Cloud security platform (same engagement, anonymized)
Analytics Platform Modernization: 377 Legacy Objects to 51 dbt Models in 45 Days
377 legacy objects to 51 automated models in 45 days — 606% Year 1 ROI, 86% complexity reduction, 24–48× faster deployments.
Same engagement as the $84M revenue validation — one body of work, two operations measured separately.
- Year 1 ROI
- 606%
- Year 1 ROI
- complexity reduction
- 86%
- complexity reduction
- faster deployments, hard 45-day deadline hit
- 24–48×
- faster deployments, hard 45-day deadline hit
TL;DR
A cloud security platform's BI layer had grown to 377 legacy objects — overlapping, undocumented, and too slow to keep pace with the business. In 45 days, Clarivant replaced it with 51 tested, documented, and automated dbt models: an 86% reduction in complexity, 24–48× faster deployments, and 0.002% revenue variance carried through the new platform, reconciled to the dollar. The migration delivered 606% Year 1 ROI.
The starting point
The same platform’s BI layer had grown to 377 legacy objects — overlapping, undocumented, slow to change. Deployments took so long that the analytics could not keep pace with the business. And there was a hard deadline: 45 days.
The method
We collapsed the legacy estate into a clean dbt architecture: 51 tested, documented, automated models replacing 377 objects. Migration ran in parallel with validation against the rebuilt revenue figures, so trust was never suspended during the transition.
The result
86% complexity reduction, 24–48× faster deployments, and 0.002% revenue variance carried through the new platform — reconciled to the dollar. Delivered inside the 45-day deadline, with 606% Year 1 ROI.
“The migration delivered exceptional results: 606% Year 1 ROI, 90% faster dashboards, and 0.002% variance on revenue calculations — 2,500× better than industry standard. What used to take 8-16 hours quarterly now runs automatically. The engineering rigor and speed of delivery exceeded expectations. Most importantly, we now have board-ready financial analytics we can trust.”
Client identity protected. The figures are the client’s own — stated by its Finance leadership.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a BI-to-dbt migration take?
This migration replaced 377 legacy BI objects with 51 dbt models in 45 days — a hard deadline set by the business, not a target. The full engagement ran five months and grew deliberately to 161 models across 7 domains, with the same architecture absorbing that growth without breaking any existing model.
What ROI can you expect from a dbt migration?
This engagement returned $840K over 12 months — a 606% Year 1 ROI, well above the typical mid-market range of 150–400%. The higher return reflects how much BI debt had accumulated: 377 overlapping, undocumented legacy objects that took days to redeploy. The worse the starting state, the bigger the migration upside.
How do you cut hundreds of legacy BI objects down without losing reporting coverage?
Three moves, run in order: kill dead code first — a dependency audit found roughly 80 objects with no downstream consumers — then merge every legacy object producing the same grain into one model, then map what's left onto a staging/intermediate/marts structure. That framework took 377 objects to 51 models without dropping any reporting coverage.
Does migrating fast mean cutting corners on data accuracy?
No — validation ran in parallel with the migration itself, not after it. Every rebuilt model was reconciled against the numbers it replaced before the next one started, which is how the new platform carried 0.002% revenue variance through the transition, reconciled to the dollar, while still cutting deployment time 24–48×.