How A Global Materials Provider With 20+ Locations Went From Legacy Limits to Modern Analytics with Microsoft Fabric and DI Squared
A global specialty materials provider was hitting a ceiling with its aging BI platform. With more than 20 manufacturing locations worldwide and nearly 3,000 employees, the company depended on fast, reliable data to keep operations running smoothly. But its legacy BI tools were holding the business back – the platform contained critical dashboards and applications, yet the governance processes and self-service strategy didn't align with modern analytics needs, and there were functional gaps between the old tool and Power BI that could disrupt user adoption.
The IT team knew where they needed to go: a modern analytics environment built on Microsoft Power BI and Fabric. What they didn't have was a clear path for getting there without breaking the dashboards, processes, and user trust that the business relied on every day.
DI Squared became the guide for that journey.
Executive Summary
The Challenge
- A global specialty materials provider with 20+ locations relied on an aging BI platform for mission‑critical dashboards, limiting its ability to modernize analytics.
- Governance and self‑service were built for the legacy tool and didn’t translate to Power BI and Fabric, creating gaps in ownership, security, and content flow.
- Power BI differed in features, visuals, and interactions, risking broken reports, slower performance, and lost trust if users couldn’t easily get the same outcomes.
- Users and IT were experts in the old platform but lacked confidence with Power BI and Fabric, raising the risk of low adoption and dependence on external support.
- Many users were attached to the legacy experience, creating resistance that could stall the migration without careful expectation management.
The Solution
- DI Squared migrated the most critical dashboards first, preserving core logic, validating results with stakeholders, and improving performance to maintain trust in the numbers.
- They redesigned governance and self‑service for Power BI and Fabric, defining workspaces, access controls, and publication workflows that balance autonomy with oversight.
- Where Power BI lacked one‑to‑one features, DI Squared created practical design patterns and workarounds so users could achieve the same outcomes, often with a better experience.
- The team delivered structured user, admin, and developer training with a train‑the‑trainer model and hands‑on practice, enabling internal champions to carry adoption forward.
- By building internal capability, DI Squared enabled IT and developers to support and expand Power BI and Fabric independently, turning a risky migration into a scalable modern analytics platform.
The Turning Point: A Vision Beyond "Lift and Shift"
The company had already invested in foundational work: an initial consulting engagement that provisioned infrastructure and recommended governance approaches. But once they started planning real migrations, the complexity became clear.
They needed more than a technical cutover. They needed a partner who could protect the business logic and performance of mission-critical dashboards, redesign governance and self-service models for a very different toolset, navigate feature differences between the legacy platform and Power BI, and build internal skills so IT and developers could own and extend the new environment.
That's when they engaged DI Squared to step in and lead the next, more difficult stage of the journey.
The Challenges Behind the Scenes
The legacy BI platform hosted critical dashboards and applications with business logic and performance that needed to be preserved in Power BI. A simple "rebuild" risked breaking numbers, slowing queries, and eroding trust in the data. At the same time, the company's governance processes and self-service strategy surrounding the existing BI platform didn't translate well to the Power BI environment, creating gaps in the framework. Clear ownership, consistent security, and a coherent strategy for how business users should engage with the new platform were all needed.
The two platforms also had significant feature differences. Power BI lacked certain functions, visual behaviors, and interaction patterns that could disrupt user adoption and block business outcomes if no clear alternatives were provided. And while users and internal support teams were highly skilled in the existing BI tool, they needed the skills and confidence to adopt Power BI effectively to avoid risking low adoption and high reliance on external support.
The DI Squared Approach: Guiding the Migration Journey
Rather than treating the project as a technical conversion, DI Squared framed it as a modernization journey with the client as the hero and Power BI/Fabric as the new, more capable toolkit.
DI Squared started by focusing on the dashboards and applications that the business could not live without. The team migrated key dashboards and applications from the legacy BI platform into Power BI, preserving business logic and improving performance where possible. We validated results with stakeholders to maintain trust in numbers throughout the transition, ensuring that decision-makers could rely on the data every step of the way.
Instead of trying to force Power BI to mimic the legacy platform, DI Squared translated functional gaps into clear solutions.
Rethinking Governance in BI and Fabric
Next, we helped the client rethink governance for the Power BI and Fabric ecosystem. Rather than forcing the old model into a new environment, DI Squared advised on implementing a governed self-service strategy to balance user autonomy with centralized controls. They recommended workspace structure, access management, and publication workflows so content could move from development to production in a predictable, auditable way, giving business users freedom to explore without sacrificing quality or security.
Instead of trying to force Power BI to mimic the legacy platform, DI Squared translated functional gaps into clear solutions. They identified differences in key features and user interactions that could impact day-to-day work, then developed alternative design patterns and workarounds in Power BI so users could achieve the same business outcomes even when exact feature parity wasn't available. This pragmatic approach turned potential friction points into proof that Power BI could actually work better for many use cases.
Building Skills Through Training and Change Management
To ensure the change would stick, DI Squared focused heavily on skills, confidence, and ownership. The team delivered three in-depth training sessions across two months using a train-the-trainer approach. General user training focused on usage and key changes from the previous platform, while administrator and developer training covered governance, workspace management, and deployment. Hands-on development practice with active support gave teams real experience before going live. By equipping internal champions with the knowledge and tools they needed, DI Squared ensured that the organization could continue training others and managing the new environment independently long after the engagement ended.
Challenges Overcome on the Journey
Many users were accustomed to how the legacy platform behaved, which created natural resistance to change. DI Squared worked with stakeholders to reset expectations by prioritizing clear communication about what would change and why. By demonstrating equivalent Power BI solutions rather than dwelling on differences, they reduced friction and aligned expectations about look, feel, and capabilities.
The bigger challenge was ensuring that the organization could truly operate the new platform on its own. After migration and training, the internal IT team needed to be able to support and evolve Power BI assets, apply governance patterns, and onboard business users into a governed self-service model. DI Squared's focus on building internal capability meant that teams gained the ability to manage the platform without constant external intervention-transforming the engagement from a one-time project into a sustainable foundation for ongoing growth.
Outcomes: A Modern Analytics Platform Ready to Grow
By the end of the engagement, the company had not just migrated; it had established a sustainable foundation for its analytics future.
The most critical outcomes included:
- Key reporting capabilities were restored or improved in Power BI, enabling decision-makers to continue accessing critical insights without prolonged disruption
- A governed self-service model now supports both user autonomy and centralized controls, enabling business users to work confidently while IT maintains quality and standards
- Internal IT and developers are equipped to support, evolve, and expand Power BI and Fabric across the organization
What Comes Next: Expanding the Analytics Frontier
With the foundation in place, the company has clear opportunities to extend the work. These include implementing comprehensive data cataloging and dashboard cataloging to make assets discoverable and trustworthy, establishing ongoing workspace monitoring and automated governance controls, and expanding training into broader stakeholder groups while embedding development best practices into the team's delivery lifecycle.
The result is a global manufacturing organization that has successfully transitioned to a modern analytics platform with the internal capability to continue its Power BI and Fabric journey independently.
Ready to Transform Your Legacy Platforms into Modern Powerhouses?
If your organization is facing similar challenges with legacy BI platforms, complex migrations, or the need to build internal analytics capability, DI Squared can help guide your journey.
Whether you're evaluating a move to Power BI and Fabric, struggling with governance and adoption, or looking to empower your teams with modern analytics skills, our consulting approach focuses on delivering both immediate business value and lasting internal capability.
Get in touch to schedule your free consultation today.
