HGF has engaged Simpson Associates to modernise its entire data estate on Microsoft Fabric and roll out Microsoft Power BI dashboards, a strategic move the IP firm says will centralise data, automate reporting pipelines, and deliver governed, near‑real‑time executive insights across legal, operational and financial domains.
HGF is one of Europe’s larger intellectual property firms and positions itself as a Private‑Equity‑backed, growth‑oriented practice with offices across multiple countries and a headcount described publicly as “190+” patent attorneys, trade mark attorneys, IP solicitors and Rechtsanwälte. This scale, combined with the sensitive nature of client IP and cross‑border compliance requirements, makes trustworthy reporting and tight data governance business‑critical. (hgf.com)
Simpson Associates, a UK‑based Microsoft Solutions Partner and a recognised Microsoft Partner of the Year, will deliver the programme in three phases: Platform Discovery & Build; Data Store Development (consolidation into OneLake / lakehouse constructs); and Power BI Configuration with KPI dashboards and controls. Simpson positions this delivery using a Fabric Accelerator and partner best practices to speed time‑to‑value. (simpson-associates.co.uk)
This article summarises the announcement, validates the core platform capabilities that HGF is buying into, and offers a technical and operational critique of likely benefits, cost and governance trade‑offs, and practical risks that legal and IP firms must weigh when moving to Microsoft Fabric and Power BI at scale.
Key platform capabilities that make Fabric attractive for legal and IP firms:
Fabric also supports sensitivity labels in both Fabric and Power BI, but enabling and enforcing these labels requires tenant configuration and appropriate Purview/AIP licensing. Firms must plan license entitlements (Power BI Pro / Premium Per User and Azure Information Protection P1/P2 where applicable) before relying on sensitivity labelling as a gate for access. (learn.microsoft.com)
Key commercial considerations:
However, the difference between a successful transformation and a costly programme will be the discipline applied to:
HGF’s move is emblematic of how professional services firms are treating data as a strategic asset: centralised, governed, and actionable. When planned with discipline — the right licensing decisions, a rigorous data stewardship program, and an adoption‑first rollout — Microsoft Fabric plus Power BI can provide the governed, auditable analytics platform required by modern IP practices. The technical foundations are proven; the remaining challenge is organisational. Success will be measured less by the technology chosen than by the governance and operational practices HGF embeds around it. (learn.microsoft.com, powerbi.microsoft.com)
Source: GlobeNewswire HGF to Transform Their Data Estate with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI, Delivered by Simpson Associates
Background / Overview
HGF is one of Europe’s larger intellectual property firms and positions itself as a Private‑Equity‑backed, growth‑oriented practice with offices across multiple countries and a headcount described publicly as “190+” patent attorneys, trade mark attorneys, IP solicitors and Rechtsanwälte. This scale, combined with the sensitive nature of client IP and cross‑border compliance requirements, makes trustworthy reporting and tight data governance business‑critical. (hgf.com)Simpson Associates, a UK‑based Microsoft Solutions Partner and a recognised Microsoft Partner of the Year, will deliver the programme in three phases: Platform Discovery & Build; Data Store Development (consolidation into OneLake / lakehouse constructs); and Power BI Configuration with KPI dashboards and controls. Simpson positions this delivery using a Fabric Accelerator and partner best practices to speed time‑to‑value. (simpson-associates.co.uk)
This article summarises the announcement, validates the core platform capabilities that HGF is buying into, and offers a technical and operational critique of likely benefits, cost and governance trade‑offs, and practical risks that legal and IP firms must weigh when moving to Microsoft Fabric and Power BI at scale.
