Fix the past to unlock the future.
Challenge
Legacy systems left us with fragmented, ungoverned, and inconsistent asset data, especially for critical infrastructure like Storm Overflows. These gaps now limit our ability to optimize operations, enable digital tools, and make data-driven decisions.
What does that mean in real terms?
- We’re struggling to fully trust or trace the data we need.
- We can’t scale digital tools the way we want to.
- Valuable historical data is trapped in silos or locked behind outdated formats.
In short, these data issues aren’t just technical; they’re hindering smarter operations, better decisions, and future innovation.
What will we do?
The Back to the Data Sprint is a hands-on, high-impact week designed to face these issues head-on.
Together, we’ll bring together data experts, operational leads, asset owners, and Microsoft technologists to take a hard look at how legacy data is holding us back and what we can do to fix it.
We’ll focus on:
- Audit the current state of data in MAS Manage for selected asset types, for example Storm Overflows.
- Uncovering critical inconsistencies and gaps
- Tools to extract data from videos, drawings & pictures to fill these data gaps.
- Testing tooling to automate cleanup and enrichment.
- And ultimately, designing a repeatable process that ensures clean, reliable data flows into MAS Manage - and stays clean.
This isn’t just about fixing one part of the problem. It’s about leveraging the full potential of our AMP8 investments, ensuring the data we extract drives improvements across the entire system.
How will we do it?
This sprint is all about doing the doing, getting hands-on with real problems, designing practical solutions, and having a bit of fun along the way.
We’ll work at pace in a collaborative environment, combining business knowledge and technical expertise to break down silos, tackle messy data, and build something better together.
We’ll focus on:
- Mapping the mess - tracing legacy data flows and spotting weak points
- Fixing the now - prototyping AI-assisted tools to clean and structure data.
- Setting standards - defining what “good” looks like for image quality and metadata.
- Future-proofing - designing governance and automation to keep data clean.
We’ll also explore Microsoft’s AI tools to accelerate the process without sacrificing accuracy. Big impact. Real progress. A few laughs along the way. That’s the sprint spirit.
Target Outcomes
The goal of this sprint is simple: lay the foundation for a future where asset data is trusted, governed, and ready to power next-generation solutions.
By addressing deep-rooted data quality issues in Storm Overflows, this sprint will:
- Enable smarter, faster decision-making by creating a more complete, accurate picture of our assets.
- Reduce operational risk by identifying and correcting high-impact data inconsistencies that affect day-to-day reliability.
- Support regulatory compliance with cleaner, more traceable datasets ready for reporting and audit.
- Provide a methodology for retrieving information from unstructured data sources, that can be used for other type of asset data.
- Unlock innovation by ensuring that foundational data can support advanced use cases like predictive analytics, intelligent monitoring, and AI-driven insights.
- Create a scalable model for transformation that can be applied across other asset classes and systems, accelerating digital progress across the board.
- Strengthen governance and accountability with clear roles, standards, and sustainable processes for ongoing data quality management.
These outcomes won’t just benefit one team; they’ll impact the whole organisation, helping us move from reactive fixes to proactive insight and turning legacy data from a blocker into a strategic asset.
Who will benefit from this sprint?
This sprint needs a diverse mix of doers, thinkers, and domain experts who can help us untangle legacy data problems and design solutions that work in the real world.
We're looking for people who know the systems, understand the data, and are up for rolling up their sleeves to make meaningful change. If that sounds like you, jump in.
Specifically, we’re calling on:
- Data and system owners, especially those working with MAS Manage or responsible for asset data quality.
- Operational teams who rely on accurate data to keep things running safely and efficiently.
- Asset managers who want to see the benefits of better leveraging our data to monitor and report on their assets.
- Digital and transformation specialists with experience in process design, automation, or AI integration
- Information governance and compliance leads who can help shape sustainable data standards.
- Microsoft technologists and solution architects ready to explore the art of the possible with their platforms.
- Anyone who loves solving big, messy problems and isn’t afraid to get stuck in
Whether you’re technical, operational, or strategic, if you care about clean data and better systems, this is your chance to help shape something meaningful.
