Manchester and North West delivery
Power BI & Microsoft Fabric consultancy in Manchester
Connect finance, sales, stock, production and service data in reporting that people can act on. Hopton delivers governed Power BI and Microsoft Fabric solutions for Manchester and North West organisations that have outgrown manual reporting or fragmented dashboards.
Tell us which reports are slow, manual or disputed and which systems feed them. A senior consultant will help identify whether the problem sits in Power BI, the data model or the wider platform. Response within one working day.
Portfolio figures published by Hopton Analytics. Outcomes vary by starting point, scope and adoption.
When this is the right conversation
Operational reporting cannot keep up with the business
Manchester and North West organisations often reach a point where ERP reports, spreadsheets and disconnected dashboards cannot explain the operation quickly enough.
Finance and operations reconcile different numbers
Revenue, margin, orders, throughput and stock are defined differently across teams, so weekly meetings start with reconciliation rather than action.
Production performance arrives too late
Shift, machine, job or site information is manually assembled after the event, leaving managers unable to respond while an issue is still developing.
Stock and service levels lack one view
Purchasing, warehouse, sales and customer-service data sit in different systems, hiding the relationship between availability, fulfilment and margin.
ERP history is difficult to compare
Upgrades, acquisitions or several legal entities have split history across Dynamics NAV, Business Central, Sage, SQL, Excel or other platforms.
The Power BI estate is becoming fragile
Refreshes fail, duplicated models disagree, reports load slowly and knowledge is concentrated in one person.
A Fabric decision is approaching
The organisation needs to know whether a lakehouse, warehouse or Fabric capacity solves a genuine operational constraint or simply adds another bill.
Hopton works backwards from the management rhythm: the daily operational review, weekly trading meeting, month-end close or board pack. That keeps the platform tied to decisions rather than dashboard volume.
From systems to decisions
One governed route from operational data to action
Source systems
ERP, finance, CRM, production, warehouse, service, spreadsheets, databases and APIs.
Governed data foundation
Ingestion, transformation, history, quality rules and named ownership in the simplest appropriate architecture.
Shared semantic model
Agreed dimensions, reusable measures, security and definitions for finance and operations.
Power BI decisions
Role-based reports for leaders, managers and operational teams, with clear actions and a controlled route for change.
Fabric can support the governed data-foundation step, but it is not mandatory. A smaller requirement may use a simpler architecture. The decision depends on source complexity, history, reuse, workload and operating cost.
What we deliver
Power BI and Fabric for finance and operations
Production and throughput reporting
Track jobs, output, downtime, yield, labour and exceptions at the right operational cadence, with definitions agreed between the people producing the data and the people acting on it.
Power BI for manufacturingStock, sales and service visibility
Bring availability, demand, orders, fulfilment, customer and margin measures into one model so trade-offs are visible instead of buried across functions.
Finance and management information
Reduce manual board and month-end reporting with governed measures, entity mappings and drill paths to the operational drivers beneath financial performance.
Microsoft Fabric data platforms
Design and build the lakehouse, warehouse, pipelines, OneLake controls and Direct Lake reporting needed for multi-source history and reuse.
Explore Microsoft Fabric consultingPower BI repair and governance
Diagnose slow models, refresh failures, workspace sprawl, security gaps and unclear ownership, then prioritise the fixes that restore trust.
Start with a Power BI Health CheckLegacy BI and ERP reporting migration
Inventory active content, retire unused reports, rebuild essential logic in a governed semantic model and run old and new reporting in parallel until owners sign off.
Plan a Power BI migrationPower BI alone or Power BI with Fabric?
Use Fabric when the operational data foundation needs it
Fabric is useful when several operational systems need one governed history, the same data must support several teams, or data engineering and analytics need a common platform. It is not a prerequisite for every Power BI deployment.
Start with Power BI when
- The priority is a focused report or department.
- One or two sources are accessible and well structured.
- History and transformation can be handled simply.
- Capacity, engineering and wider data workloads are not the constraint.
Assess Fabric when
- ERP, CRM, production and warehouse data must be combined.
- Source-system history must be preserved.
- Several teams need certified data products.
- Pipelines, notebooks, real-time or machine-learning workloads are in scope.
