All cases

Data platform assessment for a US-based utility service

Client
A utility service company with complex, life-critical systems and air-gapped data sources
Industry
Utilities
Services
Data platform assessment, IT consulting, data governance advisory

Challenge

Our client, a regional US utility service company, was facing mounting challenges due to fragmented data infrastructure, legacy systems, and inconsistent reporting. The main issue was that the company's vital data was locked in siloed systems for finance, maintenance, GIS, and billing. Critical reports were manually compiled in spreadsheets. Asset management, service metrics, and customer billing data were stored in separate systems with minimal synchronization. This fragmentation made it impossible to gain a holistic view of operations. Without a centralized dashboard or reliable performance measurement system, reports were delayed, data quality suffered, and business units grew increasingly frustrated. To address these issues and build a solid foundation for long-term operational insights, the utility service company tapped into ITRex’s data platform consulting services. We were tasked with conducting a data platform assessment to identify system-level bottlenecks and determine the utility's readiness for AI and Gen AI analytics. Based on the assessment results, we were expected to present a clear roadmap for intelligent transformation with artificial intelligence.

Solution

ITRex put together a team of data consultants, including a solution architect, data governance lead, data engineer, and business analyst. Our team employed a unique Rapid Prototyping of KPIs methodology, working in agile sprints with stakeholders to model and validate key metrics with real data. This hands-on approach, combined with a thorough review of existing documentation, datasets, and tools enabled us to conduct a comprehensive assessment focused on five major areas:
Data ingestion & integration. ITRex identified major inefficiencies in how the company collected and synchronized data across multiple systems, including finance, maintenance, GIS, billing, and operations. We discovered that batch ingestion pipelines were prone to errors and delays, while some mission-critical data was handled manually through CSV uploads.
Data modeling & transformation. ITRex found overlapping, redundant logic in existing models, which led to confusion among the client’s teams. Business metrics such as cost recovery and maintenance backlog were calculated differently in various reports.
Reporting & analytics. The customer employed a variety of reporting tools but lacked standard KPIs and governance for dashboards. Many users relied on manual exports and spreadsheets, which limited real-time insights and caused version control problems.
Platform scalability & reliability. The company's existing data infrastructure was not designed to scale. ITRex discovered performance bottlenecks that caused pipeline failures and delays in dashboard refreshes.
Governance & collaboration. There were no formal roles for data ownership, and important decisions were made without clear stewardship or documentation. This made it difficult to identify errors or reach consensus on definitions.
The assessment produced a number of deliverables that enabled the customer to make an informed decision about the data platform transformation:
Data platform architecture diagram highlighting the current ingestion, processing, modeling, and reporting layers
A summary of data governance maturity and the proposed target state framework
A list of core business metrics with identified inconsistencies, overlaps, and source systems
A comprehensive bottleneck analysis that identified the root causes of performance issues and manual rework
A phased modernization roadmap with tactical and strategic recommendations for building a robust, governed data platform ready for AI integration
Our main recommendation was to implement a modern, scalable data platform using Microsoft Fabric. The proposed architecture was based on the following components:
OneLake as a unified data lake and a single source of truth
Azure Data Factory to support robust, automated data ingestion pipelines
Power BI for real-time analytics and tightly integrated dashboards
Microsoft Purview to establish strong data governance, ensuring quality, security, and effective cataloging
Data-platform-assessment-for-utility-company
Data platform assessment for a US-based utility service

Impact

The data platform assessment and roadmap provided the utility service with a clear, actionable strategy for breaking down data silos and enabling consistent, automated reporting. More importantly, it provided the groundwork for a future-ready data environment. The recommended Microsoft Fabric platform addresses today's issues and positions the company to:
Compare its performance to key water utility industry benchmarks
Strengthen its long-term regulatory and operational objectives
Adopt advanced analytics and AI/Gen AI for predictive asset maintenance and water usage forecasting
The client was impressed with the roadmap's thoroughness and has partnered with ITRex on a phased data platform modernization project, which is currently in progress.

Latest projects