Empowering Financial Analytics with the Azure Cloud
Challenge
As an engineering and consulting firm experienced an explosion in growth over the last few years, its team began experiencing difficulties with its existing on-premises SQL Server. The system was over 10 years old and no longer sufficient for the firm’s needs as demand exceeded its capabilities.
The issues included slow reporting, database performance problems, an inability to scale the way the company needed, and other limitations due to using older, out of date technology. The finance department was particularly impacted by these issues, so they needed a solution that would work for their growing business needs and allow them to run more advanced reports.
With the help of the INSPYR Solutions team, the firm’s leadership was able to identify specific pain points and goals and begin to explore solutions that could alleviate these issues and allow for future scalability.
Solution
A new, cloud-based data warehouse would eliminate performance issues while offering a host of other benefits. These included limitless scalability, more computing power for faster reporting and other tasks, a system with virtually no downtime, and the safety and security of the cloud instead of a physical, onsite system. These benefits would allow the firm’s finance team to expedite their work and better equip them to handle the growing demands of the business.
The INSPYR Solutions team recommended an assessment with our expert Microsoft Solution Architects to determine the best way to approach the project. The assessment was completed in under three months and included a deep examination of the firm’s existing systems and recommended solutions based on our findings. We provided a detailed strategic plan including cost estimates, a project outline, technology recommendations, and an explanation of what resources would be required. We also completed a proof of concept on one of the financial reports to demonstrate the expected improvements. Our team’s recommendations included moving from the on-premises system to the Microsoft Azure cloud, as well as a technology stack consisting of an Azure SQL managed instance, Azure Data Factory with self-hosted and Azure integration runtimes, and Power BI Premium.
We deployed a team consisting of a Solution Architect, an Azure Data Engineer, a Power BI Engineer, and an Engagement Manager to work on the project. They developed Azure data flow pipelines, built data elements of the enterprise data warehouse, created Power BI reports and dashboards, and assisted in the development of data elements in the enterprise data warehouse for reporting needs.
The INSPYR Solutions team made reporting faster and more powerful, as well as much easier for the finance team to do on their own. Our team built curated data sets to bring into Power BI. This would allow the employees to easily drag and drop data through a self-service model to access the insights they needed for financial reporting. It also empowered the financial team with a true analytics solution so they could work much more effectively without having to rely on developers to get the data they needed.
Outcome
The INSPYR Solutions team implemented several solutions to ensure that the firm’s move to the Microsoft Azure cloud-based data warehouse would be a smooth transition. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, our team has a deep understanding of Microsoft Azure as well as extensive experience with the other solutions we offered. Our assessment and subsequent project gave the consulting firm solutions that saved time and money while increasing power, performance, and efficiency.
We created a modernized cloud-based data warehouse that would pull data into the cloud and make that data easily accessible to Power BI. The new system gave the firm’s employees the ability to start over with their reporting and easily create new reports with a common source of data. This also allowed the team to provide access to both reporting users and business users so they could more easily utilize analytics to make sense of their data to make better business and financial decisions.
The new dynamic infrastructure allows the team to get the data they need much faster than before. With the increased computing power, performance, efficiency, and stability of the Azure cloud data warehouse, the team can perform their work much more easily, saving both time and money.
Moving to the new Azure cloud system provided additional benefits such as increased performance as needed, as opposed to the limitations of the on-premises system they were using for these functions before. The flexibility of the cloud will let the team use more power when they need it, moving with the flow of business. The company’s data is much safer than it was with the on-premises server, as it is backed up offsite and can be easily retrieved in the event of a natural disaster or other catastrophic event.
We continue to work with this client on further additions to the solutions we implemented. Future goals include expanding on the reporting abilities for the financial analytics team and growing the data footprint to allow even more extensive reporting and data analysis.
Client Profile
The client is an engineering and consulting firm that has provided both private and public sector clients with solutions to problems involving civil infrastructure, environmental factors, and natural resources for over 40 years. The company’s work includes cutting-edge remediation technology testing and development as well as site engineering and design.
Technologies Supported
Microsoft Azure, Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure Data Factory, Power BI Premium
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