- Existing Fabric or Azure spend is not delivering reliable outcomes.
If the decision is uncertain, use the free Fabric decision tool or commission an independent Reporting Modernisation Assessment before a build.
Evidence from operational delivery
Reporting across ERP, production and multi-site operations
These UK case studies demonstrate relevant delivery patterns. They are not presented as Manchester-based clients.
Nationwide Hygiene Group: NAV and Business Central in one Power BI environment
Hopton migrated QlikView, SQL and Excel reporting to Power BI while bringing old NAV and new Business Central data together. QlikView remained stable during the move, with lower ongoing cost and platform risk after delivery.
Read the Nationwide Hygiene Group case studyRemous Print: live reporting available on any device
Manual production reporting was replaced by live Power BI reporting available through the Power BI Service, SharePoint and Teams, giving operational information a more usable route into daily work.
Read the Remous Print case studyWasabi: 40+ restaurant P&Ls, central kitchens and grocery in one view
An underperforming Microsoft estate was stabilised and rebuilt across Fabric, Power BI, Azure and Business Central, creating a trusted foundation now extending into machine learning.
Read the Wasabi case studyHow we work in Manchester
On-site workshops across Manchester and remote build delivery
Hopton does not claim a fixed Manchester office. The team travels for workshops and reviews where being on site improves the outcome, including process walkthroughs, operational discovery, architecture decisions and go-live sessions.
Development, testing, documentation and routine reviews can run remotely. The proposal identifies expected on-site days, remote sessions, client responsibilities and any travel assumptions before work begins.
Arrange a Manchester workshopDelivery that protects operations
Build confidence without disrupting reporting continuity
- 1
Discover the operating rhythm
Identify the decisions, reports, source systems, refresh needs, owners, operational deadlines and current failure points. Separate must-have continuity from reports that can be retired.
- 2
Establish the governed design
Agree the target architecture, semantic model, security, priority outputs, acceptance criteria and migration or rollout sequence. Confirm the fixed scope before Build.
- 3
Deliver and validate in increments
Release working slices to finance and operational owners. Reconcile measures to accepted sources, test performance and run old and new reporting in parallel when the risk requires it.
- 4
Embed ownership
Document sources, transformations, measures, workspaces, releases and responsibilities. Train administrators, builders and report consumers for their actual roles.
Defined phases are fixed-scope and fixed-price. The proposal lists inclusions, exclusions, milestones, dependencies, travel assumptions and Microsoft licensing separately.
Common questions
Power BI consultancy in Manchester: practical answers
Can Hopton work on site in Manchester?
Yes. Hopton can run discovery, process, architecture and go-live sessions at a client's Manchester or North West site by arrangement. Build and routine review work can run remotely where that is more efficient. The proposal makes the working pattern and travel assumptions clear.
Can Power BI combine production, stock and finance data?
Yes, provided the source data is accessible and the definitions are agreed. The work usually needs a governed model connecting product, customer, site, time and financial dimensions so operational measures reconcile with management reporting.
Can you migrate reporting from QlikView or older ERP data?
Yes. Hopton has published experience migrating QlikView, SQL and Excel reporting to Power BI while combining Dynamics NAV and Business Central history. The safe approach inventories active content, rebuilds essential logic properly and runs old and new reporting in parallel until sign-off.
Do operational dashboards need real-time data?
Not always. The refresh rate should match the decision. A shift supervisor may need near-real-time exceptions, while a weekly margin review does not. Faster refresh adds cost and architectural complexity, so it should be justified by the action it enables.
When does Microsoft Fabric make sense for manufacturing or distribution?
Fabric becomes useful when several operational systems need one governed history, when data must serve multiple teams, or when engineering, real-time and machine-learning workloads share the platform. A focused Power BI requirement can often start more simply.
How long and how much will an engagement take?
Timing and price depend on source access, report volume, model complexity and the amount of validation required. Hopton uses fixed-scope, fixed-price phases so the proposal states the outputs, milestones, responsibilities and price before the defined work begins.
Start with the bottleneck
Discuss your Manchester Power BI or Fabric requirement
Tell us which operational or management reports are failing, how they are produced today and which systems hold the data. We will recommend the simplest credible route and explain what should happen first.