Where the figures live, and what may read them
Two reports, two answers, and both of them defensible.
Most businesses have a definition problem, not a reporting problem. We build the platform, agree what each figure means, and put reporting on the same tables.
Every report should read from the same tables.
When each report pulls from its own copy of the source systems, each one carries its own version of what a figure means. We connect the sources once, into one set of governed tables, and point every report at those.
Talk through your dataBoth reports read the same governed tables, so they use the same definitions.
Most data platform work starts with one of these.
Two reports give two different answers, and the meeting stops to argue.
Both figures are often right by their own definition, and the business has never said which one it stands behind.
Reporting reads from a copy of the database taken overnight.
That can be fine for a board pack, but it depends on how current each answer has to be.
Anyone who can open the reports can also open the payroll table.
Usually nobody has decided, table by table, what each reader may see.
What we take on.
We design the network, the access rules, the definitions and the reports as one piece of work, so nothing a report shows depends on a table nobody governs.
What we report back
We report platform spend by team and any change to the catalogue.
The platform
We deploy Databricks into your own network, not a default workspace. The same pattern runs on Azure, AWS or Google Cloud.
Lineage and definitions
We record lineage, so every figure can be traced to its source. We get each key definition agreed once and attach it to the table.
Access and quality rules
Unity Catalog decides what each person and each tool may read. Rules that reject a bad row are written where everybody can see them.
Reporting
Power BI reads the same governed tables as everything else.
What we do when two reports disagree.
A figure in a report is built from a source system and a definition of what to count. When two reports disagree, one of those two is different, and the work is finding which and settling it once.
Every figure starts in a source system.
Finance and operations can answer the same question using different definitions. We trace both figures to their sources and show where the meanings diverge.
The definition sits between the sources and the reports.
We set the definitions side by side in plain English, with the business context behind each one. Your team chooses the meaning the business will use, and we record the agreement.
Every report reads the agreed definition.
The agreed definition lives with the governed table, so every connected report inherits it. A named person in the business owns the definition, and the next question about the figure goes to them.
Copying the database at night.
Production is copied overnight, reporting points at the copy, and it gets called a data platform.
Nothing can be joined, anyone who opens the reporting can open payroll, and nothing records where a figure came from.
We land the data where it can be joined, governed and traced, and settle who may read what first.
Questions we get asked.
No. This is the part that has to exist first: where the figures live and who may read them. Anything built on top is a separate decision.
Power BI is where people read the numbers. The question is what it reads from, which is usually a different source for every report.
It is scoped against one report that has to work rather than your whole estate, with the dependencies named in writing before you commit.
That is decided before it is built. Your team, us, or both while your team learns it. When we remain involved, your assigned Solutions Architect coordinates the handover and ongoing support.
Where this page sits.
Our work sits in three layers, and each one depends on the one beneath it. The page you are reading is marked.
You are hereData Platform & Analytics
Data
- You are here Data Platform & Analytics
- Data Readiness Assessment
Start with the two reports that disagree.
The Fortnight looks at the estate this would sit on, and the findings are yours either way. If the problem is definitions rather than platform, it says so.
You get a written scope before anybody commits to anything.