© 2012 BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Inc., an Independent Licensee of the BlueCross BlueShield Association. Evolution

© 2012 BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Inc., an Independent Licensee of the BlueCross BlueShield Association.

Evolution of a Business Intelligence Organization

Gary Brock

Team Lead, Business Intelligence / Performance

[email protected]

Introduction

Business Intelligence / Performance ManagementEvolution of a Business Intelligence Organization

►BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) is Tennessee’s largest provider of health coverage, insurance products, and services. Representing more than 3.1 million member-clients, BCBST pays more than $9.7 billion in health care benefits annually while employing more than 5,300 people.

►Frank Brooks is the Director, Data Management and Information Delivery and the Chief Data Architect.

►His responsibilities include oversight of the Data Integration and Governance, Operational Analytics, Business Intelligence / Performance Management, Information Management Health Informatics, and Information Management Business Informatics departments.

►He is also heavily involved in developing strategy for Information Management subjects across BCBST.

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Introduction


►Brian Green is the Manager of the Business Intelligence / Performance Management (BI/PM) department.

►His responsibilities include management and oversight of BI Reporting, Information Delivery, Analytics, Performance Management, Financial Intelligence, and Environmental Support & Governance.

►BI/PM is a Development and Support organization for internal and external customers.

►Staff includes 30 FTE’s – Systems Analysts, IM Analysts, Technical Analysts, Developers, and BI Specialists.

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Introduction


►I retired from the US Air Force, where I served in numerous roles, completing my Air Force career as a department manager of software development and Business Intelligence.

►After retiring from the USAF, I served as a BI professional within the manufacturing industry.

►I am currently a Team Lead and Systems Analyst in BI/PM and have been with BCBST for over 6 years.

►Responsibilities include management and oversight of Reporting, Information Delivery, and Environmental Support & Governance functions.

►Additional responsibilities include resource management; production support for COGNOS, Microsoft, and SAS environments; with shared responsibility for organizational strategy and process improvement.

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Overview


►Whether by accident, force, or a conscious decision, every organization evolves.

►Over the years, we have attempted to make solid decisions to evolve with the goal of serving the needs of business.

►We have aligned ourselves with corporate and division strategy.

► We provide support to every aspect of the enterprise with:

►Reports.

►Analytics.

►Scorecards.

►Financial Management.

►Applications.

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Beginnings

►In 1986, a Data Resource Management Charter drove the creation of a DRM function.

DBAs / Data Analysts

- Logical database design

- Physical database design

- Performance tuning

- Data Management


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►In 1994, a white paper drove the design of this simple Data Warehouse Architecture.

SOURCE DATA

DATA MARTS

BI TOOLS

ENTERPRISEDATAWAREHOUSE

ETL

Operational Environment

InformationalEnvironment

ETL

Beginnings


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Evolution

►In 1996:

►Data Warehouse Architecture Drove the Organization of Staff.

►Enterprise Data Warehouse was established.

►COGNOS was incorporated into the tool set.

►The Data Resource Management function was organized into a department of three teams to support the data integration, database administration, and business intelligence functions.


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DATA

INTEGRATION

DATABASE

ADMINISTRATIONBUSINESS

INTELLIGENCE

DRM

ETL Processes

EDW / Data Marts

DW Support

Logical Database Design

Physical Database Design

Performance Tuning

Administration

BI Application Development

IM Architecture

BI Training and Support

BUSINESS AREAS

data knowledgetool k

nowledgedata access knowledge

Evolution


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Evolution

►Growth of Data Resource Management area:

►1986 – Team of 5.

►1996 – 3 teams.

►2006 – 3 departments.

►2008 – 5 departments.

►2010 – Became Data Management / Information Delivery to focus on current responsibilities.

►2012 – BI Users:

►Internal ~2,300.

►External ~3,400.


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Evolution


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Data Integration Business Intelligence/ Performance Mgt

Brian Green

IM BusinessInformatics

Frank BrooksDirector

Data Management and Information Delivery

Exec. AdminAssistant

OperationalAnalytics

IM HealthInformatics

ClericalAssistant

►2012 – 160 Staff.

Evolution of BI


►Since 1996 we have experienced steady growth in our ability to deliver Business Intelligence to the Enterprise.

►In 2010, we realized that we had hit a plateau in our growth.

►We knew that we needed to make changes to continue supporting the needs of the enterprise.

►We also realized that we were doing the same things we had been doing for several years.

•EDW •Cognos1996

Standard Reporting and Web tools

2000External Client Analytics App

2004CPM – Budget, Planning

2006 ?2010

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Albert Einstein

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►Because we felt that we had reached a plateau, we wanted to take proactive steps to bolster our growth.

►The leadership of BI/PM began evaluating:

►How our staff was organized.

►What tools we had available.

►External resources (Gartner’s BI Maturity Model, Industry Best Practices, etc.).

►Our alignment to business and corporate strategy.

►The growing needs of our customers.

►We decided that we needed to make organized, decisive changes.

