Creating a Single Source of Truth – Standardising KPIs Across a Multi-Entity Group

Following a public-to-private transaction, we supported the finance team of a fast-growing, multi-entity group to transform its reporting infrastructure, delivering clarity, efficiency, and confidence to both management and private equity stakeholders. By unifying financial and operational reporting through a single, integrated KPI framework and creating a tool in Power BI we promoted accountability across the organisation and supported robust decision making.

The Client’s Challenges

Rapid expansion through acquisition had created a complex group structure, with eight individual business units which management were trying to run through three divisions. The key challenges included:

• Fragmented reporting practices: While a decentralised approach allowed for autonomy, decentralised systems and inconsistent definitions of success made it difficult for the Group leadership and PE sponsors to obtain a reliable, unified view of performance, especially at a divisional level.
• Lack of consistent KPIs: Each business tracked and reported KPIs differently, creating gaps and inconsistencies in the data available for strategic decision-making.
• Urgent need for alignment: There was a pressing need to bridge reporting gaps, align on financial and operational KPIs, and develop a unified reporting tool for use across all businesses and stakeholders.
• High volume of data: The business units collected a large number of data points through the sales and operational delivery process, yet this data was not leveraged to it’s full capacity and sat in different systems, often unreported.

These issues risked undermining transparency, delaying decision-making, and eroding confidence among both management and investors.

Our Solution

Designing a unified KPI framework

We began with a detailed discovery phase, working closely with each business unit and head office functions performing the following:

• Structured workshops: Captured all KPIs currently in use and understood how each business defined and tracked performance.
• Identified gaps and inconsistencies: Assessed data availability and reporting quality, especially for strategic metrics like revenue per customer, churn etc.
• Systems alignment opportunities: Highlighted where businesses could benefit from migrating to common platforms within divisions.
• Assessment of reporting needs: Worked with Group management to pinpoint areas for improvement and align current versus future reporting requirements.

The findings were compiled into a structured discovery deliverable, providing definitions, availability, and consistency ratings for each KPI, along with a summary of strengths and improvement areas by business unit.

Building the blueprint for business-wide data transparency

With core KPIs agreed across the Group, we:

• Designed central data architecture: Created the blueprint for a central data cube to support consistent reporting across all entities, working closely with the in house data engineer to ensure practical feasibility.
• Developed prototype KPI dashboard: Built and validated a prototype dashboard in Excel with business leaders, Group executives, and the PE house, enabling all parties to feedback and iterate accordingly.
• Collaborative iteration: Ensured stakeholder requirements were met at both the business unit and Group board level.
• Embedding change: Partnered with the data engineer and IT team to build a unified data warehouse, which we were then able to leverage through the build of multiple Power BI Dashboards.

The Impact

• Foundation for transformation: The KPI discovery deliverable and reporting tool design formed the basis for a broader transformation of the Group’s data and reporting capabilities.
• Consistent, timely and reliable reporting: For the first time, Group management and business leaders have a shared language and consistent tools to measure performance. The Power BI Dashboards can be refreshed automatically and management have a suite of quality outputs at their disposal.
• Insight-led decision-making: The new framework enables smarter, faster, and more aligned decision-making across the portfolio, enhancing transparency and accountability for all stakeholders.

“When a group operating a buy and build strategy grows quickly through acquisition, misalignment on reporting and systems is inevitable, but solvable. Our role is to bring order to the chaos by aligning teams around a common KPI framework and building the tools to support insight-driven growth. This isn’t just about reporting; it’s about empowering leadership with the information they need to act.” – Swan Partners