FINANCIAL DATA WAREHOUSE AND ANALYTICAL MDM

Implemented a financial data warehouse with Kalido DIW on Oracle using Cognos reporting as a front-end. Added extensions to the existing warehouse, including new subject areas. Designed and built an Analytical Master Data Management solution (using Kalido MDM), to support hierarchy management and integration of data from disparate data sources.

Accomplishments:

EUROPEAN BI SOLUTION

We acted as the overall architect with a governance and quality assurance role in the design and implementation of the BI solution, involving both a data warehouse and supporting master data solution. The technology was based on Kalido DIW and MDM on Oracle, with Informatica used for ETL. Both Cognos and Business Objects were used for BI reporting.

The BI solution involved multiple subject areas with shared core hierarchies, allowing the possibility of cross functional analysis. It was expected to expand both geographically and functionally in the following years. A complicating factor in the implementation is that different partners were used to support development in different regions and across different subject areas. Governance and security, as well as assuring adherence to standards, was a key consideration.

GLOBAL PEOPLE MDM

This MDM solution had two drivers. Firstly, to act as a Global People Data Hub, providing HR data to consuming systems that found it challenging to extract data directly from SAP HR. Secondly, the MDM solution, built with Kalido MDM, includes many complex business rules that add a level of validation to the data that cannot be effectively managed in SAP HR. The data remediation continues to be completed directly in SAP HR, with the master data flowing back into MDM to be revalidated. Strong data governance and security standards have been implemented to ensure privacy of sensitive data.

ASIA / PACIFIC BI

This solution, based on Kalido DIW and MDM, integrates financial data from 5 separate ERP instances to provide consistent and conformed reporting. MDM is used to support integration of master data from different sources as well as to manage hierarchies required for BI. Informatica is used for ETL and Business Objects for reporting.

A separate system integrator took responsibility for the actual build in Shanghai, but we defined the high-level models and laid the foundation for the architecture and approach. Well-established cooperation with this team continued throughout the project to ensure that standards were adhered to and the solution was robust and comprehensive.

KPI DATA WAREHOUSE FOR GLOBAL FINANCE AND SALES

Sales and Finance data warehouse built with Kalido DIW on Oracle using Business Objects for front-end reporting. The solution included a wide variety of complex KPIs calculated as part of the EDW design. With a central repository in Belgium, it provided a global perspective on corporate sales and supply chain performance.

CROSS FUNCTIONAL MDM FOR A CANADIAN CPG COMPANY

The initial design and build of this Kalido MDM solution aimed to integrate employee, customer and supplier information to support a call centre system. Since then the solution grew to become a master data hub responsible for both authoring master data and acting as an integration point for all master data shared by two or more systems. The solution was composed of over 400 categories (logical tables) holding more than two million subjects (logical master data rows). Master data is sourced from, and provided to, multiple systems including two separate SAPs, CRM, Planning and BI systems. The solution was also used to ease the migration from a legacy HR system to SAP HR and later the migration from Oracle ERP to SAP. Our team took on the roles of Primary Data Architect, being responsible for all modeling and design, including the specifications for ETL into the systems.

CROSS FUNCTIONAL DATA WAREHOUSE

This data warehouse built using Kalido DIW on Oracle with Informatica, Cognos Reporting and Planning, and Microsoft Analysis Services, grew into a complex, cross functional solution comprised of more than 100 dimensions, 400 master data objects and 300 fact tables. Subject areas included finance, sales, supply chain, operations and human resources. Conformed data from the data warehouse served as the source of information for reports, dashboards and analytical cubes, providing the foundation for KPI tracking, analysis, planning and reporting. In this project, we assumed the roles of Primary Data Architect and Modeler for the initial build and through the subsequent phases. We also designed and built the BI layer for versatile multidimensional applications for sales performance analysis. Users have been relying on the solution for over a decade and insisted on keeping the major architectural features when the time came to switch to more contemporary technologies in the ongoing project above.

Below are some of the customers we have worked with. References are available on request.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (global, Europe and Asia)
Abbott Laboratories
Labatt Breweries of Canada
AbbVie
ING
CIBC
Insurance Bureau of Canada
Cinergy
EMC