Transforming Inner West Council reporting with secure Power BI insights

Overview

Inner West Council needed to extend its existing Microsoft Fabric data platform to give managers easier access to the information they need to run their teams and services. Arinco delivered a unified, multi-page Power BI report with embedded row-level security, providing tailored visibility across workforce, financial, operational and governance data. Following its release, the report has become the most widely adopted and viewed report across the organisation. Managers can now see the data they need in a secure and intuitive way, improving performance monitoring and supporting more informed, timely decisions across the organisation.

Customer Context

Inner West Council is the managing body for a large segment of Sydney’s inner-west suburbs, home to over 180,000 residents. Providing a wide range of local services, their organisation is supported by complex operational functions spanning workforce management, finance, services delivery and governance.

Business Challenge

Inner West Council had established a strong data foundation through its Microsoft Fabric platform, with reporting in place to support executive oversight. However, there was a growing need to make this data more accessible and actionable for managers responsible for day-to-day operations.

Existing reporting did not always give managers the detail, consistency or usability they needed to monitor performance across their teams and portfolios. Challenges included:

• Limited visibility into role-specific data
• Fragmented reporting across multiple operational areas
• Inconsistent KPI definitions that made it difficult to interpret insights with confidence

Additionally, the Council needed to ensure that sensitive information was securely managed, with access aligned to organisational structures and responsibilities. To address these challenges, Inner West Council required a unified and secure reporting approach that could translate its existing data into meaningful, practical insights for operational users.

Solution

Arinco delivered a unified Power BI reporting solution for Inner West Council, designed to connect its existing Microsoft Fabric data platform with the operational needs of managers across the organisation.

Discovery and design

Arinco worked closely with key stakeholders to translate business requirements into clear reporting requirements and useful insights. This included aligning KPI definitions across workforce, financial, operational and governance domains and designing a consistent reporting structure that reflects how managers use data in their roles.

Unified reporting experience
Arinco developed a single, multi-page Power BI report that consolidates insights from multiple systems into one report. This enables managers to monitor performance across key areas, using intuitive navigation, consistent layouts and flexible filtering to explore data by team, function and timeframe.

Security and governance
A core component of the solution was the implementation of advanced row-level security. Access is automatically tailored to each manager’s role and organisational responsibilities, ensuring sensitive data is securely restricted at the point of access. This approach allows a single report to serve a broad user base without the need for multiple report versions.

Enablement and adoption
The report was designed to be easy to use so managers could adopt it quickly, combining a strong data foundation with a clear and accessible reporting layer. This has enabled managers to confidently engage with data as part of their day-to-day decision-making.