Big‑firm data engineering, without the big‑firm invoice.
Most firms staff a data project with several engineers, a project manager, and a BI specialist, and you pay for every one of them. Lode is one senior engineer who handles it end to end, from standing up your Microsoft Fabric workspace to the Power BI dashboards your team uses every day. One client at a time, fixed prices, and a system you own.
More value, less overhead
A typical consultancy staffs your project with
- Several data engineers
- A project manager
- A BI specialist
- An infrastructure resource to set up the platform
You pay for every seat, plus the handoffs between them.
With Lode
One senior engineer covers all of it.
No team overhead. You work directly with the person building your platform, with no handoffs to pay for.
One client at a time. Your project gets full focus, not a slice of a busy consultancy's bench.
Infrastructure to dashboard. A systems administration background means I set up Fabric capacity, workspaces, gateways, identity, and security, not just the reports.
How your data gets from scattered to trusted
Each layer has one job, so problems are easy to find and every report is built from the same checked data. Everything runs in your own Microsoft tenant, on a schedule.
Connect your sources
ERP, CRM, SaaS apps, SQL databases, and spreadsheets, including on-premises systems through a gateway.
Ingest on a schedule
Incremental loads pull only new or changed records, with retries and run logging.
Land in your lakehouse
One governed store in OneLake, as open Delta tables you own.
Refine through medallion layers
Raw history is kept, then cleaned and conformed, then shaped with your business rules.
Model in the warehouse
Curated tables and views with SQL access for analysts and other tools.
Report in Power BI
Shared measures, row-level security where needed, and dashboards that refresh on their own.
Services
Discovery & assessment
A short, paid first step when your environment or goals aren't clear yet. You get a written plan either way.
- Map your systems and reporting needs
- Data readiness and licensing review
- Fabric capacity sizing
- Written roadmap and fixed-price quote
Platform build + first pipeline
No Fabric yet? I set it up properly and deliver a first working report so you see results early.
- Capacity, gateway, workspaces, security, Git
- First source through bronze, silver, and gold
- First Power BI dashboard on a schedule
- Documentation and handoff
Reporting expansion
Add sources and subject areas one phase at a time, without rebuilding what already works.
- ERP, CRM, SaaS APIs, SQL, Excel
- Sales, margin, inventory, production, finance
- Shared KPI definitions
- Row-level security
Health check & optimization
For platforms that are slow, failing, or costing more than they should.
- Diagnose capacity overruns and failed refreshes
- Move full reloads to incremental
- Right-size capacity and reduce cost
- Monitoring and failure alerts
How engagements work
- Fixed price per phase, scoped in a written statement of work.
- Start small: one source and one report first.
- You own everything: code, tables, reports, and documentation, in your tenant.
- Optional support retainer after handoff.
A good fit if you
- Run Microsoft 365 with an ERP such as Business Central.
- Don't have Fabric yet, or need it set up properly.
- Rebuild the same reports by hand every week.
- Have departments whose numbers don't match.
Experience
2+ years leading data and IT for a food manufacturer, 1.5 years delivering pipelines alongside a data analytics consultancy, and 50+ pipelines running in production today.
Sources delivered end to end: REST and OData APIs, ERP connectors, SQL databases, SaaS platforms, on-premises systems through a gateway, and Excel and CSV files.
A food manufacturer replaces hand-built reports with one source of truth
source tables and API feeds automated across ERP, SQL, and production systems
from kickoff to first live report
Before: reports were exported and reconciled by hand, and finance, planning, and production used different numbers for the same metrics.
After: finance, MRP and demand planning, and OEE reporting run from the same checked data in Microsoft Fabric, on a schedule.
Company name and identifying details withheld.
Start with a discovery call
Bring a list of your systems and the questions you can't answer today. We'll map each one and scope a first pipeline you can see working.