From Data Uncertainty to Informed Decisions
SMC applies the same structured, independent approach to data as every transformation engagement. The objective is simple: establish confidence before investment, so decisions are based on evidence rather than assumptions.
Without that discipline, organisations often invest in reporting, AI, ERP or cloud initiatives before addressing the underlying data issues that determine whether those investments will succeed.
Our Data Advisory services help organisations understand where their greatest risks and opportunities exist, prioritise improvements, and build a practical roadmap for stronger, more trusted data.
Whether you’re preparing for transformation or looking to improve the value of existing systems, our approach ensures your data becomes an enabler of better business decisions, not a barrier to them.
Understand Your Current Data Maturity
Before improving your data environment, you need to understand where you are starting from.
SMC’s Data and AI Readiness Assessment reviews key areas across your systems, governance and data quality to highlight opportunities for improvement.
Independent Advice for Every Step
Data is not a single initiative. It is a series of decisions about quality, ownership, structure, migration, reporting, and governance over time. SMC provides independent, client-side advisory across every stage, ensuring data initiatives remain aligned to business priorities and support confident decision-making.
Strategy & Roadmap
Set direction before committing to change
If leadership lacks a clear data strategy, ownership model, or understanding of current data risks and priorities
- Data strategy and roadmap
- Data readiness assessment
- Data governance and ownership
- Data in ERP and enterprise systems
- Reporting, master data, and migration priorities
Clean, govern, migrate, or wait
A strategic decision made before any major investment. We assess data quality, ownership, readiness, risk, and business value before defining the right path forward.
Select & Negotiate
Commit to the right solution on the right terms
If direction is set and it is time to evaluate and select the right tools, partners, or commercial structure
- Data platform and tooling selection
- Data migration partner evaluation
- Reporting and analytics solution assessment
- Data governance and master data solution review
- Commercial and contractual negotiation support
Select with confidence
We help you assess solution fit, implementation risk, commercial structure, and long-term value before major commitments are made.
Plan & Implement
Deliver something that works in your environment
If a solution has been selected and it is time to prepare, migrate, validate and embed stronger data practices:
- Data migration strategy and delivery planning
- Data mapping, cleansing and validation
- Cutover readiness and migration assurance
- Data governance and quality controls embedded into delivery
- Client-side implementation oversight
Reduce delivery risk
We help ensure data responsibilities are clear, risks are surfaced early, and migration, reporting and governance are managed properly throughout delivery.
Review & Optimise
Extract more value from data already in place
If your platform is live and you want to improve data quality, reporting, governance, trust and decision-making:
- Post-implementation data health assessment
- Data quality monitoring and remediation
- Reporting and analytics optimisation
- Data governance maturity and ownership review
- Master data and process improvement roadmap
Strengthen what exists
We identify where data performance is falling short, where confidence is being lost, and what practical improvements will increase value without unnecessary reinvestment.
How SMC Most Commonly Supports Data Needs
These are the most common areas where customers engage SMC to assist with their data needs. Each can be delivered as a standalone advisory engagement or as part of a broader data transformation program.
01 Strategy & Roadmap
Data Strategy & Roadmap
Set direction before committing to change
Most organisations know they have a data problem. Few have a structured plan to address it. SMC works with your leadership team to define a prioritised data strategy: what to fix first, what to defer, and what the data foundation needs to look like to support your business objectives, whether you’re planning an ERP implementation, improving business processes, or preparing for AI initiatives.
- Current state data assessment across systems, quality, and governance
- Data architecture and platform recommendations
- Prioritised data roadmap aligned to ERP, AI, or cloud initiatives
- Data governance framework and ownership model
- Executive workshop and leadership alignment session
02 Migration
Data Migration
Protect the most critical phase of your project
Data migration is the highest-risk workstream in any ERP or platform implementation. It is also the most commonly under-resourced. SMC provides dedicated, independent data migration management, from initial data profiling and cleansing through to go-live validation and post-migration support.t.
- Data profiling, gap analysis, and migration scoping
- Legacy data extraction, transformation, and cleansing
- Migration mapping, rules documentation, and validation framework
- Parallel run testing and go-live data sign-off
- Post go-live hypercare and data issue resolution
03 Platform & BI
Modern Data Platform & Business Intelligence
Replace manual reporting with a scalable data platform
If your management reporting still relies on manual Excel consolidation, you are spending time on process rather than insight. SMC designs and builds modern cloud data platforms, integrating your source systems, automating data pipelines, and delivering Power BI dashboards that give leadership real-time visibility.
- Cloud data warehouse design and build (Azure, AWS, or GCP)
- ETL/ELT pipeline development and automation
- Power BI dashboard development and deployment
- Data integration across ERP, CRM, and operational systems
- Ongoing platform support and capability transfer
04 Cleansing & Quality
Data Cleansing & Quality
Clean data is the prerequisite for everything else
Poor data quality is the most common reason ERP implementations fail, AI initiatives stall, and management reporting cannot be trusted. SMC provides structured data cleansing and quality uplift, profiling your data, identifying issues, and delivering a clean, validated dataset ready for migration, AI, or analytics.
- Data quality profiling and issue identification
- Master data cleansing: customers, suppliers, products, assets
- Duplicate detection and resolution
- Data quality rules, standards, and ongoing governance
- Validation reporting and sign-off documentation
SMC Data and AI Readiness Assessment - Takes 3 minutes
Complete this three-minute assessment below to identify how well your organisation is managing data quality, governance, ownership, reporting and readiness for AI.
