The Challenge: Becoming data‑independent after a carve‑out
When BTT was carved out of the Beaulieu International Group (BIG), the company lost access to BIG’s IT infrastructure, including the enterprise data warehouse and reporting environment. This meant BTT had to build a fully independent Business Analytics platform from scratch — and fast.
The carve‑out came with three key challenges:
- A strict deadline
The new analytics and reporting environment had to be live within approximately ten weeks, covering both the carve‑out timeline and the Christmas holiday period. - Limited internal BI capacity
BTT did not have a large IT or Business Analytics team. The future platform needed to be manageable by key business users — experts in the business, not in technical data engineering. - Budget and pragmatism
As with most carve‑outs, the solution had to balance quality, cost efficiency, and speed, without compromising long‑term scalability.
Recognizing element61’s deep involvement in rebuilding BIG’s enterprise data platform, BTT engaged element61 to help define requirements and implement a standalone Modern Data Platform.
Quote BTT: “In just ten weeks, we had to move from relying on a group data platform supported by dedicated data engineers to running a fully independent analytics environment. The carve-out left no room for delay; reporting had to be ready from day one”
Defining the right solution
In Q4 2025, element61 and BTT started with a focused carve‑out analysis. Together, they identified which data domains and reports were essential for day‑to‑day operations and management reporting.
Based on this analysis, element61 designed a pragmatic Modern Data Platform using TimeXtender Data Integration as the core engine.
TimeXtender was selected because it:
- Enables low‑code / no‑code development, ideal for small BI teams
- Is well‑documented and easy to maintain by business users
- Supports cloud and hybrid architectures, including Microsoft Fabric
- Allows future migrations without redesigning the solution
After only a few workshops, a BTT key user was already able to make changes independently — demonstrating how quickly the platform could be adopted.
Quote from a BTT key user: “Having been involved in the setup from the beginning, I was able to implement small modifications independently after just the first training session, and within a few sessions I was confidently adding missing data myself.”
Overcoming technical and timing constraints
To meet the tight deadline without compromising the long‑term vision, a pragmatic technical approach was chosen.
The project started with an on‑premises SQL Server setup, while Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse and OneLake were prepared in parallel for data ingestion. During development, some Fabric integration limitations required the team to temporarily retain the on‑prem SQL environment for staging and data warehousing — ensuring that project timelines were not delayed.
Thanks to TimeXtender’s strong migration capabilities, this decision did not block future cloud evolution. The architecture was deliberately designed to allow a smooth transition to Fabric at a later stage.
The result: A future‑proof analytics platform
Despite the tight timeline, BTT successfully went live with a fully independent Business Analytics environment on time and within budget.
The resulting platform:
- Supports critical operational and management reporting
- Is maintainable by business users, not dependent on heavy IT support
- Provides a scalable foundation for future growth
- Aligns with BTT’s longer‑term cloud and Microsoft Fabric ambitions
Most importantly, BTT now owns its data and reporting, fully independent from its former group structure.
The impact is measurable: more than 50 legacy reports have been consolidated into two well‑structured data models with properly aligned relationships between the underlying tables. On top of this foundation, BTT now runs four dedicated Power BI apps delivering around 20 reports: a leaner, more consistent, and easier‑to‑maintain reporting landscape.
Example of product management report
By selecting one commercial name, the following aspects can be shown directly.
- Product composition information: End Product / Mother rolls / Components
- Sales data: Per end product, per customer: volumes, contributions, orders, budget, ..
- Stock data: current stock, free stock after a certain period, old stock, ..
- Production data: Machines, production efficiency
- Quality data: On mother roll level, on component level
Next steps
BTT’s BI team will continue expanding the Modern Data Platform and Power BI reporting at its own pace, using TimeXtender Data Integration with ongoing support from element61 when needed.
Once TimeXtender introduces native Fabric Warehouse support (expected in Q3 2026), BTT plans to run a proof of concept to migrate the remaining on‑prem components to a fully Fabric‑based architecture.
About element61
element61 is a data & AI consultancy specializing in Modern Data Platforms, analytics, and AI solutions. With deep expertise in Microsoft technologies and strong business alignment, element61 helps organizations turn data into measurable value even under tight timelines and complex constraints.
As BTT sums it up: “We went live on time, within budget, and fully in control of our own data, thanks to element61’s technical expertise and strong understanding of our business constraints. They helped us move fast without compromising on quality or our long‑term vision.”
More information
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