Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company focused on diabetes care and other serious chronic diseases, partnered with Indicium AI to modernize and scale its data foundation from AWS Glue, PySpark, Qlik, and Data Lake Victoria (DLV) to a governed ELT architecture. The team needed a fast, low-risk transition that protected business-critical reporting. This work supported Novo Nordisk’s operation in Brazil, where teams needed to decommission legacy environments within a defined window while keeping dashboards and downstream consumption stable.
Indicium AI delivered a structured migration powered by our Agentic AI Delivery Framework. Ingestion advanced 4x faster, while transformation work saw a 75% reduction in migration time per table. Transformation logic now sits in a single, version-controlled layer, with automatic quality checks that reach 96% accuracy. The project also strengthened governance across analytics. The result is a simpler stack with unified business logic, and a reliable reporting layer that supports strategic decisions at scale.
“Thanks to the migration project with Indicium AI, we delivered more than expected in a fraction of the time compared to previous efforts. Our team is extremely satisfied with the results, and we’re already seeing significant improvements in both efficiency and governance.”
Simon Sales, Data Coordinator at Novo Nordisk
Legacy Foundations. A Fast-Growing Data Landscape.
Novo Nordisk ran a large, evolving data landscape with AWS Glue, PySpark, DLV, and Qlik. As new sources and models grew, the team managed more pipelines, more dependencies, and more coordination across systems. Pipelines ran across many tools, and business rules lived in different places, which limited end-to-end visibility. Rising data volume also increased the effort required to keep performance and consistency high.
The team needed to decommission legacy environments without compromising daily operations, which still depended on stable, accurate data feeds. Any disruption would affect business performance and strategic decisions.
The company required a migration approach that protected operations and built a modern foundation. They chose Indicium AI for our experience in complex data migrations and our AI-enabled delivery engine that accelerates execution. We delivered the structure, speed, and governance required to migrate safely, cut technical debt, and give teams a platform they can trust and scale.
Solution: Modern ELT Migration Powered by AI
Indicium AI modernized Novo Nordisk’s data platform by centralizing transformation logic in dbt and Snowflake and consolidating ingestion into a unified foundation. A wave-based migration approach removed legacy dependencies without disrupting business operations.
We completed a full assessment of sources, dependencies, and transformation complexity, and this blueprint guided the migration path. To accelerate the rollout, we unified ingestion scripts into a single reusable framework and reduced the volume of Glue Jobs.
We standardized all raw-to-trusted ingestion and staging models to create consistent patterns across every source. We also converted all PySpark logic to SQL in dbt and added version control, automated lineage, CI/CD, tags, and modular business rules. Our team used AI-assisted development workflows in Cursor to accelerate code conversion. This cut manual effort and increased the migration speed across the workload.
Governance shaped every step. Automated tests validated transformations, and dbt’s audit_helper package ensured data conformity. A dedicated UAT phase supported the decommissioning of Qlik and DLV, which protected downstream teams from disruption. These upgrades modernized Novo Nordisk’s platform and increased operational efficiency across the full data lifecycle.
Results: A Governed Platform That Drives Enterprise Decisions
Centralizing the transformation layer in dbt on Snowflake gave Novo Nordisk a faster, more reliable platform:
- Ingestion time dropped from 2h55 to 40 minutes
- Transformation time dropped from 2h27 to 41 minutes
- AI-driven code conversion increased project efficiency by 4x
- Standardized ingestion and orchestration reduced overhead and simplified maintenance
Governance also advanced:
- 253+ tests implemented
- 100% of reporting models documented
- Full lineage and improved stability across data pipelines
Now, Novo Nordisk operates with stronger reliability and faster delivery cycles. The company has a foundation that accelerates analytics and unlocks new opportunities across the organization.
A Migration Framework For Speed, Accuracy, and Impact
Novo Nordisk needed a partner that balances migration speed with enterprise-grade governance. Indicium AI delivered through our Agentic AI Delivery Framework that standardizes architecture, accelerates delivery, and embeds quality controls at every step.
Our AI-enabled delivery approach, supported by accelerators, cut refactoring and mapping effort and boosted delivery speed by 4x. We also executed a structured handover, strengthened governance standards, and standardized development patterns.
Today, Novo Nordisk in Brazil has a scalable, high-performance data platform with faster ingestion, lower operational costs, automated quality checks, and a modern ELT foundation. The company gained the stability and agility required to scale analytics and turn data into strategic value.
