When an education provider experienced problems with their reporting
Deloitte Analytics taught them a clear and consolidated way to manage their data
The member firm client, an education provider, was experiencing problems with their reporting systems. They were required to comply with a number of reporting requirements, both from a statutory and a governance point of view.
The current reporting system was basic and spreadsheet-based. It was carried out in a manual, ad-hoc manner with each faculty and school contributing through their own reporting function, which resulted in duplication and overlapping of material. Individual KPI’s and dashboards were created which did not align with those of the central planning function, the faculties or the schools.
The member firm client wanted a team to develop and implement an information management system to help them organize, manage and deliver information in a more effective and efficient manner. The aim was to take what was a fragmented process, which collected information and data from a range of sources, consolidate the view, and align it more closely to key business needs.
The challenge was to provide the member firm client with a robust and Reliable view of their operations, overcoming prior inefficiencies such as:
- Low level of confidence with reported information
- No standard report format
- Slow and tedious reporting
- Bottlenecks in information supply affecting timeliness and information availability
- Many small source systems in different formats across HR, Finance, and Student departments, with time wasted in locating accurate data
- Duplication of data, issues with maintaining consistency and validating data.
There was already a business intelligence and performance management software tool in use, but they needed to have a system in place which provided accurate, consistent, and reliable data. They required better access to the data in order to increase efficiency and productivity, enabling them to make better and faster decisions and giving them an ability to meet student needs more quickly and at a lower cost.
The member firm team captured a detailed view of the information requirements, current landscape architecture, information use, and the structure of the organization, working to build an information management system that better suited their needs.
An Enterprise Information Management (EIM) strategy was developed which took into consideration ‘people, process, and technology’, providing an assessment of the information management capabilities against best practice and developing a roadmap for implementation of the enterprise data warehouse.
Regular progress meetings were held to show them what to expect when the project was complete. A future reporting structure was built that cut out many unnecessary steps, simplifying the process, making it consistent and providing a ‘single source of truth’.
A new organization structure was built to outline the roles and responsibilities of the users so that it was clear to see who was responsible for each reporting task. New models were then implemented and deployed for the client, with training provided to the key users to ensure they understood the new systems and their role.
Using a solid understanding of the requirements, a tailored approach was crafted using an Enterprise Information Management (EIM) methodology, which incorporates leading industry practices across multiple dimensions of the implementation lifecycle.
The team helped the client to organize, manage, and deliver enterprise information. The methodology provided a structured approach to deliver on the key disciplines of EIM including:
- Information Management Strategy
- Information Governance
- Enterprise Data Management
- Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing
- Business Performance Management
- Data Quality Management.
The specific tailored approach focused on delivering the requirements through a holistic Management Information Strategy, by providing a strategic view across these domains. This ensured a focus on the specific requirements for user self-service, centralized data repository and modelling capability, an implementation roadmap, and governance.
The delivery of the solution, including the governance and supporting delivery framework, has provided the opportunity to further expand the solution and integrate more analytical functionality and capability.
