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How Slalom equips their customers—and themselves—with Fabric

Slalom offers global consulting with a local touch, driving Microsoft Fabric adoption and innovation.

October 9, 2024

Slalom, a globally-minded management consulting firm, helps organizations turn their aspirations into tangible business value. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Slalom specializes in strategy and implementation services across various industries, including environmental services, healthcare, and financial services. Slalom's mission is to empower companies to unlock the full potential of their data using AI and other next-generation technologies.

Slalom operates with a unique local model supported by global partnerships and expertise. This dual approach ensures their customers receive personalized attention while benefiting from an international network of knowledge and resources. "We're a purpose-led, global, modern consulting agency," says Sergio Martinez, Director (MCoE Global Data & AI) at Slalom. "Our goal is to provide strategy and implementation for our clients. When they're looking to extend and grow, we step in and help provide that opportunity." With that model in mind, Slalom's work with Microsoft Fabric has become a key driver of innovation and customer success.

Building with Fabric—internally and externally

Slalom's partnership with Microsoft has been a cornerstone of their success in driving data innovation and modernization for over two decades. "It started almost as soon as Slalom was founded," says Martinez.

Adopting Fabric was a bit more recent but no less natural of a partnership, helping Slalom solidify their position as a leader in data and AI solutions. "Why we joined? That was pretty much a no-brainer for us. Having that direct connection to the Microsoft team, having subject matter experts from Microsoft join our workshops—that alone was a huge selling point to us," Martinez says. As a Microsoft partner working with Fabric, Slalom found value in early access to new features, direct support from Microsoft product teams, and greater visibility with customers.

Slalom found so much value in Fabric, in fact, that they used the platform to accelerate their own data modernization efforts. This initiative allowed Slalom to optimize reporting processes internally—and showcase their Fabric commitment to their own customers. "We're eating our own food," explains Martinez. "We can say to our clients, 'We have our own challenges with trying to capture and visualize data. Here's how we've overcome them with Fabric and how we can help you do it, too.'"

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"Oftentimes, our workshops start off with a simple conversation of, 'Can you tell me a little bit about Fabric?' and that opens the door to a bigger workshop or a proof of concept."

—Sergio Martinez, Director, MCoE Global Data & AI, Slalom

Workshopping customer success with Fabric

Hands-on workshops and accelerators are central to Slalom's work with Fabric. These frequent interactive programs, covering topics like working with OpenAI and Fabric monitoring tools, are designed to help customers understand and effectively utilize the full capabilities of the cloud-based platform.

"Oftentimes, our workshops start off with a simple conversation of, 'Can you tell me a little bit about Fabric?'" says Martinez, "And that opens the door to a bigger workshop or a proof of concept." These workshops not only introduce customers to Fabric but also involve practical demonstrations, which show Slalom customers firsthand how the platform can address their specific data challenges.

Implementing Fabric after workshops will often result in significant improvements in data management, governance, and analytics capabilities. Accelerators, on the other hand, help expedite Fabric adoption for customers by providing easy-to-use tools to kick-start the data modernization journey. Taken as a whole, these offerings both enhance the customer experience and demonstrate Slalom's commitment to achieving transformative business outcomes for their customers.

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"We can say to our clients, 'We have our own challenges with trying to capture and visualize data. Here's how we've overcome them with Fabric and how we can help you do it, too.'"

—Sergio Martinez, Director, MCoE Global Data & AI, Slalom

Weaving Fabric efficiency into environmental service workflows

A leading environmental services company in North America, was introduced to Fabric through one of Slalom's workshops. At the time, the company faced significant challenges, including prolonged time to value, data redundancy, and an urgent need to expedite migration to Microsoft Azure for better insights.

Slalom partnered with the company to address these challenges by implementing a comprehensive enterprise analytics solution using Fabric. With Fabric's capabilities, Slalom designed a modern lakehouse architecture that minimized the company's technical debt and optimized 20-year-old legacy processes. They combined the company's system of record with Microsoft Power BI for advanced reporting and used the Fabric mirroring feature to enhance data visualization and accessibility. This new infrastructure allowed for consistent and reliable self-serve analytics, which empowered the company's fleet operations team to access real-time data and make informed decisions.

The results so far have been transformative: The company experienced over 60% optimization in data processing speed and an 84% improvement in analysis and reporting speed. These enhancements significantly reduced the time required for both tasks, which has streamlined operations and improved data-driven decision-making.

With Slalom's solution, the company could also onboard all source data into the Fabric platform seamlessly. These advancements have helped reduce discrepancies, improve data quality, and position them for continued success on their data utilization journey.

Continued innovation, courtesy of Fabric

Looking ahead, Slalom is committed to enhancing their industry-specific solutions. By tapping into the capabilities of Fabric, they aim to develop tailored accelerators that address the unique challenges within healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, and other sectors. This vertical approach will equip Slalom to deliver even more precise and impactful Fabric solutions to their customers.

Slalom is also focused on expanding their team's expertise in Fabric. "We plan to stay at the forefront of this technology by ensuring our team is fully certified on the latest advancements," says Martinez.

With a clear vision for the future, Slalom is poised to continue driving data innovation and achieving transformative outcomes at every step of the customer's journey. "Helping our clients really comes down to listening to them versus just saying, 'Fabric is the answer to all your prayers,'" says Martinez. "Even though it is!"

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