In early 2025, Cheshire West and Chester Council published their Data and Insights Strategy 2025–2028, titled “From Data to Impact.” It’s an ambitious, well-structured strategy that sets out how the council intends to become a truly data-enabled organisation — using data and insight to deliver efficient, effective and sustainable services for residents.
We’re proud that itelligent-i has played a central role in helping CWC reach this point. From conducting the comprehensive organisational review that informed the strategy, to deploying the cloud data platform and analytics that bring it to life, our partnership with CWC demonstrates what’s possible when a council works with a specialist data partner to turn ambition into reality.
This blog sets out what we did, how it connects to the published strategy, and what it means for other councils considering a similar journey.
Understanding the Challenge
CWC’s strategy is refreshingly honest about the barriers councils face: legacy technology, fragmented systems, inconsistent data quality, limited awareness of the value of data, and gaps in skills across the organisation. These are challenges we see in every council we work with.
When CWC first engaged itelligent-i, their approach to data was highly reactive. There was little automation, no standardised methodology, no consistent development process, and no end-to-end organisational data asset management. Data was held across 36+ separate sources. Different teams were producing different versions of the same figures, and there was limited confidence in the numbers being used to make decisions.
The council needed a clear picture of where they were, where they needed to get to, and a practical roadmap for getting there.
The itelligent-i Data & Analytics Review
The strategy references “the itelligent-i Data, Analytics and AI Review conducted by our data partner” and “the Data Strategy Review and Target Operating Model developed by our data partner.” Both refer to itelligent-i’s Review — a structured, comprehensive assessment that we’ve refined over a decade of working with over 30 local authorities.
What the Review Involved
For CWC, the review encompassed:
- 8 workshops across all service areas, involving 94 people from across the organisation, including the majority of Directors and Heads of Service
- 378 individual insight requirements gathered, covering strategic insight, performance management, operational insight and customer insight
- One-to-one sessions with senior leaders to understand the wider strategic direction of the council
- A full assessment of data maturity, skills, governance, technical architecture, and analytical capability
What the Review Delivered
The review produced:
- A comprehensive assessment of CWC’s current data capabilities — identifying strengths in areas like early automation and dashboarding, and gaps in governance, data ownership and strategic alignment
- A recommended Functional Operating Model (referred to in the strategy as the “Target Operating Model”) covering data engineering, analytics, AI development, governance and performance management — including agreed technologies, coding standards, naming conventions, and build processes
- A recommended technology stack centred on Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Fabric
- A phased implementation roadmap covering data platform deployment, an option for Master Data Management for single views of individuals, and analytics delivery across all service areas
The strategy states that “this strategy builds directly on those recommendations and sets out how we will implement them in practice.” That’s exactly what happened — the review became the foundation for the council’s published strategy.
Deploying the Data Platform
CWC’s strategy identifies “Platforms” as one of its five pillars of change, with a key action to “migrate priority datasets to Microsoft Fabric to create a trusted central repository.” This is describing the work itelligent-i delivered.
We implemented an Azure Data Platform, and our iDAP Framework — itelligent-i’s Data and Analytics Platform Framework — as the foundation for CWC’s enterprise data platform. The iDAP Framework is a proven codebase that has been developed and deployed across local authorities for over a decade, providing:
- Fully automated ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) pipelines — data flows from source systems into the platform without manual intervention
- A secure, audited data architecture with role-based access, data partitioning for different sensitivity levels, and end-to-end encryption
- Built-in data validation, error logging, audit trails and monitoring as standard
- A scalable, governed single source of truth that eliminates the “different versions of the truth” problem that CWC’s strategy identifies
The platform was designed and documented by itelligent-i, including environment configuration (development, test, pre-production), data source connectivity to both internal line-of-business systems and external sources, and secure network configuration using Private Endpoints.
When CWC’s strategy talks about “a modern, scalable data platform to support secure, integrated and automated data processes” — this is what they’re describing.
The Data Hive — Supporting a Data-Confident Workforce
Case Study 1 in the strategy showcases “The Data Hive” — CWC’s community of practice for growing data confidence and Power BI skills across the organisation. The strategy notes that the Hive is “built on our secure cloud-based data platform, ensuring reports use trusted datasets.”
That platform is the itelligent-i data platform. The Data Hive works because the underlying data infrastructure gives staff confidence that the data they’re working with is accurate, governed and up to date. Without that trusted foundation, a community of practice risks building capability on unreliable data — which undermines confidence rather than building it.
itelligent-i’s deployment gave CWC the secure, governed platform that makes the Data Hive possible — providing the trusted datasets, semantic models and automated pipelines that Hive members connect to when building their own reports and dashboards.
