This article is the third in the series on Financing the BI Solution and follows from “BI Project Decisions: Ready Made Database Options” and “Financing the Business Intelligence Project“.

The decisions we make about the solutions we buy, which must all be made at the start of any new implementation do require analysis of a wide range of factors. In the case of the BI solution these must consider the existing infrastructure and any proposed imminent changes to it. This does complicate the decision making, but it is an essential part of BI project success.

Within any Business Intelligence implementation it is necessary to understand the impact of the corporate IT architecture. The complexity of the architecture can be a key factor in identifying any plausible ready-made solution. Many organisations have a veritable spiders-web of systems and inter-relationships some of which will defy logic, yet exist they do. Whilst it is primarily the operational applications that will be providing data to the Data Warehouse that must be considered to support the solution must take a more holistic view. Any system may hold key pieces of information and is thus capable of providing data to the Warehouse.

If we examine any two companies we will become immediately aware of architectural differences between them (and these are based on real solutions provided in the past).

In one organisation there may be an evolutionary mix of systems of varying ages and types; with few systems integrated together; there are many overnight batch jobs that transfer data between systems, but no integrated approach. How the organisation was formed may have an impact on the solution needed: here acquisition has meant there are separate systems in each of 17 different countries, some are packaged solutions, but most are bespoke. For the global corporate headquarters to gather worldwide information it has to contend with a complex mix of old and new systems using different data storage standards; all potentially making this a complex solution.

Conversely a second corporations is more integrated: all applications use pre-built solutions, based on relational databases; bringing an integrated architecture, that is well documented, and has been at the foundation of its IT platforms. It should be clear to the reader that this company’s architecture is unlikely to be very complex.

It is essential as a part of the financial decision making process to grade both the business and technical complexity of the solution.

Integration of existing systems is always an essential step especially assessing the corporate legacy application architecture. Integration of systems is almost always ranked as one of the most important architectural factor when deciding whether a pre-built Data Warehouse can be implemented. Highly integrated systems can be an enabler for a ready-made database. They are not the sole reason to implement a pre-built solution.

It is necessary to add a word of warning before diving headlong into such an implementation. When companies introduce new ERP, or CRM systems there is immense pressure to introduce analytics at the same time. This can also be true for SaaS, or Cloud Computing solutions. Often this is the integrated ‘Business Warehouse’. When the new ERP or CRM is introduced it is unproven (from the business viewpoint) and there is an assumption that results taken from the out-of-the-can Analytical Application are valid and correct. This is not always the case. An assessment of data quality is as essential to the ready-made solution as it is to the custom built Warehouse. Generally a new system cannot have its data quality assessed until it is in production and has had the wrinkles ironed out of it.

Next article in this series “What Makes Our Business Unique?”

Are there data migration challenges holding you  back? The Data Migration Pro community is asking that you email with your issues and this will help them focus on address them either in our “ask the expert” feature or our next on-line coaching class, don’t hold back, we’re here to help. Not a member then ask to join!

Data Migration Pro’s exciting new sister community, Data Quality Pro.com is now full steam ahead. Packed with tutorials, articles, community features and free software. Find out more here:

http://www.dataqualitypro.com/data-quality-home/

http://www.dataqualitypro.com/data-quality-pro-benefits/

Do you need free software and advice to help you carry out data profiling and discovery? We have released details of some great tutorials and free software over at Data Quality Pro, check out these links:

http://tinyurl.com/3wdnc6
http://tinyurl.com/3uslat
http://tinyurl.com/4lcreb

Need to create an effective online repository for all your data migration metadata and project information? This online application builder could be the very thing you need to reduce complexity and cost in your migration projects (and even your mother could use it):

http://tinyurl.com/3mozsq

Are you a data migration or data quality expert? Data Migration Pro.com and Data Quality Pro.com are growing rapidly in members and website visitors so if you want to get your expertise noticed and support the community then contact me and I’ll explain the benefits.

We’ve got a whole set of free tutorials, articles, software and member services coming this Autumn on Data Migration Pro and Data Quality Pro so do keep coming back and please tell your colleagues all about us. Also remember to keep sending me your suggestions for content and features, these are your communities and we react to what you ask for.

As ever,  our communities are here to help you improve the success of your data migration (and now data quality!) projects so please let me know how I can help you get the most out of these free resources.

Best wishes,

Dylan Jones

Founder/Community Manager

Data Migration Pro.com

Data Quality Pro.com

Email: djones@datamigrationpro.com