How a Diversified Food and Retail Group Built an Enterprise Data Platform on Microsoft Fabric

Learn how a British‑headquartered, diversified international food and retail group partnered with Nihilent to establish a Data & Analytics Centre of Excellence (CoE) and a unified Microsoft Fabric–based platform that simplifies data management, accelerates BI and analytics, and sets the foundation for AI‑ready insights across business units.

Service

Data & Analytics, Enterprise Data Platforms, and Microsoft Fabric

Vertical

CPG (Food & Beverages), Retail

Region

Global (Operations Across Europe, Africa, the Americas, Asia and Australia)

Tech Stack

Microsoft Fabric, OneLake, Fabric Synapse Warehouses, Fabric Data Factory, Spark Notebooks, Power BI

How a Diversified Food and Retail Group Built an Enterprise Data Platform on Microsoft Fabric

Client Overview

The client is a diversified international group spanning food processing, ingredients, agriculture and retail, with well‑known consumer brands and a large global footprint across multiple regions and markets. Its businesses range from grocery and ingredients manufacturers to a major value fashion retailer, all generating vast and growing volumes of operational, financial and customer data.

Over time, different divisions developed their own data platforms, tools and practices, resulting in a fragmented landscape that made it hard to share insights or apply consistent governance at group level. As the organization embarked on a data‑led transformation, leadership wanted an enterprise‑grade Data & Analytics Center of Excellence (CoE) and a unified platform that could support BI, analytics and future AI use cases for multiple business units.

Business Challenges

The group set out to create an enterprise data platform for BI and analytics but faced several interconnected challenges.

01

Fragmented and Traditional Data Platforms

Multiple legacy and traditional data platforms existed across business units, increasing complexity, duplication and operational overhead.

02

Lack of a Single Enterprise Data and Analytics CoE

Data and analytics capabilities were distributed, with no central CoE to define standards, best practices and shared services for the entire group.

03

Need for a Unified Flexible Platform

Leadership wanted a single service platform that simplified management, yet could support diverse BI and analytics needs across different businesses.

04

Integration and Governance at Scale

The group needed a modern architecture that applied data mesh and lakehouse principles while ensuring governed, efficient integration of many services and components.

How Nihilent Addressed This

Nihilent partnered with the group to define the vision and operating model for a Data & Analytics CoE, and to design an enterprise data platform on Microsoft Fabric that balances central governance with domain flexibility. The solution consolidated capabilities onto a single unified platform, leveraging Fabric’s SaaS‑based analytics ecosystem to simplify operations and scale BI and analytics across business units.

Enterprise Data & Analytics CoE Setup

Nihilent worked with group stakeholders to establish a Data & Analytics CoE with clear mandates, service models and standards for delivering enterprise data, BI and analytics capabilities to business units.

Single Unified Data Platform on Fabric

A unified data platform was designed on Microsoft Fabric, moving away from disparate traditional platforms to a single service stack that is simpler to use, easier to manage and consistent across the estate.

Modern Lakehouse with Mesh and Fabric Principles

The platform architecture applied data mesh, data fabric and data hub concepts to build a governed lakehouse using OneLake, Fabric Synapse Warehouses and shared domain‑oriented data products.

Integrated Fabric Services and Best Practices

Nihilent helped the group establish best practices for integrating Fabric Data Factory, Spark notebooks, warehouses and Power BI, ensuring balanced workloads, optimized resource utilization and seamless end‑to‑end workflows.

Key Results & Outcomes

Unified Enterprise Data Platform for BI and Analytics

Business units now consume BI and analytics from a single, enterprise‑grade platform designed and operated through the Data & Analytics CoE.

Simplified, Single‑Service Data Estate

Consolidation onto Microsoft Fabric reduced platform sprawl, simplified management and decreased operational complexity across the group’s data landscape.

Modern Governed Lakehouse Foundation

A Fabric‑based Lakehouse using OneLake and Synapse Warehouses provides governed, reusable data assets aligned to data mesh and data fabric principles.

Optimized Workload and Cost Management

Centralized monitoring and configuration help balance workloads and resource allocation within Fabric, improving performance while controlling cost.

Reusable Integration Patterns and Best Practices

Standardized integration patterns and component‑level best practices accelerate onboarding of new data domains, use cases and business units onto the platform.

Key Takeaways

For a global food and retail group operating multiple diverse businesses, success with data and analytics required more than migrating technology - it demanded a coherent enterprise vision and a shared platform built for scale. By setting up a Data & Analytics CoE and consolidating onto Microsoft Fabric, the organization moved from fragmented, traditional platforms to a unified, governed lakehouse that still respects domain autonomy.

The result was an enterprise data platform that simplifies how Business Units (BUs) access and use data, supports consistent governance, and provides a flexible foundation for BI, advanced analytics and AI‑driven innovation across the group’s brands and markets.

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