Working with us Support & Training - FAQs

Yes, Hopton can support Pyramid Analytics (now ServiceNow Autonomous Data Analytics, or ADA) as well as Power BI. We are a Level 3 Pyramid Analytics partner and were Pyramid's Partner of the Year in 2024, and we support Pyramid estates for clients across retail, food and other sectors. Support covers the same ground as for Power BI: data model changes, new and amended reports, performance issues, user and security administration, upgrades and connections to source systems such as SAP BW and SQL Server. Many organisations run Pyramid and Power BI side by side, and having one partner who knows both avoids issues falling between two suppliers. We also help clients decide which platform suits which use, without assuming one should replace the other. Our Pyramid Analytics page covers our Pyramid work, and the Analytics Acceleration Programme explains ongoing support.

Yes, Hopton can support a Power BI or Microsoft Fabric estate that we didn't build, whether it was created by your own team, a previous partner or a contractor who has since moved on. We start with a structured review of the estate: workspaces, data models, refresh schedules, gateways, capacity usage, security and documentation, or the lack of it. That tells us what is healthy, what is fragile and what needs fixing before it can be supported reliably. Most inherited estates have a few quick wins, such as failing refreshes, unused content and over-shared reports, alongside larger issues that are planned in over time. After the review, support works the same as for anything we built. The review also gives you an honest picture of the estate's condition, which is useful whatever you decide. Our free audit is a good starting point, and the Analytics Acceleration Programme covers ongoing support.

Yes, Hopton can proactively monitor your Power BI and Microsoft Fabric estate as part of support, where monitoring is included in an ongoing engagement, instead of waiting for users to report problems. Monitoring covers the things that usually go wrong quietly: failed or slow refreshes, gateway issues, capacity pressure and throttling, licence usage, and changes to security or sharing that need a second look. When something needs attention, we pick it up and either fix it or flag it with a recommendation. The aim is that users rarely notice problems, because most are dealt with before the morning reports are opened. Monitoring also feeds the regular review, showing usage trends, which reports are earning their keep and where capacity or cost can be tuned. Our article on observability for Azure data engineering explains why a successful run isn't the same as correct data, and the Analytics Acceleration Programme page covers how monitoring is included.

Yes, Hopton provides Microsoft Fabric training as well as Power BI training, tailored to the roles in your team. For data engineers and technical analysts, Fabric training covers lakehouses and warehouses, pipelines, Dataflows Gen2 and notebooks, the medallion approach to organising data, and how to keep Direct Lake models fast. For administrators, it covers capacity management and cost control, workspace structure, security and tenant settings. For report builders, it covers how Power BI fits within Fabric and how to work with shared semantic models instead of building their own copies. Training works best when it uses your own data and solution, so people learn on the estate they will actually run. It can be delivered as part of a project, alongside the build, or as standalone sessions. Our Microsoft Fabric page covers our Fabric work, and our Power BI FAQs cover Power BI training in detail.

Small changes and enhancements during support are handled as part of the monthly rhythm, not as a string of separate mini-projects. On the Continuity stage of our Analytics Acceleration Programme, your monthly allocation of consultant time covers fixes, small enhancements such as a new measure, visual or filter, and adoption help. Requests are logged, prioritised with you, and delivered through the normal release process, so production is never edited directly. Larger pieces of work, such as a new data source, a new report suite or a model redesign, are scoped separately so they can be planned properly and don't crowd out support. At each review we look at what was delivered and what is coming next. Clients on ad hoc support can request changes in the same way, and they are quoted before work starts. Our article on why Power BI changes need a release process explains the controls, and the Analytics Acceleration Programme page covers Continuity.

You raise a support request with Hopton by emailing our helpdesk at help@hoptonanalytics.com. Every request is logged, so nothing depends on one person's inbox, and it is picked up by a consultant who knows your estate. To help us resolve it quickly, include which report, dataset or pipeline is affected, what you expected to see, what you saw instead, when it started and a screenshot if possible. If something business-critical has stopped working, such as a board report failing to refresh before a meeting, say so in the subject line so it is prioritised. For larger changes or new requirements, the request becomes a short conversation about scope, so it can be planned properly, not squeezed in. Our support hours are Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 17:00. Our Analytics Acceleration Programme page explains how support fits into an ongoing engagement, and you can contact us about anything else.

Knowledge transfer at the end of a Hopton project is planned from the start, not left to a handover meeting in the last week. Your team is involved during the build, through regular demonstrations, working alongside our consultants and reviewing the design as it develops, so the solution is familiar before it goes live. At handover we walk through the data model, transformations, refresh schedules, security and release process, with the people who will own them, and the sessions can be recorded for people who join later. Your team then makes supervised changes during the stabilisation period, so they gain confidence while we are still close. How far we take it depends on your goal. Some clients want to run everything in-house, others want to understand it well enough to work with us efficiently. Our article on the skills that matter when the tools stop saying no explains what your team needs, and our Power BI FAQs cover training in depth.

