In a cloud reporting modernisation project, Lighthouse Group’s ageing SQL/Excel-based reporting reached end of life. Guided by App Innovation expertise, Transparity and Differentis re-architected the stack using Azure Data Factory for transformation, Azure SQL Database as the warehouse, and Power BI for dynamic management reporting.
The team streamlined legacy logic, matched existing reports for continuity, and applied DevOps (ARM templates, automated tests) for rapid releases. Outcomes included drill-through insights on P&L and debtors, faster data loads (around four hours to ~40 minutes), scalable infrastructure, richer monitoring, and reduced maintenance—supported by Data Consultancy.
Lighthouse Group had invested in Intelliflo’s Intelligent Office platform for managing client portfolios but had a requirement for bespoke reporting above the standard offering. This original bespoke reporting system was based in SQL Server Integration Services, T-SQL and Excel, and had been in place for several years.
But the system and the platform that it was running on was now reaching end of life and the organisation wanted to leverage the best of breed cloud platforms to reduce the dependence on their data centres. Independent Management and IT Consulting firm, Differentis were engaged to review the existing processes and architecture. Which led to Transparity being referred for implementation of a replacement data transformation process, data warehouse and reporting layer.
The recommendation from both Transparity and Differentis was to utilise the best of breed cloud services from Microsoft to provide a modern, future-proof process with less requirement for daily management of hardware.
The biggest challenge encountered was the complexity of the existing solution, with many areas having evolved from the original documentation. Our engineers were able to work with the finance team to understand what was required from the reports and to isolate the relevant areas of the legacy code so that the new system was streamlined and focussed on the current needs.
The final reports needed to match the existing reports to ensure a smooth migration from one system to the other.
DevOps: The development involved DevOps through automated unit tests and integration tests developed using Specflow and Selenium, and fully automated systems deployment using Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates and deployment pipelines. Once the system was live and operational DevOps continued as our DevOps engineers made fixes and enhancements to the live system using a very short test and release cycle.
The final solution delivered:
The reduction in time needed to maintain the new platform frees up both technology and finance resources to focus on higher-value tasks. And enables greater access to the data for more teams. Legacy servers can now start to be decommissioned, reducing the overall risk to the environment.
Lighthouse Group is a collective of financial advisory firms that provide financial solutions tailored to meet their client’s needs, both for the individual and corporate. Lighthouse Group uses market-leading business technology and their own bespoke product solutions to deliver consistent customer outcomes for their clients.