At the end, you will receive a practical snapshot highlighting:
- Your current level of data and AI readiness
- Key risks and capability gaps
- Areas requiring immediate attention
- Recommended priorities and next steps
No technical preparation is required. The assessment is designed for business, technology and transformation leaders.
A Structured Delivery Model Across Every Engagement
SMC applies a consistent three-phase delivery model across all data engagements, ensuring clarity before commitment, control during delivery, and measurable outcomes at go-live.
Phase 1 of 3
Discover & Design
- Current state assessment
- Data profiling and gap analysis
- Stakeholder workshops
- Architecture and platform design
- Migration scoping and planning
- Governance framework design
Phase 2 of 3
Build & Migrate
- Data extraction and transformation
- ETL pipeline development
- Cleansing and validation cycles
- Platform build and integration
- Dashboard and reporting development
- Data governance, quality & compliance
Phase 3 of 3
Go-Live & Sustain
- Current state assessment
- Data profiling and gap analysis
- Stakeholder workshops
- Architecture and platform design
- Migration scoping and planning
- Governance framework design
Every Transformation Initiative Depends on Data Quality
Whether you are implementing an ERP, migrating to the cloud, or exploring AI, the quality, structure, and governance of your data determines whether those investments deliver a return.
SMC has supported 750+ enterprise transformation programs. The pattern is consistent: organisations that address data readiness before go-live achieve faster adoption, fewer post-implementation issues, and stronger returns on their technology investment.
We bring the same independent, client-side advisory discipline to data that we apply across all transformation work. No vendor allegiances. No software to sell. Just clear advice grounded in what actually works in practice.
AI & Machine Learning
Without clean, governed data, AI produces unreliable outputs. SMC prepares the data foundation that AI initiatives require to deliver measurable value.
Cloud Migration
Moving to the cloud without addressing data quality replicates existing problems at scale. SMC ensures data is fit for purpose before migration begins.
Business Intelligence
Dashboards built on poor data produce misleading insights. SMC builds the data platform and governance model that makes BI reliable and trusted.
ERP Implementations
Data migration is the highest-risk workstream in any ERP project. SMC ensures it is properly scoped, resourced, and managed, not left to the vendor.
Data Challenges Are Universal. Our Experience Is Specific.
SMC brings deep industry context to every data engagement, understanding the specific data structures, compliance requirements, and operational realities of your sector.
Agribusiness & Food Production
Operational data integration, compliance reporting, and platform modernisation for agribusiness and food production.
Engineering & Construction
Project data management, cost reporting, and ERP data migration for engineering, construction and project-based businesses.
Government & Public Sector
Data governance, compliance frameworks, and reporting platforms for state and local government agencies.
Health, Aged Care & Disability
Client data management, compliance reporting, and system migration for health, aged care and disability services providers.
Logistics
Inventory data quality, supply chain reporting, and ERP migration support for logistics and distribution businesses.
Manufacturing
Master data management, production reporting, and ERP data migration for manufacturing businesses.
Mining
Asset data, operational reporting, and ERP migration support for mining and resources organisations.
Professional Services
CRM data quality, financial reporting, and platform integration for professional services firms.
Common questions from executive teams
Data Advisory Services help organisations improve the quality, governance and strategic use of their data. At SMC, we provide independent advice to help you understand your current state, reduce risk and build a trusted data foundation that supports ERP implementations, business intelligence, cloud transformation and AI initiatives.
If your teams don’t trust the data, reports don’t align, manual workarounds are increasing, or you’re preparing for a major transformation, it’s likely time to assess your data environment. Identifying issues early helps reduce risk and gives leadership confidence before making significant technology investments.
The earlier, the better. Engaging a Data Advisory consultant before an ERP implementation, cloud migration, reporting project or AI initiative helps identify data quality and governance issues before they impact timelines, budgets and business outcomes.
Yes. Data migration is one of the highest-risk components of any ERP implementation. SMC helps organisations assess data quality, establish governance, prepare migration plans and reduce implementation risk before go-live.
Absolutely. AI relies on accurate, well-governed and accessible data. Before investing in AI technologies, SMC helps organisations improve data quality, governance and readiness to ensure AI initiatives are built on a trusted foundation.
SMC provides independent advisory services across Data Strategy & Roadmap, Data Migration, Modern Data Platforms & Business Intelligence, and Data Cleansing & Quality. Our services can be delivered individually or as part of a broader transformation program.
Unlike software vendors or implementation partners, SMC is completely independent. We don’t sell technology or receive commissions from software providers. Our advice is focused solely on helping you make informed, confident decisions that deliver the best long-term business outcomes.
Yes. We regularly work alongside software vendors, implementation partners and internal project teams. Our role is to provide independent advice, strengthen governance and ensure data decisions remain aligned with your business objectives throughout the transformation.
The team at Solution Minds Consulting have been incredibly knowledgeable, professional and easy to work with. They navigated the internal team through understanding the current state and opportunities for the future, leaving the team confident and excited about the future system replacements and the greater IT ecosystem.
Natalie Jennings
Program Manager
The industries and sectors SMC works across.
In-depth, practical guides developed by SMC experts to support informed decision-making.
Explore independent insights and practical guidance on leading ERP and enterprise platforms.