Ideas2IT Migrated an immigration firms 80-Workbook Tableau Environment to a Governed Power BI Platform, Replacing Dashboard Sprawl with Consistent Reporting Across One of the World's Largest Immigration Law Firms
Client needed to migrate 80 Tableau workbooks to Power BI, establish a governed semantic layer, and enable self-service reporting for legal and operational teams. The existing environment had no consistent data model, no practice group access controls, and no path to Microsoft Fabric.
Client
Immigration service
Industry
Legal
Service
BI & Analytics
Engagement
BI Migration and Modernization
Scale
80 Tableau Workbooks
01 Challenge
CLient operated approximately 80 Tableau workbooks off a replicated SQL Server database with no governed semantic layer. Data quality issues traced back to the case management system, practice groups had no consistent reporting model, and Tableau licensing costs were rising with no path to Microsoft Fabric.
02 Solution
Ideas2IT began with a structured assessment of all 80 workbooks, classifying each by complexity and mapping every data dependency before migration began. The team rebuilt the semantic layer in Power BI with role-based workspace policies for practice group access, migrated all workbooks, and delivered a Microsoft Fabric advisory covering architecture, governance, and an implementation roadmap.
03 Outcome
All 80 Tableau workbooks migrated to Power BI on a governed semantic layer with role-based practice group access. Legal and operational teams gained self-service reporting without IT dependency and a clear implementation path to Microsoft Fabric.
Phase 01
Mapping every workbook, dependency, and access pattern before migration began
Tableau Workbook Inventory and Migration Readiness: classifying 80 reports before touching a single one
The first architectural decision was sequencing: migrating 80 workbooks without a classification framework would have produced an untested Power BI environment that replicated the problems of the Tableau one.
Ideas2IT conducted a full inventory of all 80 workbooks, classifying each as simple, medium, or complex based on data source dependencies, calculated fields, and user group access patterns.
Every Tableau data extract was reviewed, business logic was mapped to Power BI's data model architecture, and the gap between Tableau functionality and equivalent Power BI features was documented before any migration work began. That inventory produced the migration plan, the sequencing logic, and the risk register that Phase 1 executed against.
Phase 02
Replacing dashboard sprawl with a governed, role-controlled reporting platform
Power BI Migration and Semantic Layer Governance: consistent reporting and self-service BI for legal practice groups
The migration executed in tiers, starting with simple workbooks to establish the Power BI workspace architecture and validate the semantic layer before moving through medium and complex reports.
The semantic layer was rebuilt as a structured Power BI data model with row-level security aligned to practice group scope. Workspace policies defined access, refresh schedules, and publishing rights across the firm.
Reports connected to the live-replicated SQL Server via scheduled refresh and direct query, preserving the reporting isolation that protected the operational case management system. The Fabric advisory covered OneLake pipeline design, data governance, and an implementation roadmap for the ongoing migration.
The Outcome
From 80 fragmented Tableau workbooks to a governed Power BI platform built for a global law firm
The reporting environment client had a governance and model problem: 80 workbooks with no shared semantic layer, no access controls aligned to practice group scope, and no path forward to Microsoft Fabric. Migrating the workbooks was the mechanism. The outcome was a governed data model that legal teams could operate without IT involvement, with a clear architecture for the Fabric migration ahead.