What HGF is buying: Microsoft Fabric, OneLake and Power BI in context
Microsoft Fabric and OneLake: a unified lakehouse for enterprise analytics
Microsoft Fabric is a unified, SaaS data platform that brings together data integration, engineering, warehousing, real‑time analytics and Power BI reporting under a single fabric tenant. Central to Fabric is OneLake, the logical lakehouse that unifies storage, metadata and governance across workloads. Fabric exposes governance and cataloging features (the OneLake catalog and the govern tab) that provide visibility into sensitivity label coverage, endorsements, item freshness and other hygiene metrics — features directly relevant to firms needing auditable controls. (learn.microsoft.com) (learn.microsoft.com)Key platform capabilities that make Fabric attractive for legal and IP firms:
- Centralised data lakehouse (OneLake) to reduce duplication and create a single source of truth for finance, matters, WIP, time capture and billing.
- Built‑in governance and sensitivity labelling integrated with Microsoft Purview / Information Protection to enforce who can see what across legal, finance and operations.
- End‑to‑end pipelines (ingest → transform → semantic models) within one environment, reducing ETL hand‑offs and toolchain complexity.
- Native integration with Power BI as the reporting surface, enabling governed semantic models and role‑based distribution.
Power BI: reporting, “near‑real‑time” and governance
Power BI remains the “finish line” for dashboards and self‑service analytics inside Fabric. Power BI supports automatic page refresh for DirectQuery sources and offers change‑detection refresh patterns, enabling near‑real‑time dashboards when configured correctly. However, Microsoft’s documentation explicitly warns that “real‑time” in Power BI is bounded by source latency, query performance and capacity constraints: automatic page refresh queries run at lower priority and the observable refresh rate is limited by the source and capacity performance. In practice, teams should define operationally current expectations (for example: 30‑second, 5‑minute or hourly refresh windows) rather than assume instantaneous, sub‑second updates. (learn.microsoft.com)Fabric also supports sensitivity labels in both Fabric and Power BI, but enabling and enforcing these labels requires tenant configuration and appropriate Purview/AIP licensing. Firms must plan license entitlements (Power BI Pro / Premium Per User and Azure Information Protection P1/P2 where applicable) before relying on sensitivity labelling as a gate for access. (learn.microsoft.com)
Why this makes strategic sense for HGF
1) Consolidation reduces reconciliation and speeds reporting
Law firms and IP practices commonly juggle multiple specialist systems (matter management, time capture, billing, HR, and local file stores). A governed OneLake with curated semantic models can materially reduce manual spreadsheet-based reconciliation and accelerate month‑end reporting across WIP, AR, and matter profitability. The press release frames this as the primary business driver — moving from manual, fragmented reporting to a single source of truth.2) Governance and compliance aligned to regulated data handling
IP work routinely involves client inventions, confidential filings, and personal data subject to GDPR and other regimes. OneLake’s govern tab, combined with sensitivity labels and audit trail capabilities, gives administrators pragmatic tools to measure and improve governance posture — a clear advantage for a firm that must demonstrate controls to clients and regulators. (learn.microsoft.com)3) A path to advanced analytics and AI
Once data is consolidated, HGF gains an architecture that can host advanced analytics and AI projects — from matter‑level profitability forecasting to predictive resourcing and client churn models. Fabric’s unified model reduces friction for data scientists to iterate on models while keeping governance intact. Simpson highlights the platform’s capacity to scale to AI and automation in later phases.4) Experienced delivery partner reduces execution risk
Simpson Associates brings a proven Microsoft Fabric accelerator, Fabric‑focused templates and a recent Microsoft Partner of the Year recognition — all practical signals that they can execute a governed rollout for a regulated professional services firm. Their published case studies with local authorities and councils show a disciplined approach to delivering Fabric Proofs of Value and governance-first implementations. (simpson-associates.co.uk)Practical technical validation — what is and isn’t delivered by the platform
The core technical claims in the press release are verifiable and generally accurate:- Fabric provides a governed lakehouse (OneLake) with a govern tab showing sensitivity label coverage and item freshness. Organisations can use these features to measure governance posture. (learn.microsoft.com)
- Power BI supports near‑real‑time dashboards when configured for DirectQuery and automatic page refresh, subject to capacity and source performance limits. These capabilities will support operational‑style KPIs, but the definition of “real‑time” must be set against measurable SLAs. (learn.microsoft.com)
- Sensitivity labels and Purview integration work end‑to‑end across Fabric and Power BI, but require tenant settings and appropriate AIP licensing. (learn.microsoft.com)
Commercial and operational risks — what HGF must watch closely
Licensing complexity and total cost of ownership (TCO)
Microsoft retired Power BI Premium P‑SKU purchases in favour of Fabric F‑SKUs and Fabric capacities; organisations must transition to F‑SKUs at renewal and evaluate pay‑as‑you‑go versus reservation options. Fabric capacity pricing and the shift to F‑SKUs can materially change cost profiles — especially for firms that distribute dashboards to many viewers or need always‑on distribution. HGF must model pilot, steady‑state, and peak distribution scenarios before committing to capacity sizes. (powerbi.microsoft.com, learn.microsoft.com)Key commercial considerations:
- Which F‑SKU is equivalent to the current P‑SKU footprint (F64 maps to P1 equivalence, etc.) and what does that mean for viewer licensing? (learn.microsoft.com)
- Will HGF buy reserved capacity or pay‑as‑you‑go? Reservation discounts are available but require commitment and forecasting.
