Guest post by Sue Gouldson, Head of Data & Integration at SP Electricity North West
Four years ago, data and reporting at SP Electricity North West looked very different to today. We had a legacy reporting suite in place, but in practice most users exported data into Excel to do their analysis. Dashboarding existed, but adoption was low and confidence even lower.
Data cleansing was largely manual, time-consuming, and duplicated across teams. Each department effectively created its own version of the truth, which meant figures rarely aligned from one report to the next. With reports built from single data sources, there was limited ability to see end-to-end processes or uncover deeper insight. To make matters worse, reports were shared by email – often dozens a day to senior leaders – with little clarity on data lineage or accountability.
It was clear that something had to change.
Starting the Journey: Centralising Data, Not People
Our initial goal was straightforward: centralise data so everyone could access accurate, trusted information and work from the same numbers. We wanted to combine data from multiple systems to support meaningful, end-to-end analysis.
Rather than attempting a big-bang migration of every legacy report into our new Azure-based data platform, we chose to build forward. Every new report was created in the new environment, while legacy reporting was gradually retired. This allowed us to realise benefits early and avoid a long, drawn-out planning phase with little visible value.
At first, the plan was for a central data team to build complete, end-to-end data products for the whole organisation. But as we engaged more closely with departments, it became clear that a one-size-fits-all model wouldn’t work.
A Shift in Mindset: Meeting Teams Where They Are
Different teams had very different data needs, skills, and ambitions.
Some departments had strong data capability and wanted to build their own Power BI reports. For them, we shifted our focus to providing high-quality, curated data marts – a trusted “gold layer” aligned to their requirements. This gave teams the freedom to adapt dashboards quickly without raising IT requests, while still working from consistent, governed data.
Other teams needed more static reporting and didn’t have the technical capacity to build their own dashboards. In these cases, we continued to deliver end-to-end data products, working closely with stakeholders on requirements and helping design dashboards that genuinely supported decision-making.
This flexibility proved critical to driving adoption.
Bringing the Impact to Life
One clear example is our electricity supply outage reporting. This report tracks both customer numbers and outage duration and is used for regulatory reporting as well as operational planning.
Previously, producing it required manual extracts from multiple systems and took around three days each week. The report was only available weekly, limiting its usefulness for timely follow-up and preventative work.
Today, the process is fully automated and runs daily. Senior managers can act quickly and decisively, using up-to-date information to plan network improvements and respond to issues as they arise.
What Success Looks Like Now
We’re still on the journey, but the change is tangible. Data literacy across reporting teams has improved significantly, and dashboards are becoming more focused, more insightful, and more decisive. We’re seeing richer drill-down capabilities that help managers understand not just what is happening, but why.
Perhaps most importantly, confidence in the data is growing – and with it, trust and usage.
Wrapping up the Journey
Looking back, the biggest lesson from our data transformation is that progress comes from trust, not just technology. Building confidence in the accuracy of the data – and delivering it quickly and consistently – has been key to driving adoption. Structuring data around how the business actually works, rather than how source systems are organised, has unlocked insight into process performance that simply wasn’t visible before.
The journey is ongoing, but the shift is clear: fewer spreadsheets, fewer conflicting numbers, and more meaningful conversations driven by shared, trusted insight.
About the Author
Sue has worked across finance, risk, and IT in a range of data roles, giving her a strong understanding of how data supports business leaders. Starting her career at the Co-operative Bank, she progressed from analytics and statistical modelling to building large-scale data platforms and delivering major regulatory reporting change. Now Head of Data at Electricity North West, Sue leads the delivery of innovative data solutions that support the organisation’s Net Zero ambitions.
These themes will be explored further at our upcoming exclusive roundtable with Sue Gouldson, Head of Data & Integration at SP Electricity North West, where senior leaders will come together to discuss how to take stakeholders on the journey and unlock the real power of data. The roundtable takes place on Thursday 5th March in Manchester, with places limited.
