Service · 02
Unified Data Platform
One source of truth that connects your finance system, your estimating software, and your shop floor — and gives you reports your team will actually open.
Talk about your shopOutcomes
What you'll have when we're done.
- A cloud data warehouse (Azure or Snowflake) sized appropriately for your business
- Automated daily data pipelines from every key system
- A dbt transformation layer that turns raw data into clean, defined business metrics
- Power BI report suite covering finance, operations, and production
- Documentation a future hire (or vendor) can pick up and run with
- A platform that grows with you — not one you'll outgrow in 18 months
How we work
The process.
Architecture
Based on your audit (or a focused scoping engagement), we design the warehouse model, define source-of-truth metrics, and lock the report list. Nothing built yet — just the plan.
Pipelines
We stand up the warehouse and connect your sources. QuickBooks, Sage, SAP, estimating systems, CNC outputs — whatever runs your business. Data lands daily, automatically, reliably.
Transform
Raw data is messy. We use dbt to model it into clean, tested, documented business entities. Job profitability. Shop utilization. Estimating accuracy. Cash conversion.
Surface & train
Power BI reports built and published. Your team trained. Documentation delivered. We hang around for 30 days post-launch to answer questions and fix anything that surfaces.
Deliverables
Exactly what you get.
- Cloud data warehouse provisioned and configured
- ELT pipelines from all in-scope source systems
- dbt project with tested, documented transformations
- Power BI report suite with role-based access
- Technical documentation and runbooks
- Team training (2–3 sessions)
- 30-day post-launch support window
Fit check
This is right for you if…
You completed our audit (or have your own clear scope). You have at least 3 systems generating data that need to talk to each other. You want to own the platform, not rent dashboards from a SaaS vendor that goes out of business in 3 years. You value transparency in how metrics are calculated and want documentation, not black boxes.
It's probably not the right fit if…
You want a packaged industry-specific app with no customization (try a vertical SaaS tool first). You don't have anyone internally who will own the reports after launch (consider adding our Fractional Data Lead engagement). You're not ready to clean up source data quality — garbage in, garbage out applies to every data platform ever built.
Common questions
FAQs.
How long does it take?
Typical timeline is 6–16 weeks depending on the number of source systems, complexity of transformations, and the report scope. We give you a phased plan with checkpoints, not a single 'go live' date.
Azure or Snowflake — which do you recommend?
Depends on your stack and team. Azure makes sense if you're already in the Microsoft ecosystem (likely if you use Power BI heavily). Snowflake is a better fit for analytics-heavy workloads or if you want vendor independence. We'll recommend based on your actual situation.
Do we own everything you build?
Yes. Code in your GitHub. Warehouse in your cloud account. Reports in your Power BI tenant. We don't lock you in. You can fire us tomorrow and keep running.
What about ongoing costs?
Cloud spend is paid directly to your provider — typically $200–$2,000/month for SMB workloads. Our retainer (optional) covers ongoing development. No SaaS markup, no per-seat fees from us.
Can you integrate with [system X]?
If it has an API or a database we can read from, yes. We've worked with QuickBooks (Online, Desktop, Enterprise), Sage, SAP, NetSuite, Partnerpak, RhinoFAB, and a long list of industry-specific tools. If we can't integrate it, we'll tell you upfront.