This blog post is Human-Centered Content: Written by humans for humans.
InterWorks has long been a multi-disciplined data consulting firm with expertise spanning strategy, solutions and support. By the nature of our business, we’re quite used to jumping into the middle of projects to provide guidance or serve as an extra set of hands to get things done.
That said, we’ve found that the best results for our clients come when we partner early on the strategic planning of data and analytics initiatives. We’re intimately familiar with how to get from point A to point B as efficiently and intelligently as possible, as well as all the potential pitfalls that might slow progress along the way. Our vehicle for all that knowledge is what’s called an SVR (Strategy, Vision, Roadmap).
What Is an InterWorks SVR?
An InterWorks SVR is a curated, strategic engagement that aligns tactical projects, business goals and various stakeholders to establish a holistic data strategy. With an emphasis on collaboration, silo deconstruction and measurable outcomes, we feel it’s a more efficient and sustainable way to approach data strategy.
Every InterWorks SVR can be broken down into three phases:
- Discovery Sessions to identify and align stakeholders as well as who owns what within your data strategy. Here we also outline goals, challenges and opportunities.
- Assessment and Maturity where we look deeper into the people, processes and technology you currently have, as well as what you might need, to achieve your goals.
- Prioritized Roadmap as a step-by-step execution guide for your data strategy and goals. You’re free to execute on your own or alongside InterWorks experts.
Another important distinction of InterWorks is that they are entirely customizable to your unique needs and goals. Of course, we’ve found the following focus areas to be the most popular and impactful among our clients:
- Data Transformation
- AI Transformation
- Next-Gen BI Tooling
- Data Platforms
- Data Governance
- Data Maturity and Culture
The Benefits of an InterWorks SVR
Perhaps more helpful than explaining the basics of an InterWorks SVR is sharing the actual benefit they provided. Again, since these SVRs are tailored to specific needs, the benefits are often just as specific. What you’ll see below are our high-level observations that tend to be common among clients of all sizes and sectors.
Greater Collaboration and Alignment
One of the most common pieces of feedback we hear from clients is that they’ve never experienced a meeting like the SVR. We bring together staff from across different functions to share feedback, discuss challenges their teams are facing, and leave with a stronger sense of collaboration and shared responsibility for finding solutions.
Higher Visibility and Buy-in from Leadership
Leadership gains a clear view of the current state, including gaps and opportunities across people, processes and technology. The insights gathered provide valuable input for internal discussions and investment decisions. A roadmap highlights dependencies and possible pathways, helping leadership understand the right portfolio of projects to pursue and the staffing plan needed to support them.
Acceleration of Modernization and/or Migration
Customers typically request SVRs when they are preparing to modernize — whether migrating to the cloud, replacing key components of their architecture or building the foundation for advanced data management to support data science and AI initiatives. Our data-focused SVRs specifically help clients rationalize their data products, identify automation opportunities and strengthen data quality with capabilities such as observability.
We also see many clients re-evaluating their data platforms. As part of an SVR, we can run proof-of-concepts to evaluate platforms like Snowflake and Databricks, so clients can choose the solution that best fits their use cases and long-term vision. With rising costs and increasing parity across platforms, organizations are reassessing tradeoffs to determine which solution delivers stronger ROI and integrates more effectively with their existing technology stack.
Stronger Data Governance
In the governance space, our conversations typically focus on data accessibility, quality, access controls, ethics and the tools that help Centers of Excellence (COEs) develop policies and procedures that balance ease of data access with privacy and security requirements.
Asthma Australia: An SVR Success Story
We’ve done countless SVRs over the years, but it’s always interesting to see the unique direction each one takes depending on the client’s needs and goals. Asthma Australia is a great example. As part of a digital transformation effort that utilized CRM, WordPress, Gravity Forms, Shopify, Thinkific, Fundraisin and Power BI, Asthma Australia established the goal of setting a strong enterprise-level data foundation that aligned stakeholders across their organization.
To do this in a fun and meaningful way, they used their SVR to plan a “Data FUNdamentals Day” that focused on hands-on learning, data literacy and collaboration. Nearly 50% of their organization showed up, which led to incredible alignment, engagement and collaboration as their digital transformation efforts progressed.
“I really enjoyed the way Rob was able to communicate complex topics in a simple way. The output of the SVR was easy to understand, and the process was inclusive.”
– Kathy Packenas, Director – Customer and Marketing, Asthma Australia
You can read the full Asthma Australia case study here, but the key takeaway is that their SVR helped them established a high-level vision and served as a hands-on application of that vision in quick succession.
Explore an InterWorks SVR for Yourself!
Ready to see how an InterWorks SVR can help you crystallize and accelerate your data strategy? The next step is chatting with our team to get a feel for where your data strategy is now and where you’d like it to be in 2026 and beyond. You can read more about our SVRs or reach out to our team right now.
