Unified Data Platform for Operational Insights

About NRC Group 

NRC Group is a listed Nordic infrastructure company operating across Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The company delivers rail, civil engineering and maintenance services that are critical to regional mobility. NRC Group handles a large volume of projects that require tight coordination between engineering teams, subcontractors, and field operations. 

The Challenge 

NRC Group faced challenges related to siloed data sources and limited visibility across key business units such as HR, HSE (Health, Safety & Environment), and Operations. Manual data collection processes and inconsistencies in data structure across platforms (e.g., Ditio, Endre, iCore, and ByggOffice) made it difficult to produce timely and accurate reports for project managers and leadership. 

Key challenges included: 

• Fragmented time registration systems resulting in inconsistent HR reports. 
• Difficulties in tracking HSE incidents and leading/lagging indicators. 
• No centralized visibility into project progress, subcontractor hours, or resource allocation. 
• HR and HSE manual uploads that caused inefficiency and reporting delays. 

Solution Overview 

To overcome these challenges, NRC Group built a unified Data Platform that collects, transforms, and delivers clean, standardized data to various business units for reporting and analytics. 

Architecture & Technology Stack 

The unified data platform was designed using a modern, modular architecture to seamlessly integrate data from multiple source systems, standardize it, and make it accessible for real-time reporting and analytics across NRC Group. 

At the core of the platform is a structured data pipeline that ensures data flows efficiently from ingestion to visualization, enabling a single source of truth across business units. 

Key components of the architecture include: 

• Data Collection (Airbyte): Data is extracted from multiple source systems such as Ditio, Endre, iCore, and ByggOffice using Airbyte. This enables automated and consistent data collection across previously siloed platforms. 
• Orchestration (Dagster): Dagster manages and coordinates ETL workflows, ensuring that data pipelines run reliably, dependencies are handled, and transformations are executed in the correct sequence. 
• Data Transformation (dbt): dbt is used to clean, normalize, and structure data across sources. This includes mapping time types, aligning project structures, and standardizing datasets for consistent reporting. 
• Data Storage (PostgreSQL): All processed and curated data is stored in PostgreSQL, serving as the centralized data warehouse and a single source of truth for the organization. 
• Data Access Layer (Hasura GraphQL API): Hasura exposes the transformed data through a GraphQL API, allowing applications and dashboards to access data in a structured and efficient way. 
• Visualization & Reporting (Metabase): Metabase powers interactive, role-based dashboards for HR, HSE, project managers, and executives, providing both aggregated and project-level insights. 
• Authentication & Security (Azure Entra ID):  Azure Entra ID ensures secure access control across the platform, enabling role-based authentication and protecting sensitive business data. 

Key Features Implemented 

• TimeType-DataSource Mapping for consistent HR analytics. 
• CSV Upload Templates for manually collected data with SharePoint folder integration. 
• Standardized HSE incident tracking with TRI and LTI logic. 
• Aggregated and project-level dashboards for Production Planning, HR, and HSE. 
• Embedded dashboards accessible via internal portals with secure authentication. 

The Impact and Outcomes 

• Improved accuracy and timeliness of HR and HSE reporting. 
• Unified access to project and resource data across all departments. 
• Enabled data-driven decisions for manpower planning, subcontractor utilization, and safety improvements. 
• Reduced manual workload through automation and template-driven data ingestion. 

99x and NRC Group: A Partnership of Growth 

Since 2024, 99x has partnered with NRC Group to build a unified data platform that brings structure, visibility, and real-time insights across their operations. Drawing on our expertise in data engineering, cloud technologies, and platform architecture, we’ve supported NRC Group in integrating data from multiple sources and streamlining reporting for HR, HSE, and project management. 

Together, we've built a scalable solution that enables data-driven decisions across departments enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and transparency. As the partnership continues, 99x remains committed to evolving the platform to support NRC Group’s long-term digital ambitions.