The background
Building enterprise architecture and data capability for a regulated utility
UK Power Networks operates critical national infrastructure, responsible for delivering safe, reliable and affordable electricity to millions of customers across the UK. With major digital and data transformation programmes underway, UKPN needed to scale its technical capability quickly, without compromising on quality or governance.
When UKPN needed to scale its architecture and data capability fast, La Fosse Academy was the answer.
The challenge
UKPN operates critical national infrastructure, responsible for delivering safe, reliable and affordable electricity to millions of customers. As part of its digital and data transformation, UKPN needed to:
- Modernise core systems and data platforms
- Improve architecture governance and visibility
- Reduce delivery bottlenecks caused by a shortage of junior-to-mid level capability
- Support major programmes including Power BI, Microsoft Fabric and enterprise integration
Traditional hiring routes were slow and expensive. Senior resources were being pulled into delivery tasks rather than strategic work.
The solution
La Fosse Academy partnered with UKPN to deploy a cohort of Architecture and Data Associates, trained and embedded directly into UKPN’s enterprise technology and transformation teams.
Associates were trained and supported to work across:
- Enterprise system transformation, converting pilot strategies and requirements into live enterprise platforms
- Integration and data mapping, scoping data flows and connection tools
- Enterprise architecture modelling, maintaining application landscapes and supporting strategic planning
- Fabric and Power BI migration, including workspace migration, licence changes and stakeholder coordination
- Architecture governance, supporting projects through the Architecture Review Board process
Working alongside senior architects and delivery teams, Associates provided hands-on delivery capacity while building long-term internal capability within a highly regulated, legacy-heavy environment.
The snapshot
The result
- Improved delivery velocity across enterprise and data programmes
- Better visibility and governance across UKPN’s application and data landscape
- Reduced pressure on senior architects, freeing them to focus on strategy
- A growing in-house pipeline of architecture and data capability across Decision Science, Architecture, DevOps, Data Analysis and P6 Planning
- Stronger foundations for future transformation initiatives including Fabric, AI and Net Zero
Supporting diversity
45% of the Associates placed with UKPN were career changers. People who didn’t come through a traditional tech route, but who had the drive, the aptitude and the ambition to build something new.
That’s at the heart of what La Fosse Academy does. We believe that talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t. So we look beyond CVs and conventional backgrounds to find people who are ready to prove themselves, given the right training and support.
Across the UKPN partnership, 36% of Associates were women, 45% came from ethnic minority backgrounds, and 63% came from low socioeconomic backgrounds. It’s a cohort that reflects the breadth of society, not just the usual pipeline.
For UKPN, that meant building real, lasting capability. For the Associates, it meant a career in tech they might never have accessed otherwise.
