For more than 15 years, National Debt Relief has helped people overcome financial challenges and rebuild their lives. But as the company grew, so did its data complexity. With millions of clients and thousands of employees, the lack of a modern data warehouse started to hinder the organization’s progress.
The challenge: Siloed data and delayed insights
When Rob Emmelhainz joined as the Head of Data & AI, National Debt Relief (NDR) had no unified data layer and a limited ability to integrate data sources for a single source of truth.
The NDR team became frustrated with slow reporting and incomplete insights:
- Reports for the prior day’s performance weren’t available until late in the afternoon.
- Complex data requests could take weeks to fulfill.
- Stakeholders were often told certain analyses “couldn’t be done” because the existing systems couldn’t handle it.
“We have millions of prospects and clients, so very complex data without any data layer, and it was going directly into Einstein Analytics, which is a great tool to use with Salesforce for Salesforce data,” Rob shared on our webinar. “Where it starts to get a little more limited is when you’re trying to bring in all your data from other sources. So, obviously, the real solution is a unified data layer — one place where we can really enable data science capabilities, analytics capabilities, AI capabilities, all on top of our data.”
The solution: Building from scratch with Snowflake
NDR partnered with Atrium to design a new data warehouse on Snowflake, one that consolidates all data into a single, trusted platform for analytics, AI, and future innovation.
Instead of “lifting and shifting” legacy problems, Rob insisted on a clean start:
- No lift and shift: The team built in parallel, avoiding technical debt.
- Strong governance from day one: A three-layer architecture, standardized naming conventions, and PII masking ensures data is consistent and secure.
- Strategic integration: With Snowflake at the core, NDR layered in orchestration, transformation, and BI tools to create a seamless experience for business users.
Strategic integration of partner tools
Atrium guided NDR in assembling a best-in-class data stack:
- Fivetran for automated ingestion across Salesforce and other systems
- dbt for transformation and modeling
- dagster for orchestration and data lineage
- Sigma for BI, empowering teams with self-service analytics
“You have to take time to plan and put in the work upfront. If not, you’re just asking for tech debt and complexity (and rework) later,” said Rob. “We were hell bent on getting governance and architecture right from the start.”
The impact: Faster, smarter decisions
With the new foundation in place, NDR’s teams now have access to trusted insights when they need them.
- Integrated, timely data available by 8 am each day — not hours later.
- Consistent, accurate reporting built on standardized models.
- Agility and flexibility to adapt pipelines and rework models in days, not months.
- A foundation for AI with production models already in place for lead routing and client prioritization, and explorations underway with Snowflake’s AI and ML capabilities.
Ben Parsons, Enterprise Account Executive at Snowflake, also joined us to discuss the data transformation at NDR. “A lot of customers get wrapped up in how exciting those use cases [like AI] are that they end up overlooking the fundamentals of basic database design,” he said. “There’s so much work that needs to be done, before a lot of enterprises can really realize value from artificial intelligence. Rob and team have done a great job setting expectations and building a foundation first.”
What’s next: Expanding AI and applied innovation
With the data foundation established, NDR is growing its business analytics, data science, and AI teams. The company is exploring Snowflake’s new capabilities — from Notebooks to Cortex to generative business intelligence — to unlock deeper insights from millions of call transcripts and client interactions.
“We’re building out applied AI that goes beyond chatbots and voice bots into true knowledge assistance. We’re excited to explore generative insights and what’s possible in the coming months,” said Rob.
By partnering with Atrium and Snowflake, National Debt Relief transformed its fragmented, slow-moving data into a modern, scalable foundation, enabling faster decision-making today and paving the way for AI innovation in the future.
Ready to build a modern data foundation? Learn more about Atrium’s Snowflake Consulting Services.
