Consolidating to Microsoft Fabric has been transformative for Herbalife—driving business value with seamless integration, better insights, and tangible cost savings.
Richie Villanti, Regional Solutions Director
When Herbalife faced a seven-figure annual MicroStrategy license renewal and a sprawling, ungovernable analytics platform accumulated over 15 years, they turned to Axis for a strategic migration to Microsoft Fabric. Through our systematic approach combining deep MicroStrategy expertise with Microsoft Fabric mastery, we successfully migrated their critical business analytics, saving $5 million over three years while delivering enhanced capabilities to users across the organization.
Meeting the Challenge: Technical Debt Meets Financial Reality
Herbalife's analytics infrastructure had reached a critical inflection point. Their MicroStrategy environment, built over 15 years through multiple ownership changes and minimal governance, had become both financially unsustainable and operationally crippling:
- 130,000+ objects accumulated in a single project, creating metadata bottlenecks
- Thousands of cloned reports and bursted files creating unnecessary complexity
- Platform administration paralyzed by the sheer volume of objects
- Multi-month upgrade cycles requiring extensive planning and labor costs
And now they were facing a seven-figure annual license renewal approaching in just 12 months.
Herbalife wanted to move to Microsoft Fabric to modernize their analytics capabilities and save money. But they needed a partner who understood both the intricacies of MicroStrategy and the full potential of Microsoft Fabric. Enter Axis.
Our Approach: Strategic Rationalization Meets Technical Excellence
Phase 1: Comprehensive Discovery and Rationalization
We began with a thorough analysis of Herbalife's existing environment, leveraging our deep MicroStrategy expertise:
Technical Analysis: Combined Enterprise Manager usage reports with API-extracted metadata to map all 130,000+ objects
Stakeholder Engagement: Interviewed 110+ stakeholders across 20 business groups to understand critical requirements
Dual-Track Rationalization:
- Bottom-up: Identified duplicates, unpublished reports, and obsolete objects
- Top-down: Captured business priorities and essential analytics needs
Phase 2: Strategic Prioritization Framework
We developed a four-tier classification system to ensure business continuity while maximizing efficiency:
- Business Critical: Reports essential for daily operations
- Operationally Important: Analytics supporting key business processes
- Analytically Supportive: Nice-to-have insights and ad-hoc analyses
- Supplementary: Legacy or redundant reports
This framework allowed us to focus on Tiers 1 and 2, knowing that successful migration of these would create momentum for the remaining tiers.
Phase 3: Microsoft Fabric Implementation
Our execution leveraged Microsoft Fabric's capabilities through specialized teams:
- Analysis Team: Documented data components for each business domain, creating a clear roadmap for Fabric implementation
- Design Team: Created low-fidelity wireframes consolidating multiple reports into unified business models within Fabric
- Data Engineering Team: Built comprehensive data models in Snowflake, leveraging Fabric's seamless integration capabilities
- Semantic Layer Team: Developed reusable Power BI semantic models within Fabric, ensuring consistency and governance
- Dashboard Development Team: Created modern Power BI dashboards that exceeded MicroStrategy's capabilities while maintaining familiar functionality
- Enablement Team: Delivered comprehensive training on Fabric's capabilities to both end users and the central analytics team
The Results: Transformation Through Microsoft Fabric
Financial Impact
- $5 million saved over a three-year horizon through license consolidation and reduced maintenance costs
- Eliminated costly upgrade cycles by moving to Fabric's cloud-first architecture
Technical Achievements
- 20+ business data models successfully deployed in Microsoft Fabric
- 85% reduction in Tier 3/4 reports as consolidated business models met user needs
- Seamless integration with existing infrastructure through Fabric's native connectors
User Experience Improvements
- Enhanced self-service capabilities through Power BI's intuitive interface
- Analyze in Excel functionality replacing cumbersome flat file exports from MicroStrategy
- Real-time collaboration enabled by Fabric's integrated workspace features
- Mobile accessibility through Power BI's responsive design capabilities
Organizational Capabilities
- Internal analytics team fully trained on Microsoft Fabric platform
- Established governance framework preventing future sprawl
- Scalable architecture supporting future growth without licensing constraints
Key Success Factors
- Deep Platform Expertise: Our team's mastery of both MicroStrategy and Microsoft Fabric enabled smooth translation of complex requirements
- Systematic Approach: The tiered migration strategy ensured business continuity while managing risk
- Business-First Mindset: Focusing on business domains rather than technical reports created more valuable outcomes
- Fabric's Unified Platform: Leveraging Fabric's integrated analytics capabilities simplified the architecture while enhancing functionality
Why This Matters for Your Organization
If your organization faces similar challenges with legacy analytics platforms (MicroStrategy, Qlik, Tableau, Cognos ...), high licensing costs, or technical debt, this case study demonstrates how Microsoft Fabric provides a modern, cost-effective solution. Our proven methodology ensures:
- Minimal business disruption during migration
- Preservation of critical business logic and insights
- Enhanced capabilities for end users
- Sustainable long-term analytics strategy
Ready to Transform Your Analytics with Microsoft Fabric?
Whether you're looking to migrate from legacy platforms, establish a Fabric foundation, or extend existing capabilities, Axis brings the expertise and methodology to ensure success. Contact us to discuss how we can help your organization leverage Microsoft Fabric's full potential.
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