- Does the distribution model require many Pro or PPU licences for viewers if F‑SKU < F64 is selected? (learn.microsoft.com)
Vendor lock‑in and multi‑cloud posture
Fabric’s value increases with centralisation; that also deepens dependency on Microsoft’s SaaS and Azure ecosystem. Where HGF has on‑prem or multi‑cloud sources, the team should document a pragmatic federation strategy (mirroring, controlled replication or Unity Catalog integration) to avoid brittle point‑to‑point pipelines and unexpected egress exposure. Technical options exist to federate Databricks and other platforms into Fabric, but they require design and careful cost modelling.Migration and data quality
Legacy law‑firm data is often messy: decades of billing adjustments, local spreadsheets and inconsistent matter identifiers. The transformation to a medallion architecture (bronze → silver → gold) will take time and require named data stewards, lineage documentation and automated tests. The platform cannot substitute for the human governance needed to make dashboards trusted.Cultural and adoption costs
Delivering dashboards is only half the story: partners, fee earners and finance teams must change behaviours. The programme must budget for cohort‑based training, a centre of excellence to manage semantic changes, and sustained post‑delivery support and knowledge transfer from Simpson Associates. Without adoption, even technically sound dashboards fail to change decision‑making patterns.False expectations around “real‑time” and AI
“Real‑time” and “AI‑enabled insights” are powerful marketing promises; both require explicit SLAs and authenticated data flows. AI use cases will require curated training data, model governance and client confidentiality risk assessments — especially for generative AI or automation that could surface sensitive IP. Treat AI pilots as stepwise experiments with validation gates.Delivery checklist — a pragmatic governance and procurement playbook for HGF
Before full‑scale procurement and production migration, confirm the following:- Licensing workshop with finance and Microsoft account team
- Map current Power BI usage (authors, viewers, distribution patterns) to F‑SKU equivalents; model costs for pilot, steady‑state and peak distribution. (powerbi.microsoft.com, learn.microsoft.com)
- Proof‑of‑Value (PoV) with three quick wins
- Prioritise high‑impact dashboards such as billing accuracy reconciliation, WIP ageing and utilisation to validate ingestion, transformation and governance.
- Data governance blueprint
- Appoint named data stewards for finance, matters and operations; define sensitivity label rules, retention policies and a RACI for data quality remediation. Use OneLake’s govern tab to baseline coverage and drive iterative improvement. (learn.microsoft.com)
- Controlled migration plan
- Adopt a medallion architecture and automated testing for semantic models; document lineage and retention policies for legal data. Begin with a limited matter subset and increase scope after validation.
- Capacity and operational guardrails
- Define workspace quotas, automated cleanup policies and limits on high‑cost compute workloads. Use Fabric Capacity Metrics to monitor consumption and tune SKU selection. (microsoft.com)
- Adoption, training and centre of excellence
- Fund cohort training for report authors and consumers; embed change champions inside practice groups; secure a time‑boxed support and knowledge transfer agreement with Simpson Associates.
