Challenge

A leading UK building materials retailer was operating a data platform that had become a significant liability. New data sources took approximately two weeks to onboard, with IT staff carrying out much of the process manually, creating a bottleneck that slowed decision-making across the business. The absence of adequate automation and data controls had allowed duplication and alteration to creep in, undermining confidence in reporting and making a single, accurate view of the business effectively unachievable. Compounding these issues, inadequate access controls raised serious concerns around data security and GDPR compliance, adding regulatory risk to an already fragile data environment.

Solution

We designed and delivered a new GCP-native data platform that addressed each of these challenges at their root. Data source onboarding was automated, dramatically reducing the time and manual effort previously required. Data quality controls were built into the platform architecture, eliminating the duplication and inconsistency that had eroded trust in reporting. Security was strengthened through properly governed access controls, bringing the organisation into compliance with GDPR requirements. Throughout the transition, we actively managed the existing data lake, ensuring continuity of operations while the new platform was stood up. Looker was integrated to provide real-time performance monitoring and business intelligence, and was subsequently developed into a monetisation programme in its own right.

Outcomes

The new platform transformed the organisation's relationship with its data. Insights that previously required significant manual effort became available in real time, business continuity improved, and the accuracy of reporting increased materially. The Looker monetisation programme delivered £1m in net new revenue, demonstrating that the investment in data infrastructure had commercial returns well beyond operational efficiency alone.