Challenge

A Commonwealth statutory authority responsible for an export-significant agricultural sector was generating statutory reports from a brittle chain of on-premises SQL databases and VBA macros running inside Excel. Reports were accurate only when the right person ran them in the right order. Staff turnover was making that fragile.

Approach

We migrated the reporting databases to Azure SQL, using advanced T-SQL query optimisation during the move so the new platform was genuinely faster rather than just relocated. Backup and recovery strategies were tightened so data integrity and business continuity had a demonstrable baseline.

Azure Data Factory orchestrated ETL from the remaining on-premises systems and SaaS data sources into a curated layer in Azure, applying transformation logic consistently across runs. Power BI dashboards sat on top of the curated data, replacing the hand-run VBA exports with scheduled, observable reports.

Log Analytics captured pipeline health, and alerting surfaced failed runs before downstream stakeholders noticed missing data. The whole thing was built so a new analyst could understand how a number on a report got there.

Outcome

Reports that previously depended on a single person now regenerate themselves on schedule. Data accessibility improved across the authority’s analytical teams, and the reporting burden on operational staff dropped substantially. The platform has continued to extend — new data sources bolt onto the same ADF/ SQL/ Power BI pattern rather than spawning new tooling.