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Sonata Software goes from early adopter to market leader with Fabric

Sonata Software builds a strong Microsoft partnership and earns specializations to accelerate client success.

August 6, 2024

Sonata Software, a leading modernization engineering company and Microsoft partner for more than 30 years, delivers analytics and line-of-business solutions to customers. Historically, Sonata Software focused on business solutions like Microsoft Dynamics 365, transitioning their customers from legacy enterprise resource planning platforms to cloud-based solutions. When Microsoft Fabric was in early development in 2022, Sonata Software participated in the product private preview program to test and share feedback with the Microsoft product teams. This move helped them to expand into analytics and establish themselves as a Solutions Partner for Data & AI (Azure). Since then, the company has found success by developing solutions for Fabric and making them available to customers via AppSource.

Sonata Software has earned 10 specializations across Azure, Business Applications, Modern Work, and Security. "The specializations are table stakes for us to be partner of choice," said Manu Swami, Head of Technology, Markets at Sonata Software. "Clients anticipate this level of expertise, and specializations qualify us for exclusive funding. This funding enables our clients to realize their vision and achieve positive results, while also speeding up the pilot phase. It's a win-win situation for both Sonata Software and our clients."

Connected data and modern analytics lead to speedy ROI

Sonata Software's Fabric-based solutions help businesses modernize data processes and keep up with business needs. "We develop solutions driven by market demands and customer needs, ensuring successful outcomes. This dual focus is our key to success," said Swami.

Fabric empowers Sonata Software clients to quickly unlock the value of their data by streamlining the use of diverse data sources. Unlike traditional analytics solutions that require extensive effort to combine data, Fabric simplifies this process, which can lead to time savings and a rapid return on investment (ROI).

"We're witnessing a shift in investment following the modernization of our clients' engineering processes and data platforms," said Mahesh Hegde, Head of Fabric CoE at Sonata Software. "Initially, 70% of investment is dedicated to combining data, with only 30% focused on achieving ROI and business value. Over time, this ratio is completely reversed." Alongside data, customers can use Microsoft Copilot to enhance their analytics investments. "With Fabric, users gain access to Copilot for engineering, Copilot for Power BI, and Copilot for data analysis, boosting productivity with their analytics solutions."

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"Fabric's capabilities save substantial time and offer our team the entire ecosystem—from initial business analysis and decision-making to final analytics—at the click of a button."

—Mahesh Hegde, Head of Fabric CoE, Sonata Software

Serving multiple industries and uniting the entire Microsoft stack

Other key Sonata Software offerings include the IntelliPipe accelerator, which is part of their Lightning Data Suite, a metadata-led automation in Fabric that produces a domain model and domain data structure. This makes it easier for multiple departments to access the data they need for reporting and forecasting. "Thanks to Fabric's interoperation with Copilot, team members of all technical levels can easily access their data," explained Hegde. "With IntelliPipe, we create comprehensive business-360 views for our customers. Serving diverse industries, we understand that a one-size-fits-all approach and pre-built solutions aren't always effective. That's why we offer tailored vertical solutions to address unique customer experiences, employee interactions, and data processes."

Swami said that the team looks forward to more opportunities to create custom solutions for industry clients and is currently working on a holistic sales solution for a healthcare customer. "We're using Business Applications on top, Microsoft 365 on the side, and Fabric at the bottom to get a strong data foundation and create intelligent business solutions. This is one of the ways we're excited about using Fabric with other services in the Microsoft stack to help our customers."

"We develop solutions driven by market demands and customer needs, ensuring successful outcomes. This dual focus is our key to success."

—Manu Swami, Head of Technology, Markets, Sonata Software

New customers and growth through subject matter experts and Envisioning Workshops

To enhance their Fabric practice, Sonata Software has expanded their in-house team by recruiting over 128 Microsoft-certified Fabric analytics engineers. Having a deep bench of experts helps the company to offer customers Envisioning Workshops for data modernization. These workshops give a snapshot of how Sonata Software and Fabric can help them create a data-driven culture. According to Swami, these workshops have a high success rate. "Through the Envisioning Workshops, we've seen a lot of excitement about what the solution offers. Around 60-70% of attendees pursue the next steps. It has significantly helped us in gaining new customers."

Sonata Software continues to invest in specialization and capacity-building across the workloads and capabilities of Fabric—which they've found also helps acquire new customers. Now, they have roughly 100 prospective customers related to Fabric, with 15 new clients engaged in both pilot phase and active projects.

Global telecommunications provider reduces customer and vendor onboarding time by 90% through data transformation

Sonata Software has been working with a global telecommunications service provider to transform data operations, optimize automation, and incorporate generative AI into workflows. The client's legacy on-premises data platform had limited reporting capabilities and lacked advanced analytics. "The provider was looking for a total transformation of internal operations, as well as platforms, in a phased approach due to cost restrictions. So, we started with prototyping, where we offered a roadmap of solutions to get started," said Swami.

Sonata Software helped the telecommunications provider migrate from an on-premises SQL Server to software as a service, with Fabric as the foundation. "The provider reduced time spent onboarding new customers and vendors by 90%," said Swami. "And there were many opportunities to further improve those processes, so we brought AI-based solutions to automate them."

With a Fabric ecosystem, including Power BI and Copilot, the customer now experiences more efficient operations across the board. Hegde explained, "Fabric's capabilities save substantial time and allow our team to offer customers the entire ecosystem—from initial business analysis and decision-making to final analytics—at the click of a button."

Charting future growth with Microsoft Fabric

Looking forward, Sonata Software plans to remain a data and AI company, continuing to strengthen their relationship with Microsoft. They are strategically focusing on three segments for future growth: financial services, healthcare and life sciences, and retail and manufacturing. By using Fabric, Sonata Software is developing targeted solutions specifically for these industries. "We look forward to all that is to come," said Swami. "And Fabric is fundamental in that vision."

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