Client story – Turn-around of business intelligence project for top management
Situation
Flagship business intelligence project which were to deliver reporting and analysis capability to the top management of a large bank had run into a ditch leading to flagging morale in the project team and lack confidence from the project stakeholders. The ambition level was very high causing the projects cope to have swelled to enormous proportions.
Challenge
Complex web of data sources with overlapping data and no agreement on keys. Ownership of data sources spread throughout the organisation. Lack of agreement on what systems were feeder systems and what data was used for analysis and presentation
Approach
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Focus was on fixing both day-to-day reporting demands as well as ad hoc analysis requests for top management decision support. Even answering relatively simple questions required weeks long task forces feeding the negative feedback loop by taking further capacity away from improving the reporting capability.
Project ownership was passive and the inherent complexity and large scope was causing paralysis.
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Approach
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Established cross-functional project team and added external experts for a short boost which enabled the escape of the negative feedback loop.
Shrunk the project scope to focus on the bare essentials as defined by the most important stakeholders.
Boosted team morale by absorbing responsibility and uncertainty.
Outcome
Mobilised stakeholders to assist with requirements formulation and (crucially) quality assurance. Designated one source of the truth and had all stakeholders sign off on this. Ran extensive testing improving the quality of the dashboard data a module at a time.
Value
Delivered:
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Reporting engine for top management reports in under three months.
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Explorative analysis tool for portfolio managers enabling optimisation on portfolio hundreds of millions DKK
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Datawarehouse and data aggregation platform to ensure future expansions of functionality.
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Pipeline of suggested additions and improvements which had been signed off by key users and stakeholders.
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