From contractual risk to resilient data: delivering critical pipelines under pressure in wealth management
Summary
A private wealth management company faced a fixed contractual deadline to migrate from its incumbent investment data provider. Missing it would have severely disrupted performance data, investment reporting, and client confidence.
In many financial organisations, legacy data systems are tightly coupled to business-critical processes. The risks of delay or failure are high, and the cost of inaction increases over time. This project exemplified that pressure: the client needed rapid, safe change without destabilising the technology estate.
The challenge: modernising against the clock
The existing pipeline — built on older Microsoft technologies — used SSIS for processing incoming data, Excel/VBA tools for manual loading of supporting data and review by SSL staff, and Tableau for data visualisation. Delivery was further complicated by delays from the new data provider in making the live data feed available.
The new pipeline had to be operational before the old system was decommissioned — with no margin for error.
The solution: rebuilding fast, safely and smartly
A complete platform modernisation was ruled out due to the immovable deadline. Instead, we rebuilt the pipeline in a like-for-like manner, substituting the new provider’s feed for the old one and introducing targeted improvements.
Collaboration was key. We worked closely with both the client’s technical and operations teams to align around a shared outcome, balancing short-term delivery with long-term maintainability. That engagement helped avoid the organisational friction that often derails modernisation efforts.
Key steps included:
- Rewriting SSIS pipelines to integrate with the new provider.
- Conducting manual reconciliation and error checks across multiple runs to confirm outputs matched historical results.
- Coping with the delays in provision of the new live data feed by delaying dual-running and relying instead on careful manual testing using data samples and our own synthetically generated data.
- Reorganising the support team to release in-house expertise, supplemented by a specialist contractor to accelerate delivery.
Despite these constraints, the pipeline was completed ahead of the contractual switch-off date. The approach aligned with a pragmatic modernisation model: focusing on specific, high-value improvements rather than attempting a full rewrite. It delivered meaningful change while keeping operational risk low and business continuity intact.
The results: on time, resilient, and ready for the future
Under tight deadlines and legacy constraints, the team delivered a seamless transition that safeguarded operations and improved long-term maintainability. The client emerged with a modernised, faster, and more resilient data pipeline, and a trusted foundation for future transformation:
On-time delivery: The pipeline went live with accurate and real time data before decommissioning of the old data provider, preventing a contractual breach.
Performance gains: Worst-case processing times fell from 30 minutes to under five — a 6x speed increase.
Improved resilience: Enhanced error handling improved reliability and our assistance in reconciliation gave the client confidence in data correctness.
Lasting value: The project enhanced our private wealth data management capabilities, refining our broader modernisation plans and delivering quick wins such as improved pipeline status reporting.
Many financial institutions face similar pressures. Legacy data systems have become increasingly brittle and costly to maintain, limiting agility and making regulatory compliance harder. This project illustrates how even tactical, time-bound change can build resilience and restore confidence in business-critical data.
The client now has a platform that meets today’s obligations and sets the stage for tomorrow’s improvements. A practical example of how identifying and acting on the highest-value opportunities can turn legacy constraints into momentum for transformation.
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