Implementation patterns Simpson Associates is likely to use (and why they matter)
- Medallion lakehouse (bronze/silver/gold): ingest raw extracts to bronze, apply transforms and cleansing in silver, and expose business‑ready, endorsed semantic models in gold for Power BI consumption. This pattern reduces rework and enables traceability.
- Row‑level security (RLS) + sensitivity labels: combine RLS for tenant‑level access constraints with sensitivity labels to handle export and sharing restrictions that are common in multi‑jurisdiction legal work. (learn.microsoft.com)
- DirectQuery / materialised views for operational KPIs: use DirectQuery or materialised lake views for KPIs that require low refresh latency, while using scheduled transformations for heavy analytical workloads to control costs.
- Capacity sizing and test migrations: move small, representative workspaces to an F‑SKU equivalent during PoV to validate performance and cost assumptions.
What success looks like — measurable outcomes HGF should target
- Time to trusted KPI: 3 months for pilot dashboards covering Billing Accuracy, WIP Ageing and Resource Utilisation.
- Reduction in manual reconciliation: target a 50–70% drop in time spent reconciling month‑end figures within the first 6 months.
- Governance coverage: sensitivity label coverage above 90% for material items, with automated freshness alerts for failed refreshes enabled. (learn.microsoft.com)
- Cost predictability: validated capacity sizing and reserved SKUs in place by the first renewal cycle to avoid surprise pay‑as‑you‑go spikes. (powerbi.microsoft.com)
- Adoption: 80% of identified executive consumers using Power BI dashboards for monthly board packs rather than spreadsheets within six months.
Final appraisal — a strong strategic move, conditional on disciplined execution
HGF’s decision to centralise its data estate on Microsoft Fabric and adopt Power BI reporting is strategically sound for a multi‑jurisdiction IP firm with sensitive data and material scale. The combination of OneLake governance, Power BI reporting patterns and Simpson Associates’ Fabric‑specific delivery playbook aligns to the organisation’s stated goals: reduce manual reporting friction, improve visibility for leadership, and build a foundation for advanced analytics.However, the difference between a successful transformation and a costly programme will be the discipline applied to:
- licensing and TCO modelling,
- rigorous data stewardship and migration discipline,
- multi‑year vendor and multi‑cloud strategy planning, and
- adoption and organisational change management.
Recommended next steps for HGF’s executive sponsors
- Convene a licensing and cost modelling workshop with Microsoft and Simpson to map current usage to F‑SKUs and forecast three scenarios: pilot, steady state and peak distribution. (powerbi.microsoft.com, learn.microsoft.com)
- Kick off a short PoV (6–8 weeks) focused on the three quick‑win dashboards to validate data quality, governance controls, and end‑user adoption.
- Appoint named data stewards (finance, matters, people) and publish a business glossary and sensitivity label rules before data migration. (learn.microsoft.com)
- Negotiate a post‑delivery knowledge transfer and minimum support window with Simpson Associates to avoid capability being locked externally. (simpson-associates.co.uk)
- Define KPIs to measure success (time saved on reconciliations, dashboard adoption, governance coverage) and publish a three‑month, six‑month and twelve‑month roadmap.
HGF’s move is emblematic of how professional services firms are treating data as a strategic asset: centralised, governed, and actionable. When planned with discipline — the right licensing decisions, a rigorous data stewardship program, and an adoption‑first rollout — Microsoft Fabric plus Power BI can provide the governed, auditable analytics platform required by modern IP practices. The technical foundations are proven; the remaining challenge is organisational. Success will be measured less by the technology chosen than by the governance and operational practices HGF embeds around it. (learn.microsoft.com, powerbi.microsoft.com)
Source: GlobeNewswire HGF to Transform Their Data Estate with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI, Delivered by Simpson Associates
