Scape unlocks real-time decision-making, cuts costs by 50% 

“Fivetran has been instrumental in enabling Scape’s growth. It saves time, reduces complexity, and empowers our teams with real-time insights. We’re able to make faster, more informed decisions, which directly impacts our profitability.”
— Suvarna Yenugudhati, Data Platform Lead at Scape

Scape, Australia’s largest provider of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), operates over 38 properties and is set to house more than 20,000 students in 2025. With over 700 employees and $6 billion in investments since 2018, Scape plays a crucial role in supporting Australia’s growing student population.

As demand for student housing rises — driven by over 650,000 international students, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics — Australia faces a projected shortfall of up to 7,000 beds. To sustain its rapid growth and maintain operational excellence, Scape needed a more efficient way to manage and leverage its data. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Scape relied on a single data engineer to build an Azure-based system while prioritizing cost efficiency. However, the architecture was overly complex and resource-intensive, leaving critical integrations incomplete.

Key challenges included:

• Slow data integration: Integrating a single data source with 50 tables took months, making it nearly impossible to add more critical systems like NetSuite. 
• Manual workarounds: Operational and financial teams manually extracted data, often bypassing dashboards due to accuracy concerns.
• Limited resources: A 1-person data team struggled to manage pipeline development, data modeling, and dashboard delivery.

As Australia’s international student numbers more than doubled — from 300,000 in 2021 to over 600,000 in 2024 — Scape rapidly expanded its property portfolio. To keep pace with this growth and ensure real-time insights for operations, finance, and marketing, it needed a scalable, automated data solution to replace its fragmented processes.

Scape achieves faster insights and greater agility

When Suvarna Yenugudhati joined Scape as Data Platform Lead in 2023, she replaced the company’s complex architecture with a modern data stack powered by Fivetran and Snowflake. 

Fivetran’s fully managed connectors, combined with Snowflake’s scalability, allowed Scape to quickly transition to a reliable and efficient data ecosystem. Critical integrations, like NetSuite for financial data and Stripe for payments, were onboarded in weeks instead of months. This transformation empowered over 300 operational team members with real-time dashboards, leading to faster, data-driven decisions. 

"Previously, building pipelines for a few objects took weeks, and integrating new systems could take years. With Fivetran, we can onboard systems and deliver dashboards in a fraction of that time. Extracting simple data used to take over an hour — now, it takes under 10 minutes, giving the business near real-time access to the data they need, thanks to Fivetran."
— Suvarna Yenugudhati, Data Platform Lead at Scape

Scape drives efficiency across finance, operations, and marketing 

Within a month of implementing Fivetran, Scape launched a financial dashboard essential for compliance and auditing. The new system introduced enhanced data security and separation, which had previously been unavailable, restoring trust in financial reporting.

A key factor in Scape’s operations is managing property expenditures and adjusting rental prices at the right time. With Fivetran, the marketing and leasing teams now have a centralized, real-time dashboard that provides visibility into vacancies, spending, and pricing trends. This enables them to make faster, data-driven decisions — such as quickly identifying patterns of frequent cancellations and lease breaks — helping them proactively flag potential issues.

“We can now extract data instantly to determine if a problem stems from our property or if a competitor is offering discounts nearby. Previously, this type of analysis would have taken 4-5 weeks,” Yenugudhati adds.

Enhanced governance, security, and cost savings

Additionally, Scape’s adoption of Fivetran has restored trust in its data systems by enhancing governance and security, leading to increased productivity across the organization. Previously, a finance director reviewed code to verify data accuracy before making decisions. Now, with a reliable data integration platform, trust in data is no longer a concern. This transformation has enabled faster, more informed decision-making, directly impacting profitability. 

With Fivetran, Scape ensures that sensitive financial data is accessible only to authorized teams. Built-in masking features securely integrate payroll and salary data without exposing confidential information.

By automating its data pipelines, Scape reduced technology costs by 50%, eliminating inefficiencies and manual work. As legacy systems are phased out, total savings are projected to reach 70%, further enhancing cost efficiency. 

As Scape grows, its modern data stack ensures scalability, security, and efficiency, reinforcing its leadership in the PBSA sector. This shift highlights how a lean team, equipped with the right tools, can drive meaningful business impact.

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