Case Study: Rockwell Automation achieves enterprise self-service analytics and faster, lower-cost insights with Microsoft Power BI

Industrial automation firm creates CoE to train users and ensure value with data analytics

Rockwell Automation, a global industrial automation firm, needed to standardize BI, reduce rising IaaS costs, and shift from centralized, slow reporting to self-service analytics and agile delivery. To do this it established a BI Center of Excellence and selected Microsoft Power BI (backed by Azure services) as the primary visualization and analytics platform to enable enterprise-wide, data-driven decision making.

Using Microsoft Power BI alongside Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Databricks, Power Apps and Power Automate, Rockwell built a unified PaaS analytics architecture and a DA&I program with training (Power Hours) and a DA&I Sample App for best practices. The Microsoft Power BI–centered solution delivered measurable impact: empowered business-unit report creation, embedded advanced analytics and CI/CD, cut delivery time from years to weeks (an HR solution rolled out in three weeks), and drove rapid adoption (400 Power Hours signups in 24 hours) while lowering TCO and improving scalability and governance.

Rockwell Automation

Chris Wagner

Enterprise Architect