When this is the right call
These are the sentences that usually precede the enquiry:
- Analysis still runs off spreadsheet exports and one person’s laptop.
- Each new data source is a bespoke integration with its own failure mode.
- There is no single place where a number is defined once.
- The team is scared to change anything because nothing is tested.
What is different afterwards
- One warehouse holding modelled, documented, tested data.
- Ingestion that recovers from failure on its own and tells you when it cannot.
- A transformation layer under version control with tests that run on every change.
- A team that can add a source or a metric without calling an outside consultant.
What you receive
- Warehouse design: layering, naming, access model and retention.
- Ingestion for the agreed sources, with monitoring and alerting.
- Transformation project in dbt, version controlled, tested and documented.
- Orchestration with dependency-aware scheduling and failure notification.
- Runbook and handover sessions covering operation, extension and recovery.
How it runs
- Decide what it is forThe decisions the platform must support, named explicitly. This is what stops the build drifting into generic infrastructure.
- DesignSources, layers, models, orchestration and access, written down and agreed before anything is built.
- Build the first vertical sliceOne source, end to end, into one working report. It proves the design and gives the business something usable early.
- WidenRemaining sources and models, in the order the business needs them rather than the order that is technically tidiest.
- Hand overDocumentation, runbooks and working sessions until your team is comfortable operating it unaided.
Who this suits
- Companies moving off spreadsheets and production database replicas for the first time.
- Teams replacing a platform that grew organically and now blocks them.
- Businesses with a small or no in-house data team who need something maintainable.
Engagement: Phased project with a fixed first phase, then agreed increments. Typically two to four months.