Solution Atlas
EverydayUser storyConsultative playbook

Three teams have three different answers to "what is revenue this quarter?"

The Head of Data keeps fielding questions about why the CFO's revenue figure, the sales team's number, and the CRM dashboard never match. Power BI is widely used but the underlying data model is fragmented, sign-offs are inconsistent, and business users have built their own competing versions.

Trigger
Embarrassing moment at a board meeting; the CFO wants one definition of revenue.
Good outcome
Everyone in the business looks at the same definition of revenue, sourced from one trusted place. The data team certifies the headline numbers, and BI champions help other teams build their own dashboards on top.
Discovery — signals and questions

Signals validating this story

  • ·Multiple revenue numbers across teams that never quite match
  • ·Power BI tenant grown organically with no certification discipline
  • ·Citizen makers building parallel semantic models
  • ·CFO frustration about board reporting consistency
  • ·On Power BI Premium Per Capacity but unsure if Fabric is the next move

Discovery questions

  1. 1.Who owns the definition of 'revenue this quarter' in your organisation?

    WhySurfaces governance maturity. Multiple answers indicate the semantic model is fragmented.

  2. 2.What's your Power BI tenant inventory — workspaces, datasets, certified reports?

    WhyEstablishes the consolidation surface area.

    Listen for: “hundreds of datasets” · “no certifications” · “we don't know”

  3. 3.How does a new business user get a Power BI Pro licence today?

    WhyTests whether self-service is governed or accidental.

  4. 4.Do BI champions exist as a community of practice?

    WhyChampions are the multiplier between IT and citizen makers.

  5. 5.Are you on Power BI Premium Per Capacity or per-user — and what is the renewal date?

    WhyPPC → Fabric migration is the headline business case; renewal date sets the timing.

  6. 6.What does the board ask for in monthly reporting and how does that flow get produced?

    WhyReveals the cost of inconsistent semantic models.

Baseline architecture → Target architecture
Baseline architecture

Power BI Pro mix with departmental workspaces created ad-hoc. Parallel semantic models built by citizen makers. No certification discipline. No BI champion programme. Some workloads on PPC, others on per-user. Purview not catalogueing datasets.

Typical concerns

  • ·Conflicting revenue / customer / margin numbers in board reporting
  • ·Datasets duplicated across teams
  • ·No formal certification path for trusted reports
  • ·PPC capacity costs adjacent to Fabric capacity opportunity
  • ·No data catalogue surfacing "what is the source?"

Capability gaps

  • ·Certified semantic model in a governed workspace
  • ·BI champion community of practice
  • ·Workspace governance with promotion path
  • ·Purview catalogue with dataset lineage
  • ·Consolidation onto Fabric capacity
Target architecture

Microsoft Fabric F64 capacity (replacing PPC) hosts the certified semantic models. Workspaces structured by domain with promotion path from Personal → Team → Certified. BI champions community runs cadence and quality reviews. Purview Data Governance catalogues datasets and surfaces lineage to source.

Key capabilities

  • Certified semantic models on Fabric
  • Workspace governance with promotion path
  • BI champions community of practice
  • Purview dataset catalogue and lineage
  • Single revenue / customer / margin definition
Architecture decisions

  1. 1.Capacity stance — stay on PPC vs migrate to Fabric capacity

    Migrate to Fabric F64+

    Fits whenPPC renewal due; Fabric features (OneLake, Direct Lake, Real-Time Analytics) are on the roadmap.

    Trade-offsMigration cost; some PPC features parity-mapped, not identical.

    Stay on PPC

    Fits whenRecent PPC commit; no appetite for migration risk.

    Trade-offsPremium features ship to Fabric first; PPC roadmap winds down.

    Default recommendationMigrate to Fabric F64+ at PPC renewal; sooner if Fabric features are needed.

  2. 2.Workspace structure — by team vs by domain

    By domain (Finance / Sales / Operations)

    Fits whenStronger central semantic model discipline; clear domain ownership.

    Trade-offsCross-domain reporting needs explicit federation.

    By team

    Fits whenSmaller org; team-led data culture.

    Trade-offsSemantic model drift across teams.

    Default recommendationBy domain for organisations above ~200 BI users; by team below that.

  3. 3.Certification authority — IT vs business-owned

    IT-certified

    Fits whenAudit-defensible reporting is a board priority; IT has BI engineering capacity.

    Trade-offsSlower certification cycle; perceived as gatekeeping.

    Business-owned with IT sign-off

    Fits whenStrong business analytics culture; trust between IT and domain teams.

    Trade-offsQuality varies if business ownership is uneven.

    Default recommendationBusiness-owned with IT sign-off via BI champions.

Low-risk trial — proof of value

45-day BI consolidation + first certified revenue model

~6 weeks

Inventory Power BI tenant. Provision Fabric F64 capacity. Build the certified revenue semantic model on Fabric. Catalogue datasets in Purview with lineage. Stand up the BI champions cadence.

Success criteria

  • Certified revenue semantic model live with single definition
  • Dataset count reduced by 30% on the consolidated workload
  • Lineage end-to-end from source to Power BI report
  • BI champions community formed with first quarterly cadence run

InvestmentFabric F64 reserved capacity ~€7.7k/month + advisory engagement. PPC remains during transition.

Proof metrics

  • ·Board revenue number reconciles to one source
  • ·Time-to-first-certified-report measured under 2 weeks
  • ·BI champion engagement above 70% of named champions
  • ·Purview lineage coverage above 80% on certified datasets

Recommended cards

The SKUs and capabilities most likely to be part of the solution, with the editorial rationale for each in the context of this story. Add the ones that fit your situation.

Why for this story

The consumption layer. Per-user Pro for authors and certified consumers; reports themselves run on Fabric capacity.

Why for this story

Hosts the certified semantic model. F64+ unlocks Premium features (paginated reports, large datasets) and absorbs Power BI Premium Per Capacity.

Why for this story

Catalogue + lineage for datasets. Surfaces "what is the source of this number?" for any field on any Power BI page.

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