Business transformations
Revisiting core business processes is an opportune time to rationalize business metadata structures and content to attune them with business reporting and analytical structures in the transformed target environment.
den Karte provides the arms-length perspective to
- design business metadata content and processes aligned with the measurement and analysis needs in the transformed target environment
- develop a migration path from existing business metadata content and processes to target state
- provide a business voice into technical design of business metadata tools and propagation
- incorporate target state business metadata framework into data governance program
… which positions the client to improve reporting efficiency and cost-effectiveness while promoting the goals of the business transformation program.
Merger integration
Adding new affiliates requires creating and validating the business rules to transform the affiliate’s financial and other metadata into existing corporate reporting domains (eg ledger accounts, products, channels, segments and other report elements).
den Karte provides the resources and experience that …
- expedites developing and validating the maps and rules to conform the new affiliate’s data to enterprise reporting needs;
- provide business input into framing technical requirements for data transformation and movement necessary to support interim reporting;
- design interim processes to assure data consistency prior to the affiliate’s back office integration;
… which permits key personnel to concentrate less on the mechanics of mapping the acquired organization (which can be ugly and time-consuming) and more time focused on validation and the bona fide issues that arise during the early stages of integration.
In addition, during later phases, den Karte can …
- support data translation and data validation during the affiliate’s conversion to enterprise systems
- support conversion testing and communication programs with information on the pro forma post-conversion view
- create archival reconciliation detail to substantiate the conversion results
- extend data governance coverage to the new affiliate’s content
… to assure the best possible conversion results
Major systems implementations and ERP, warehouse or BI implementations
Bringing a new system online typically requires defining a number of business rules, establishing new codes, and mapping results from operational and administrative systems into financial and other enterprise reporting.
If these processes are not executed well, the overall success of the implementation can be jeopardized. Reviews of
business metadata are frequently overlooked or under-scoped during systems implementations, but a well designed review as
part of the implementation program can be an opportunity to meet or exceed business expectations.
To support systems implementations, den Karte can …
- analyze usage and impacts of descriptive data elements (within the new system and for upstream and downstream providers and consumers)
- develop values for required data elements
- incorporate maintenance processes for new data elements into the data governance process
- rationalize codes to assure they are as consistent as possible to existing reporting
- identify new codes or combination of codes that upstream or downstream systems may need to accommodate and determine modifications necessary to translation business rules and maps
- determine incremental analysis and reporting needs for the new products or functions supported by the new system(s)
- support data translation (maps and business rules) to integrate data from the new platform into enterprise reporting and analytical processes
- facilitate the flow of information between business and technology stakeholders
Organizational and data quality initiatives
From time-to-time, organizations launch initiatives to clean up operational issues or address gaps in data content or quality. These are often short-lived (a few months or quarters) and typically targeted at specific areas.
During these initiatives, den Karte can
- provide a review of applicable current state data governance and data recon and control for targeted areas or functions
- analyze business metadata content and recommend improvements that to further the goals of the initiative and improve consistency and efficiency of subsequent reporting and analysis
- provide a business voice for technical design matters resulting from the initiative
- perform data analysis to support issue identification and resolution
Data Recon and Control
An effective data quality feedback loop requires active and ongoing reconciliation and validation testing and control processes that identify and escalate exceptions and track their resolution.
To help clients improve data quality, den Karte can
- analyze current control processes
- translate data governance objectives into reconciliation and validation rules
- configure reconciliation and validation rules in client’s data quality monitoring tools
- create exception-based reporting necessary to establish the data control portion of the feedback loop
Data Governance
Clearly defined business rules and crisply executed change control processes for updates to business metadata are the foundation of the data quality feedback loop.
For clients implementing data governance functions, den Karte can
- identify key data governance stakeholders
- design policies and procedures for the data governance function
- prioritize target governance areas for the new function which will permit the nascent governance team to maximize their effectiveness and establish their credibility
For clients extending data governance to new subject matters, den Karte can help to
- analyze increment governance needs
- map business metadata content into enterprise target data structures
- integrate existing governance functions into enterprise target functions
- conform new business rules into existing governance approach
Operational change control processes
Data governance is only as effective as the change control processes that implement governance initiatives.
den Karte can help clients
- design change control processes and work flows that incorporate key stakeholders from change request submission through review and approval and ultimately testing and implementation steps
- formulate change control communications to stakeholders
- determine required paths and methods to propagate business metadata content changes to appropriate systems components
Functional discovery
Functional discovery results from monitoring the data control process as exceptions are identified by the reconciliation and validation activities. These discoveries may be unexpected results from data governance changes, previously unidentified conditions in the data, or changes in source systems than occurred outside the data governance process.
den Karte can
- help clients establish control reporting that assures that functional discoveries are communicated to the appropriate audiences
- perform data reviews to identify reconciliation or validation issues in data repositories
- analyze data sourcing (inbound interface data and transformation rules) to identify potential gaps or conditions that are likely to create data exceptions
- review completeness of business rules being applied to reconcile and validate data
Rationalized business metadata
The term business metadata covers a broad group of topics:
- dimensional reporting domains (members, hierarchies, properties) used to organize and present data for the chart of accounts and other reporting dimensions
- transformation and derivation rules used to assign dimensional attributes and enrich data as it migrates across the information landscape
- reconciliation and validation rules for data control and measure compliance with data governance directives
Rationalizing business metadata content includes reviewing:
- individual dimensional domains to make them as comprehensive and as compact as possible
- dimensional hierarchies provide meaningful aggregation and navigation of underlying data
- interactions among dimensions to assure dimensions work efficiently together and intersections of dimensional domains provide relevant analytical information
- completeness of transformation, reconciliation and validation rules
den Karte brings the experience to help clients construct an integrated reference taxonomy that supports efficient and effective reporting and analysis.
Compact domains
Why is it important to keep dimensional reporting domains compact?
- From a business perspective, rationalized dimensional content with compact dimensions mean that classifications can be more precise, errors and ambiguity can be reduced, and reports can be designed and maintained more easily.
- From a technical perspective, larger dimensions lead to degradation in various functions, including longer data loads and backups, slower report execution, and ultimately less satisfied users.