Opportunity
Our client, an important player in the realm of finance, had an obvious need for performance indicators for their investment portfolios. Having bought specialized software to calculate performance metrics, it quickly became apparent that their analysis and reporting needs went far beyond what they could produce themselves.
Challenge
A first version of an information environment, comprising a relational database, a multidimensional datacube and dashboards, was introduced and seemed to meet the initial needs of a small number of lines of business. In anticipation of a rise in demand for analytics tools and dashboards, we received the mandate to help this client take their information environment to the next level, and meet the information needs of the entire firm concerning performance metrics.
Solution
Taking a progressive approach, we sent in a first Larochelle Talent, with extensive experience in data analytics, to define and build dashboards that better corresponded to the objectives of the lines of business. Then, other Larochelle Talents joined as required, to form a team. The whole solution (from processing the data of the transactional systems, to the data analysis tools, including the datamarts) was therefore improved and enhanced to enable a greater volume of data to be processed and produce more value-added information.
Today, most of the lines of business have access to over 100 performance indicators through dynamic reports, self-service tools or data services updated daily and even several times a day at month end.
An efficient, accessible information environment that meets requirements
– In addition to cubes and reports, a web interface was implemented to manage metadata and monitor overnight production, with a section for data validation.
– Thanks to this well-integrated environment, dashboards are updated automatically, providing a high level of confidence in the quality of the results.
– Information security is built in to the solution. Each department, and each hierarchical level in each department, only has access to the information they need. This limits the risk of divulging confidential information, as well as avoiding information overload.
Continuous and sustained improvement
The environment is constantly being updated and now includes :
– Three OLAP cubes – the main one comprises 10 dimensions and 130 metrics.
– Approximately 60 dynamic dashboards, published on a server and accessible by the users concerned with integrated information security management.
– A ‘What if’ module enabling line of business yields to be prevented in accordance with growth parameters.
– A user interface allowing metadata to be managed and data to be imported manually.
– Automatic management of a data service that can be used by other systems within the company.
Additional update requests come in on a regular basis. They involve new metrics and new lines of analysis, or new functionalities.