Yes. There is a stabilisation period right after go-live, before Continuity support kicks in. Go-live is not the finish line, and Continuity is not switched on from day zero. The first few weeks after a Build phase ships are a stabilisation window: the team watches refresh schedules for failures, reconciles early outputs against source systems while users are still building trust in the numbers, and confirms that workspace backups and semantic model version history are actually recoverable rather than assumed to be. Incident ownership sits with the delivery team during this window, not a shared support inbox, so a broken refresh or a wrong permission gets fixed by the people who built it, fast, before it hardens into a workaround or a reason not to trust the report. Any adoption friction, a dashboard that is technically correct but confusing, a role that is too tight or too loose, gets triaged here too, tracked against Decision Adoption Rate rather than left to surface as a complaint months later. Once refreshes are stable and adoption is trending the right way, the engagement moves into the optional Continuity phase, where quarterly governance reviews, row-level security refreshes, and framework extension take over as the ongoing discipline.

Hopton's support hours are Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 17:00 UK time. Support requests can be sent to help@hoptonanalytics.com at any time and are picked up during those hours. Most analytics issues, such as a failed overnight refresh, a broken visual or a figure that looks wrong, are best handled during the working day, when the people who use the reports are available to confirm the fix. For estates where an early-morning report is business-critical, we design for resilience: refresh failure alerts, retries and monitoring that flag problems before users arrive, so fewer issues reach the helpdesk at all. If your organisation needs cover outside these hours, talk to us about it when scoping your engagement. Our article on what happens after go-live explains how support works, and you can contact us to discuss your requirements.

At handover from Hopton you receive documentation written for the people who will run and change the solution, not a file that sits unread. It typically covers the architecture and data flow from source to report, the data model with table and measure definitions in business language, transformation logic and where it lives, refresh schedules and dependencies, security roles and who belongs to them, the release process between development and production, and known limitations with recommended next steps. Where possible the documentation lives alongside the solution itself, for example in source control and as descriptions inside the semantic model, so it stays current as things change. Measure definitions are especially valuable, because they settle arguments about what a number means. Exactly what is documented is agreed in the proposal, so there are no surprises. Our article on fixed price, not time and materials explains how deliverables are scoped, and our glossary explains the terms.

After a Hopton project ends, you keep the documentation, training and knowledge transfer built into every engagement, because we design for continuity from day one. The Continuity phase of the AAP provides ongoing retainer support for clients who want a long-term partner. We also offer ad hoc support for clients who prefer to manage independently with occasional specialist input.

After go-live, analytics stays governed long-term through the Continuity stage of the Analytics Acceleration Programme, rather than a project handover and a goodbye. That means a dedicated monthly allocation of consulting time to run quarterly governance reviews, extend the framework as new reports and data sources get added, retire measures that drift out of use, and refresh row-level security and workspace ownership as teams change. Most estates do not fail from a bad initial build, they fail because nobody owns the ongoing discipline once the original team moves on to the next project. Continuity exists specifically to be that owner, on a healthy monthly rhythm rather than a reactive callout when something breaks.

Continuity is Hopton's optional ongoing support after go-live, priced as a monthly retainer against a defined consulting day allocation. It covers platform support, estate extension, and adoption help. It is not mandatory, some clients take the Build output and manage it entirely in-house afterwards, but most find some ongoing allocation valuable as their reporting needs evolve.

Hopton provides support after a project goes live in two stages. First comes a stabilisation period of a few weeks, when the delivery team stays close, fixes issues quickly, watches refreshes and performance, and helps users settle in. After that, support continues in one of two ways. Clients on the Continuity stage of our Analytics Acceleration Programme have a monthly allocation of consultant time covering platform support, fixes, enhancements and adoption help, with a regular review rhythm. Clients who prefer to run things themselves can use ad hoc support for occasional specialist help. Either way, support comes from consultants who know your estate, usually the team that built it, not a separate helpdesk reading notes. Our article on what happens after go-live explains the approach, and the Analytics Acceleration Programme page covers Continuity.

You won't become dependent on Hopton for support unless you choose to, because we design for independence from the start. The solution is built on standard Microsoft tooling, using common patterns any competent Power BI or Fabric team would recognise, not proprietary frameworks only we understand. Everything lives in your tenant, under your ownership, with documentation and source control. Knowledge transfer and training are built into delivery, and your team makes supervised changes before we step back. Some clients take full ownership after go-live, others keep us for specialist work or ongoing support because it is cheaper and more resilient than hiring, and some move between the two over time. The choice should be about value, not lock-in. Our article on what to hand a consultancy and what to keep covers the trade-offs, and the Analytics Acceleration Programme explains ongoing options.