Scope Definition & Project Planning

Scope definition is critical to the success of any BI development effort. It sets the stage for all future activities and, if done incorrectly, will result in a constant uphill battle for success. Some of the areas we address include:

• Business Challenges or Opportunities to be addressed
• Specific Goals and Objectives
• Project scope - what is included and (just as importantly) what is excluded
• Critical Success Factors & Success Measures
• Schedule, Budget & Resources
• Risks and Recommended Actions
• Return on Investment Measures

Requirements Gathering

We believe that the best way to gather the most important and achievable requirements is to combine input from key stakeholders and business experts with parallel validation based upon source data. In this way we ensure that your requirements not only reflect your business goals but are also supported by available data sources.

Once the business requirements have been defined, the detailed information requirements (specific report and analytics content) are defined. We recommend prototyping as the most effective way of distilling these detailed information requirements.

Data Acquisition

The key to any Business Intelligence plan is the management of the extract, transform and load (ETL) processing. This ensures that the data you're getting is correctly integrated, consistently defined and has business validity. After all, if the data is incorrect when it comes in, how can it be correct when it's reported on? We work with our clients to ensure each field is accounted for and fully understood when it's brought into the BI environment.

Data Management

We offer comprehensive BI / Data Warehouse data management services. These services include:

• Logical Business Data Models
• Staging Area Design
• Star Schema Designs
• Database Tuning and Performance
• Metadata Management

Data Delivery

For a BI application to be deemed "successful" the data must be accurate, relevant and available to you in a timely manner. Once the data is in the BI environment, we work closely with our clients to ensure the End User Requirements are supported in the analysis database design. In addition, we fine-tune the database structures so they can best meet your unique data collection and analysis needs. These end-user tools include standard reporting tools, ad hoc query tools or sophisticated data mining tools.

Learn more about our Business Intelligence services by contacting us.