Data engineering · Health check and strategy
Two weeks to learn what data you really have
A short, fixed-scope assessment of your data: where it is held, who owns it, how it moves and how far it can be trusted. You receive a costed plan, and sometimes the good news that your data is in better shape than you feared.
Where this starts
Nobody has the whole picture
In most organisations, knowledge of where data is held, what it means and which copy is correct is spread across a few long-serving people. None of them has the complete picture. Every data project starts by rediscovering this knowledge at some cost, then loses it again when the project ends. The result is a series of projects that each start from scratch.
What we are usually asked
- Which system is the true source for customers, products or revenue
- Why two reports built from the same data disagree
- Whether our data can support the reporting or AI work the board wants
- What it would cost to fix, and in what order
- Whether we need a new platform, or are simply not making full use of the current one
- Who is actually responsible for which data today
Our position
If your data is in better shape than you feared, we would rather tell you after two weeks than sell you six months of work.
What the work covers
Mapped, scored and put in order
The scope and the fee are fixed. An assessment that grows to fill the available budget is no longer really an assessment.
Mapping sources and flows
We identify every system that creates or holds data the business relies on, how data moves between them, and where it is copied, changed or typed in again along the way.
The true source
For each core type of record, such as customers, products, orders or employees, we establish which system holds the master version, which hold copies, and exactly where they disagree.
Sampling quality
We measure how complete, valid, duplicated and up to date the data is, using real samples rather than estimates made in a workshop. Every finding comes with a figure.
Who really owns the data
We find out who actually maintains each set of data today, as opposed to who is named on an organisation chart, and which data nobody maintains at all.
Readiness for your plans
We test the reporting, automation and AI the business is planning against what the data can support today, so ambitions and foundations are compared honestly.
A plan in the right order
We order the improvements by value and by what depends on what, with effort ranges, and separate quick wins from larger structural work. You can then explain and defend the order of the programme.
How the map stays current
A data inventory that stays accurate
A data map drawn by hand goes out of date within a few months. These measures keep it accurate without needing a second assessment.
- New sources
- New tables and sources are detected as they appear on the platforms we mapped. The inventory grows along with your data, rather than being redrawn every year.
- Quality checks
- The quality measures from the assessment are re-run on a schedule, so improvement or decline shows as a trend rather than a fresh surprise.
- Lineage
- Data flows are captured from the systems that actually move the data, rather than drawn once in a diagram that drifts away from reality.
- Owners
- Owners are recorded against each set of data, where the work happens. Gaps are flagged openly rather than filled in by assumption.
- Scorecard
- The scores the plan was based on are reported regularly, so progress is measured against the starting point rather than simply claimed in a progress meeting.
What you are left with
- A map of your data sources, how data moves and where it is copied
- A named master source for each core type of record
- Quality findings with figures attached
- A costed plan, ordered by value and by what depends on what
- A starting scorecard to measure progress against
Tell us the question your data cannot answer
That is usually the right place to start the map. Within days, it shows whether the problem is the data or the reporting.