BI – Overcoming Challenges

Mary Woodman

Communication & Training Lead, BI Systems

Phidias Burnell

BI Project Manager

Danny Lim

BI Systems Manager

1

Victoria University Profile

� Located in Melbourne

� Multi sector, HE & VE &FE

� 10 onshore campuses

� Circa 2500 EFT staff

� 2011 – Circa 50,000 students

� 2011 - new VC and Strategic Plan

2

1999

3

1999 - VU launches Data Warehouse

� IBM Redbrick, Informix, BusinessObjects (BO)

� Main data sources – SMS, Govt. files, VTAC, Surveys

� DW team = 4

� Users:

� BusinessObjects – grew to circa 300

� Non-tool users – 1000s

� Served VU well, providing operational & strategic reporting capability

4

2007

5

2007 – Decision to Upgrade BusinessObjects

� Version of BO soon to be ‘out of life’ and

maintenance

� Possible conflicts with latter versions of Windows

OS

� Decision to upgrade BO to a web based version

� Provision of better reporting capability and

deployment options

� Project sponsor, scope and budget organised6

2008 – ‘Yes we Can’

7

2008 – Project to upgrade BusinessObjects

� BO Upgrade Project in full swing

� What needs to be converted?

� Consultants engaged to assist with technical

conversion process

� Communication to user community

commences

8

2009

9

2009 – New SMS and Data Warehouse

� VU announces plans for new Student

Management System (SMS) - Callista

� Senior management changes

� Tender process for new BI toolset takes place

� [Oracle] OBIEE & ODI selected

� Data Warehouse Conversion Project announced

� New DW to source student data from new SMS

10

2010

11

2010 – Change of Plans!

� Various stops and starts:

• Changes to DW Conversion Project scope

• 3 different project managers in less than 12

months

• More changes to senior management

� Team morale low

12

2011

13

2011 – BI Project announced

� 2 different executive sponsors

� Team resourced and consultants engaged

� Project scope established and strategy papers written

� Governance – steering committee established

� Deliver strategic BI solution to VU

� Business engagement begins

� Prototype development completed14

2012

15

2012 – BI Project continues…

� BI Project engages with key stakeholders to

gather business requirements

� Development continues

� May 2012 – new SMS is launched

� New (3rd) executive sponsor engaged

� Maintenance of legacy systems continues

� Pilot group of users engaged and trained

16

Success factors

• Engagement

• Requirements & Scope

• Design & Development

• The Team

Steps taken so far

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Project Approach

Proof of concept

Data Migration

First release

Environment configuration

Project Governance

Pilot Group

Ways of working

High level Requirements

Detailed Requirements

Advanced Project Users

Engagement

Internal ProjectOn boarded resources

Requirements and Business Engagement

Strategy execution

planning

Strategy execution

planning

Daily Management &

Operational Planning

Daily Management &

Operational Planning

Operational ExecutionOperational Execution

Strategy DevelopmentStrategy DevelopmentThemes/Concepts –Summarised High level

Requirements

High level requirements

Detailed requirements

– Function specific

Detailed requirements –Role specific

Requirement Type

Strategic

Management

Operational

Management

Team Members

Project

starts with

loose scope

Team Structure

Steering Committee

Business

Analyst

(x1)

Executive Leadership Team

Senior Management

Management

Team Members

Pilot

GroupChange

Advocates

(x30)

BI Team Business

Business

Requirements

Data

Warehouse/

Business

Intelligence

Analysts

(x4)

System

(x1)

System

Administrator

(x1)

Report

Writers

(x6)

SME

(x5)

Training &

(x1)

Training &

Comms

(x1)

Release

(x1)

Release

Manager

(x1)

Application Design

and Development

Architect

(x1)

Business

Deployment

Source

System

Staging

Integration

Metadata Model

Queries,

Dashboards

BI Architecture Stack

• Integration Area

• Source systems

• SMS, VTAC, (Finance, HR … )

• Staging Area

• extracted data, DW reference data …Ora

cle

OD

I • ETL Processes

• extract, load, transform, cleanse data …

Ora

cle

OB

IEE

• 3 – layer Metadata Model

• Presentation Layer

• Logical Business Semantic

Layer

• Physical layer

• Decision Support

• Strategic Reporting

• Queries, Dashboards

PhysicalBusinessPresentation

Metadata Model

ETL, DB

Structures

Queries,

Dashboards

Metadata Model

ETL, DB

Structures

Development

3-6 Wks

Requirements

1-3 Wks

Testing

2 Wks

UA Testing

2 WkDeployment

Metadata Model

Queries,

Dashboards

ETL, DB

Structures

Dev Test Train

Training

UAT Prod & DR

Metadata Model

Queries,

Dashboards

ETL, DB

Structures

Metadata Model

Queries,

Dashboards

ETL, DB

Structures

Development Life-Cycle

Package

Monthly

Releases

Monthly

Releases

SVN

Development and Deployment Process

Where to from here….

SEP 2011 – FEB 2012 FEB – JUN 2012 JUN – DEC 2012 JAN 2013 - Onwards

Building

awareness…….

�Defining

approach

� Setup the

project and

team

�Proof of concept

Understanding

how it works……

� Information

sessions

�Obtain high level

requirements

(User stories &

Themes)

New ways of

working……

� Trial the new

process

�Using BI to

support decision

making

Maximising the

benefits……

�Remove

uncertainties

from decision

making

�Proactive ways

of working

�Optimise the

solution