Data Strategy Consultant

Executive Summary We are a £300m turnover group operating across the UK & Ireland in a mature, competitive market. With ambitious growth plans through M&A and an urgent need to implement a CRM and BI platform, we are seeking an Interim Data Strategy Consultant to deliver clarity, direction, and a practical data roadmap. This short-term engagement will assess our current data landscape, identify opportunities, and produce a budget-aligned 12-18-month plan covering priorities, governance, and resourcing - enabling us to lay the right foundations for value creation across finance, sales, supply chain, logistics, and customer data. Current Position - We are a £300m turnover group of companies operating across the UK & Ireland in a mature and competitive market. Our business is acquisitive, with a plan to expand via M&A. - Our main ERP system is the AS400 (IBM), which is developed by our in-house JBA Developers. There is no scope to change this system, and we are currently running a project to convert the language from RGB to C#. One of our subsidiaries is on a legacy NetSuite operating system and will be migrated to the AS400 early 2026. - We operate many 3rd party systems and software packages, which are fed by CSV extracts from the AS400 system. Many of these systems report similar information; however manual intervention is required to achieve a single source of truth. In addition, the AS400 sends many manual CSV extracts to departments each day to use in siloed excel reporting. - Selection of 3rd party software is not formalised and largely left to the department to source and approve. - We have been attempting to clean and improve our data over the last 18 months, and have recently set up a Data Committee to ensure we have more control over group data; however this is in its infancy, and no formal framework is in place. Short-term Needs - We have a pressing need to introduce both a CRM system and Business Intelligence platform before the end of the year. Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM has been identified by a member of the Board as a preferred option. PowerBI has been identified by the FP&A team as a preferred option following a period of testing. Requirement - We want to get more value from finance, sales, supply chain, logistics, and customer data, but the right foundations need to be in place first. - The initial requirement is for an independent data strategy consultant to come in to • Assess the current data landscape. • Identify gaps and opportunities. • Advise on the right architecture and approach. • Produce a 12-18-month budget-aligned roadmap covering priorities, governance, and resourcing. This is not a build project at this stage, the focus is clarity, direction, and a practical plan we can commit to. Consultant Profile • Title: Interim Data Strategy Consultant • Core skills: • Proven experience delivering short-term discovery and roadmap engagements. • Strong stakeholder management, ability to engage with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, advising at Board/Executive level. • Experience in legacy-modern integration. • Understanding of modern data platforms (Microsoft stack preferred) and governance best practise. • Deliverables: • Current state assessment and system/data flow map. • Recommendations for architecture, tooling, governance, and people. To be independent and product agnostic. • Assessment of current internal capability (finance, IT, data governance, analytics) against future needs, with recommendations on where to build in-house skills vs. where to outsource or hire. • Clear, costed, budget-conscious roadmap with priorities and quick wins. Contract Short-term - length to be determined by ScopeOn-site (hybrid) expected, therefore local candidates preferred.Start date - immediate