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Sometimes, it feels like we’re coming across like a broken record. Why on earth would a Consultancy harp on about the need to embed a Centre of Excellence within your organisation to achieve excellence in the delivery of a modern Data Platform? The reasoning is simple: over the years, we have watched projects across organisations of all sizes be delivered successfully and unsuccessfully. Our team have even been involved in some of the good and bad. The lessons we have learnt resonate with Microsoft and their Power BI (or now Fabric) Adoption Roadmap.

This is one of those “As above, so below” moments for us, as the reality here also applies not just to Data Projects but to all projects and goes far beyond just business and reaches our personal lives as well. Communication and openness is the key to success. The Projects we have seen fail have been closed loops; a specification was received and then delivered, with no engagement; the lack of “buy-in” was ultimately the killer rather than a specific technical or operational failure. When you embrace the principles of openness and sharing, you can seek to get feedback from those who will be using the results. In Power BI, we see that a lot – an initial discussion is held and subsequently a report is delivered, to be received by the ubiquitous “That’s good, but what does…. mean?” or “That’s excellent, but what’s the next level down?” Checking in during development would help pre-empt some of these, but more often than not in data projects, you will find that emergent requests are routine – so how can we plan for the unplannable?

Emergent Behaviours are ones that could not be predicted without following the “path”. In other words, the subsequent direction of analysis will depend on conversations the audience has had prior to the meetings, specifics of the actual performance, or even prediction anomalies (remember ALL predictions are based on historic performance and an algorithm).

This prevalence is where a great Data Culture shines; let us start, however, by looking at the legacy solution; we can even use Microsoft for this example. If a company wanted an Analytics Platform in the mid-2000s, they would be advised to go for Microsoft SQL Analysis Services (SSAS) and Microsoft SQL Service Report Services (SSRS); Cubes would then be deployed and paginated reports for direct online or offline consumption. The effort required to update report and cubes often meant that a very formal and rigid Enhancement Process was in place to assess if changes should be made. The end result of this was always the same – people would extract data into Excel to produce analysis for a new initiative or to test a new way of measuring things or because of a business logic change… each time they did that the “value” of the Enterprise platform was diminished. It was a death by 1000 cuts, with the first “cut” often being made on the day of launch. Fast forward this to Fabric/Power BI (or any of the other modern data platforms), and it is clear why “Export to Excel” is derided so much by project teams but embraced by business teams. Exporting to Excel is how the business deals with the shortcomings of the data platform. A proper Fabric/Power BI implementation, however, changes that; the platform has several capabilities that make it possible for traditional Excel users to start to use standard Semantic Models to produce insights from rather than develop in isolation. Leveraging these has the added benefit that the standardised tools make it possible to feed their tweaks back into the model, allowing the Enterprise Standard to develop as the business needs change. 

The glue that keeps the Technical Teams and Business Teams working together is the Centre of Excellence. It combines highly skilled data functions with highly knowledgeable business functions. They enable the exchange of ideas, promote the tools, and help the teams within the organisation move forward together. If all of this sounds “yucky”, then you are now alone; we find it all a little too sickly sweet. The truth is, however, that when organisations embrace the concept of a Centre of Excellence. There is the required Executive Sponsorship; this succeeds in changing the way the business as a whole interacts with data while also making the gap between data and insight shorter and even lowering the platform’s Total Cost of Ownership as internal teams can do many of the enhancements that historically would have had to go to consultancy or be delayed waiting for developer availability. Live reporting against Semantic Models allows business users to write updated measures and start using them almost immediately. The code they write can then be folded back into the main model during the next update cycle; each incremental update to the enterprise model now increases its value rather than the legacy of each new report created, reducing its value (because it was made in totality within Excel). Power BI even allows Excel users to Live Connect to the model and build their own PivotTables against the data (remember most “Export to Excel” results in PivotTables), this time with them being able to be refreshed at the click of a button rather than having to redownload data, then copy and paste it or reanalyse it, saving time (and money).

This landscape, where businesses can build their own reports, would be chaos if there were not a Centre of Excellence to shepherd them, mentor staff where needed, address data concerns, identify barriers and data challenges, and broker solutions. A significant challenge many of our clients have faced with this has been that the first 12 months are critical for the success of your Centre for Excellence. However, the technical skills needed to master the Power Platform take time to develop. This is why Geordie Consulting offers its clients a Centre of Excellence as a Service. The objective is that they can lean on us and our experience early on, and then we slowly step back as their internal teams gain the skills and confidence. We can support your organisation as it takes its first steps to ensure that the skills are on hand when needed.

Geordie Consulting uses the Microsoft Power Platform to provide businesses with agile, cost-effective data solutions. We specialise in integrating data from across business applications into a single, manageable platform. Our services include enabling business users to develop custom reports using Power BI and Excel, leveraging Semantic Models for consistent data analysis, and enhancing user self-sufficiency through Copilot. We aim to ensure your data agility to support a data-driven business. We provide comprehensive documentation and support to maximise the business value provided by your data. Let our insight unlock your insights.