Research Firm Prevents 15% Revenue Loss & Boosts Data Quality by 25%

Industry: Technology | Services: Data & Analytics

Client Overview

Our client is a $1 billion social impact-driven consulting and research firm addressing the world’s most pressing issues, from natural disasters to agricultural shortages. 

Without a data strategy, and with multiple products that created data silos and integration challenges, the company faced a range of issues with data accuracy and completeness. At the same time, a lack of self-service analytics capabilities resulted in inefficiencies and errors.

The Challenge

Siloed data and weak governance creating risk and inefficiency

Without a cohesive data strategy, the client grappled with multiple, disconnected product data silos. Manual reporting, inconsistent data definitions, and a lack of data ownership led to errors, inefficiencies, regulatory risk, and even lost revenue. The firm needed to introduce governance, improve data quality, enable self-service analytics, and ensure compliance with changing data regulations.

Sutherland Solution

Building a unified data foundation with governance and stewardship

Leveraging our global team of experts, Sutherland defined a new data strategy for our client that would eliminate data silos and deliver the integrated reporting and analytics they needed. 

1. Conducted discovery across business units to map reporting, regulatory, and analytics needs.
   Defined and implemented a data governance operating model, including a data council, stewardship roles, and policies to ensure consistency and ownership.
2. Established data lineages and master data management (MDM) to centralize customer and services data for enterprise-critical data elements.
3. Introduced secure data management and encryption practices to protect sensitive assets and prevent revenue leakage.
4. Enhanced data literacy and enabled self-service analytics, reducing dependence on manual report generation.

The Outcome

Stronger governance delivered measurable financial, quality, and operational gains

Through Sutherland’s intervention, the client avoided 15% revenue loss by tightening security and governance measures. Data quality rose by 25%, enabling more reliable insights and decision-making. Reporting accuracy and speed improved, compliance risk was reduced, and data ownership clarified via stewardship and lineage. Self-service analytics and unified policies also created efficiencies and empowered teams across the organization.