Challenge

As one of the world's largest communications groups, WPP's globally decentralised IT function had grown into a significant obstacle. Without a unified data platform, data access was fragmented, business intelligence was inconsistent, and meaningful insight was difficult to surface at pace. The organisation had accumulated over 300 siloed databases and a heavy dependency on vendor-provided platforms, while waterfall delivery methodologies meant data projects were slow, costly, and frequently unsuccessful. Limited in-house cloud and data engineering skills compounded the problem, leaving WPP exposed to technical debt and unable to move at the speed its business demanded.

Solution

We developed a cloud-native vision for WPP's data estate on Google Cloud Platform, centred on reducing time-to-consume, eliminating technical debt, and building the reliability the organisation needed to trust its data at scale. Agile Scrum methodologies replaced waterfall ways of working, accelerating delivery and reducing dependency bottlenecks from the outset. Within 14 weeks, we designed and deployed a pilot Enterprise Data Platform on GCP that consolidated over 1,000 users and data owners alongside more than 300 previously siloed databases, while showcasing self-serve analytics with embedded ML and AI capabilities. The platform was built to integrate seamlessly with WPP's existing IT estate, ensuring it could serve as an accelerator for future programmes rather than another isolated initiative.

Outcomes

The pilot platform impressed WPP's leadership immediately, with CIO Rachel Higham describing herself as blown away by the speed and quality of what had been delivered. GCP was subsequently confirmed as WPP's primary cloud for data, and Agile Scrum was adopted as the standard delivery methodology across the function. The programme gave WPP the unified, scalable, and intelligent data foundation it needed to move faster, reduce vendor dependency, and unlock the full commercial value of its global data estate.