Rescuing a Sprawling Data Project for a Regional Accountancy Firm

The Challenge

A regional accountancy firm was struggling with a sprawling data project that had splintered into six different sub-projects. The initiative had lost its way in technical complexity, with no clear end in sight. Leadership was losing confidence, and the project team was overwhelmed by the lack of landing zones.

The Approach (The Intervention)

I was called in to provide a strategic sanity check. I sat in on a project meeting with the full team and several high-level stakeholders. After 30 minutes of observing the circular discussion, I stood up and stopped the meeting.

I wrote four key aspects of the project on the board. I recognized a pattern I had seen many times before: technical sprawl masking a fundamental lack of focus. By the end of that hour, we had discarded the noise and decided on one absolute priority to execute: Data Quality.

The Solution

I didn’t just propose a technical fix; I bridged the gap between engineering and culture.

  • Internal Campaign: I called in the marketing department to set up an internal communications campaign. We framed data quality not as a chore, but as an essential part of client service.
  • Data Quality Day: We set a firm-wide date where every branch focused on fixing the most essential revenue-leaking data issues.
  • Tracking Dashboard: I built a follow-up dashboard to visualize the progress and show the direct link between clean data and recovered revenue.

The Results

After this initial intervention, I put the reigns back into the hands of the project team. They now had the focus and confidence required to land the project.

  • Focus: The team moved from managing six vague sub-projects to one clear, measurable outcome.
  • Accountability: The project reinforced that data quality is a shared responsibility. It is best handled by the people on the frontlines who know their clients and products best.
  • Leadership Confidence: Strategic clarity restored the board’s trust in the data initiative.

Strategic Advisor Insight

As a strategic advisor, I recognize “Operational Signatures” that internal teams often miss because they are too close to the daily grind. In this case, the signature was the Frontline Disconnect. Tools cannot fix data quality; only people who understand the business context can. My role was to provide the “Pattern Recognition” needed to stop the sprawl and start the delivery.