Adult Social Care — Our Analytics Accelerators in Action
Case Study 2 in the strategy is titled “Adult Social Care (ASC) Automated Reporting – Driving Efficiency and Insight.” This case study describes itelligent-i’s Adult Social Care Analytics Accelerators — a comprehensive suite of pre-designed Power BI reports and semantic models that we have developed specifically for local government, that’s accesses datasets extracted using the itelligent-i data platform and framework.
What the Accelerators Deliver
For CWC, the ASC Accelerators provide 8 reporting modules covering the full end-to-end adult social care process:
- Strategic Activity and Commissioned Cost
- Assessments
- Care Plan Reviews
- Home Care
- Residential and Nursing Care
- Direct Payments
- Reablement
- Safeguarding
These modules are supported by 5 semantic models and contain over 100 report pages. They extract data from CWC’s core systems daily — including Liquid Logic (case management) and ContrOCC (client finance) — through fully automated daily pipelines, so insights are always current. Internal staff and the Data Hive can connect securely to the semantic models to generate more reports, and dashboards ensuring a single source of the truth.
How They Were Deployed
The Accelerators were deployed using itelligent-i’s standard agile methodology, with multiple playback sessions involving the end users of the insights — service managers, operational teams and CWC’s own insight and data teams. This ensures that the analytics, terminology and data lenses are aligned with how the council actually works, not imposed from outside.
Simone Thomas at CWC, the sponsor of the project, shared:
“itelligent-i were able to set us up with a best in class data platform adhering to Microsoft best practice with two proof of concept insight reports. The users of the insight reports were involved every step of the journey ensuring the reports were exactly what the business needed. They can truly see the value of having access to up to date and accurate insights, where previously lots of manual effort went into providing the data ready to be analysed. Now it is ready for them at their fingertips updated every day and ready to view. We have since gone on to commission itelligent-i to deploy the rest of their Adult Social Care accelerators and are in discussion with other business areas at CWC to consider further opportunities. There is always more to do but Adults gold standard understanding of their data is fantastic to see and a great example of data-enabled service delivery.”
What the Strategy Says
The strategy highlights the impact of the ASC Accelerators:
- Improved efficiency and accuracy of business intelligence reporting
- Faster response to emerging trends and enhanced ability to implement preventative measures for vulnerable groups
- Better resource allocation and planning
When the strategy talks about “real-time dashboards providing insights into cost, activity and demand” and “underpinning performance discussions and identifying data quality issues early” — that’s our Accelerators at work.
Ongoing Support and What Comes Next
Our work with CWC didn’t end with the initial deployment. itelligent-i continues to provide ongoing managed support to the council’s internal data and insight teams — working alongside them on the data platform and our shared codebase, supporting the existing accelerators, and helping to build internal capacity and confidence over time.
This is an important part of how we work. We don’t deliver and walk away. Our goal is to ensure the council’s own teams are equipped and supported to maintain, extend and get the most from the platform and analytics we’ve built together.
Looking ahead, the partnership continues to evolve. The accelerator programme is expanding beyond Adult Social Care into other service areas across the council, extending the same rigorous, automated approach to insight that has already proved its value in ASC. At the same time, the data platform is being migrated to pure Microsoft Fabric — consolidating the architecture onto a single, unified analytics platform and aligning with Microsoft’s future technology roadmap. This positions CWC at the forefront of local government data infrastructure, with a modern, scalable foundation for the years ahead.
What This Means for Other Councils
CWC’s published strategy is a powerful example of what a council can achieve when it takes a structured, partnership-based approach to data transformation. But the strategy didn’t appear in isolation — it was built with the support of evidence, recommendations and physical deployments that itelligent-i delivered, and which proved value.
Every council faces similar challenges: fragmented data, manual processes, limited analytical capacity, and growing demand for evidence-led decision making. What CWC’s experience demonstrates is that these challenges can be addressed practically, at pace, and with measurable impact.
itelligent-i’s approach — Over 30 Councils have engaged itelligent-i to complete a review.
Combining a rigorous organisational review with a proven data platform and ready-made Analytics Accelerators — means councils don’t have to start from scratch. The review provides the strategy and roadmap. The iDAP Framework provides the platform. The Accelerators provide the insight. And ongoing managed support ensures it all keeps working.
If your council is developing a data strategy, or looking to move from strategy to delivery and accelerate your journey, we’d welcome a conversation about how we can help.
Find Out More
You can read Cheshire West and Chester Council’s full Data and Insights Strategy at cheshirewestdigital.co.uk/data-and-insight-strategy.
To find out more about itelligent-i’s Data & Analytics Review, iDAP Framework, and Analytics Accelerators.