The Saxony team began with the discovery phase, interviewing key employees both at the firm and at third-party stakeholders. We mapped out the current technology ecosystem and documented decisions and tasks that factor into BI and reporting processes.
The discovery phase revealed some key shortcomings related to people, process, and technology. The IT staff was under-resourced and under-trained. Only a handful of people truly knew how to work within the current technology environment – a risk if any of those people decided to leave the company. The technology itself was limited to only some members of the business team, was not fully integrated, and was inadequate to meet the firm’s needs.
These deficiencies combined to make quarterly reporting an excruciating, time consuming chore. Data was siloed in various systems and software, and none of it was clearly tracible from one system to another. Much of the reporting had to be done manually in order to obtain accurate and up-to-date data.
These findings were synthesized into a draft strategy, which was shared with company leaders. Collaboratively, the strategic initiatives included in the draft were prioritized and sequenced, and the results were built into an overall roadmap.
Saxony’s roadmap established a formal BI program with priorities, scope, and a comprehensive plan. A key element of that plan was identifying and placing senior staff for the firm’s IT department – which we helped do.
Data strategy – aggregation, access, and integrity – is perhaps the most critical factor in ensuring accurate, actionable reporting. Saxony built the foundational components of a data warehouse that adequately supported the firm’s current needs but could also evolve as the company continued to expand. Into that single source of truth, we integrated nearly a dozen key internal systems, external data sources, and other administrative and accounting inputs.
