledge transfer to the client’s own team.
The outcome
- ✓Two daily standups (one for the development teams and project manager, one with more senior stakeholders) kept communication tight without losing momentum.
- ✓When unexpected data discoveries came up, the team resolved them quickly enough that project milestones never slipped.
- ✓Development stayed on schedule, with every required pipeline in place and ready for the live environment.
The founder’s take
“The deadline here didn't move, so the discipline had to come from communication. We flagged every data problem the moment we found it, not after it had already cost a day, and that discipline is what kept the whole thing on schedule.”
Thomas Madden
Founder & CEO, IO Analytics