Streamlining Reporting for Early Childhood Support: A Scalable Automated Solution

Background

A key organization in Nova Scotia that is partnered with other entities, plays an essential role in providing services for the province’s Early Learning and Child Care sector. To ensure financial transparency and meet reporting requirements, the organization needed to consolidate a wide array of data into a single, accurate monthly report. This process involves data from several sources, making it difficult to manage manually.

Challenge

The organization was required to consolidate billing and fee data from different platforms, such as Payworks, Ariel Benefits, and internal systems, to create a unified monthly report for funders. The process involved thousands of sensitive files each month, and the necessary data transformations made manual consolidation inefficient and prone to error. A scalable, automated solution was needed to handle this complexity.

Approach

Automated Integration: Built an automated reporting system using Azure Data Factory and Functions to streamline data integration from Payworks, Ariel Benefits, and internal directories. Transformation and Scalability: Automated critical data transformations to ensure accurate reporting, with SharePoint and Python providing a scalable, secure solution for under $10/month for the first phase. Business Optimization: Aligned the system for cost-efficiency and growth, contributing directly to revenue capture from $440M of government funding over five years.

Key results

Automated the monthly reporting process, reducing manual labor and improving speed.

Achieved cost-efficient scalability with minimal operational costs for the first phase of implementation.

Benefits

Cost-Effective Scaling: The solution is designed to grow without significant cost increases. Improved Data Accuracy: Automation guarantees precision in reporting and data handling. Resource Optimization: The organization can now focus on value-added tasks instead of manual reporting.