ECCC Case Study –

Power BI

Modernization  &

Dashboard 

Optimization

 

Client Context

Organization: Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)
A major federal department responsible for environmental policy, data governance, and scientific research programs across Canada.
Engagement: Part-time engagement providing ongoing BI and architecture support to modernize the department’s analytics environment and enable secure, cloud-based Power BI adoption.
Compliance Focus: Protected B, Government of Canada Cloud Adoption Strategy, and departmental data governance standards.

 

Challenge

ECCC’s analytics landscape had grown fragmented, with redundant datasets, inconsistent metrics, and performance bottlenecks across multiple legacy Power BI dashboards.
The department required a unified and efficient reporting model that could standardize KPIs, improve performance, and align with federal data governance standards — while operating within existing internal resourcing constraints.

 

Solution

Jackson Consulting Group (JCG) provided ongoing BI architecture, development, and governance support, helping ECCC consolidate and optimize its enterprise reporting environment.

Key initiatives included:

• Defined and executed the migration from on-premise Power BI to Power BI Service (Cloud).

• Authored the Power BI Concept of Operations (CONOPS) — defining governance, access control, and refresh automation standards.

• Designed the Power BI tenant architecture, including workspace hierarchies, dataset security, and RBAC integration with Azure AD.

• Developed Azure-based ELT/ETL pipelines (Data Factory, Databricks, Synapse, SSIS) for hybrid cloud data ingestion.

• Built advanced Power BI data models with optimized DAX for executive-level KPIs and performance dashboards.

• Consolidated 15 legacy dashboards into 4 streamlined enterprise reports aligned to departmental and policy objectives.

• Implemented automated refresh and deployment pipelines, eliminating manual rebuilds and improving reliability.

• Established publishing and interaction standards for Power BI users to ensure consistency and adoption across branches.

 

Results

• Achieved a 35% improvement in dashboard performance through optimized models and DAX design.

• Improved user access efficiency nearly 4×, consolidating 15 dashboards into 4 unified enterprise reports and reducing navigation effort by over 70%.

• Reduced development time by several days per cycle via automation and standardization.

• Saved hours weekly per team in report consumption through consistent, unified KPIs.

• Delivered a department-wide Power BI CONOPS and governance model supporting long-term sustainability and cross-branch collaboration.

• Enhanced visibility and consistency in executive reporting, improving decision-making speed and transparency.

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Alignment with JCG Managed Services

This engagement represents JCG’s Operational Managed Service — providing continuous BI optimization, governance, and architecture support within a client’s existing analytics environment.
Following modernization, ECCC is positioned to scale support up or down under JCG’s tiered model, transitioning to Advisory for periodic strategic reviews or maintaining Operational support for ongoing improvement and governance maturity.

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Technologies: Power BI Service, Azure Data Factory, Databricks, Synapse Analytics, SSIS, Azure Active Directory, SQL Server, DAX, Cognos Analytics.

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Keep your BI environment optimized, governed, and evolving — without expanding headcount.