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Cognos Microsoft IM ArchitectureCognos Cube Builds VB.NET / ASP.NET IM InfrastructureCognos Dashboards/Scorecards MS BI - SSRS/SSIS/SSAS IM Tech SupportCEP Development & Support SQL Server SAS Tech SupportCognos Frameworks Microsoft Administrative Support IM Proof-of-Concept R&DCognos Reporting ~.NET / SSRS Training Data Integration SupportCognos Administrative Support ~BI/PM Mailbox Support ~Security ~SSRS Security for IR ~BI/PM Mailboxes support Cognos License Tracking App ~Cognos Support & Training Support ~Cognos Licenses Tracking BI/PM Status Application Support ~Cognos Invoices Tracking BI/PM Website Support ARC Client Training Support

►Our organization was aligned with technology, three teams focused on:

►COGNOS development.

►Microsoft .NET and BI technology development.

►System Architecture Support.

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►We researched:

►Insurance Industry best practices.

►IT best practices and standards.

►Other BI organizations.

►Gartner’s BI Maturity Model.

►We evaluated our staff’s:

►Skills and knowledge.

►Current assignments.

►Future personal goals.

Evaluation

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►We discovered that we:

►Were organized by platform rather than business need.

►Were not optimized for new strategic development.

►Had limited personal development opportunities for staff.

►Were not measured by BI Maturity.

►Lacked strategic planning.

Evaluation

“Life is tough. Life is tougher if you are stupid.” John Wayne

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►We wanted our future organization to:

►Provide visibility and resources to multiple high-priority initiatives.

►Align by business function and BI core competencies, not by technical platform.

►Monitor and measure BI Return On Investment.

►Create and follow a documented strategy.

►Provide leadership opportunities to staff.

Evaluation

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►We wanted to take control of our future.

Evaluation

“I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

Jimmy Dean

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►We began our assessments and planning in April 2010.

►Our efforts were collaborative.

►We incorporated research and BI best practices.

►We set the expectation that we would move from a technology centric focus to a competency centric focus.

►We then began the reorganization ensuring:

►Skill sets were appropriately aligned to responsibility.

►Each team member had primary and secondary responsibilities.

Implementation

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New Organizational Model

Environmental Support & Governance

Manager

Team Lead Team Lead

Performance Management Analytics Financial

Intelligence ReportingInformation

Delivery Optimization

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Manager

Team Lead Team Lead





►Develop performance management standards and best practices toward monitoring and managing performance of corporate processes and services.

►Develop a common and reusable performance management architecture.

►Focus on the right information, right time, and right format toward delivery of performance management tools.

Performance Management

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Manager

Team Lead Team Lead





►Develop expertise and best practices for the use of tools available at BCBST that are analytical in nature, to support production MOLAP (multi-dimensional on-line analytical processing) cubes, and to support SAS end users.

►Enable corporate staff to enhance their contribution to the success of the corporation.

Analytics

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►Provide financial analytic solutions that assist our users in making better financial decisions.

►Partner with our users, making good use of the IT resources available, and provide excellent support of all solutions.

Financial Intelligence


Manager

Team Lead Team Lead




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Manager

Team Lead Team Lead




Evolution


►Deliver world class reporting solutions to the enterprise and constituents.

►Develop best practices in reporting.

►Develop strategic objectives.

►Maintain a team of well-trained talent and manage the talent to meet enterprise objectives.

Reporting

Implementation

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Manager

Team Lead Team Lead




Evolution


►Ensure that BI data is consistently retrieved and presented.

►Provide access to data in a secure and timely fashion through reusable services.

►Ensure consistency of presentation layer for all BI domains.

►Develop standards and best practices for information delivery.

Information Delivery Optimization

Implementation

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Manager

Team Lead Team Lead





►Facilitate process optimization, documentation, monitoring, and control within BI/PM.

►Establish standards based on internal and industry wide best practices.

►Monitor performance to achieve quality standards and promote business value.


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►More aligned with corporate strategies.

►More aligned with BI competencies.

►Following a departmental strategy.

►Increased rigor around projects.

►Increased ability to prioritize work.

►Increased communications across department.

►Higher standards being implemented.

Results

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►Weekly leadership meetings to communicate:

►Corporate initiatives that may impact in-flight projects.

►High risk project status and issues.

►New projects in work.

►Departmental goals – progress and next steps.

►Departmental budget status.

►Staff issues/needs.

►Departmental strategic planning.

Results

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►Weekly Change Advisory Board meeting to discuss:

►Open incidents/interactions.

►Review completed production/environment changes.

►Review scheduled production/environment changes.

►Coordinate changes to minimize impact to other initiatives.

►Review infrastructure issues for key projects and applications.

►Review process Changes.

Results

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►Increased interdepartmental communication and coordination.

►Established policies to support auditing requirements.

►Work is aligned with skills.

►Opportunities for career progression.

►Increased responsibilities for all staff.

Results

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►Business Intelligence functions began before we knew what Business Intelligence was.

►Our organization has grown our ability to service our customers.

►When we felt we had stagnated, we conducted a self examination.

►We looked at our current condition and compared ourselves to other similar organizations as well as industry standards.

►We set a course for change and implemented those changes.

►We have experienced very positive results – but we have also identified additional gaps that we can now concentrate on.

Summary

Implementation

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One of our goals was to better understand our customers’ requests and deliver solutions with higher quality.

Summary

Implementation

We wanted to get away from the mentality that “we know what they want and need”.

Questions

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►Our biggest lessons?

►Listen and understand!

►Do better planning!

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Abraham Lincoln

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Questions

?


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Documents

© 2012 BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Inc., an Independent Licensee of the BlueCross BlueShield Association. Evolution