Redwing Greenfield BI: our work with clients

Redwing Greenfield BI: our work with clients

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  Business Intelligence White Paper GreenfieldBusiness Intelligence Our Work with Clients Redwing Business Intelligence Ltd Version 2.2
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  Redwing White PaperGreenfield Business Intelligence © Redwing Business Intelligence Limited 2002 – 2015 Page 2 of 6 Overview Redwing Business Intelligence has been assisting organisations achieve higher performance through provision of actionable information since 2010. The principals of Redwing have been working in business intelligence for the past twenty years. Redwing’s view of business intelligence is that it is first and foremost a business programme, which should deliver value to the business, in terms of improved efficiency and effectiveness to the organisation’s business processes. Technology is only relevant as an enabler. Creation of strategically managed frameworks and business intelligence delivery programmes in greenfield sites has been a central part of Redwing’s delivery to clients over the years. Redwing has done much greenfield work and it is one of our specialties. Over this time, we have developed many intellectual assets, which have been pooled and made available to clients through our work at Redwing. We’ve delivered a complete business intelligence programme to clients as diverse as We Buy Any Car and Cardiff University. We’ve done much work in the NHS. Whilst Redwing retains the intellectual property rights, clients get the fruits of the work and the ability to carry on and expand, using the foundation provided. Redwing provide four main asset bases to clients: Methodology. Redwing has created a methodology specifically for business intelligence. It is called Evolutionary Development Methodology® and it is based on the principles of collaboration, iteration, and incremental development. Product delivery is done in iterations called Releases, prioritised in order of value to the business. Architecture. Redwing has created a layered architecture specifically for business intelligence. It is a principles-based architecture, and its origins go back to the 1980s, to a multi-client research service that was called PRISM (Partnership for Research in Information Systems Management). Out of this grew the concept that architectures should be based on principles; something seen today in the TOGAF framework promulgated by The Open Group, and in the Redwing Business Intelligence Architecture. Software. Redwing has done much work over the years for a variety of organisations. The three main sectors have been Financial (banking, pensions and insurance), the National Health Service, and Retail. During the last two decades, Redwing has accumulated a number of substantial software assets, such as a data warehouse for higher education. Redwing has made these software assets available to client organisations, frequently using them as the foundation to put in place a total solution. Staff development. Redwing works with the client organisation to deliver the first few Releases. During this process, Redwing works directly with client staff, providing coaching and mentoring throughout the entire time. At the conclusion of the engagement, the client staff are trained and able to continue to move the programme forward. In addition, Redwing has pre-defined organisational structures and job descriptions that can be made available to create a greenfield team from scratch. Redwing’s SlideShare presentations on greenfield business intelligence (in the NHS) have been viewed over a thousand times each. You can see them here and here.
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  Redwing White PaperGreenfield Business Intelligence © Redwing Business Intelligence Limited 2002 – 2015 Page 3 of 6 Methodology Evolutionary Development Methodology® (EDM®) is an agile business-driven methodology based on spirals within spirals. It begins with assessing the business case, then defining the work functionally, and then prioritising each piece of work in order of value to the business. Each piece of work — each Release — is a product that delivers actionable information to a defined audience. Strong governance mechanisms exist for this entire process.
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  Redwing White PaperGreenfield Business Intelligence © Redwing Business Intelligence Limited 2002 – 2015 Page 4 of 6 Architecture Redwing’s architecture has developed and evolved from prior work at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The author was a Principal Consultant for DEC, and as a Digital Architecture specialist, trained in Atlanta, Georgia, was very active in both developing and evolving architecture for DEC, and also in applying architectural solutions for DEC’s clients. After DEC broke up in the 1990s, the author continued to evolve the architectural method; it has been an integral part of Redwing’s business intelligence offering for the last fifteen years. It’s a layered architecture, and there are documents for each layer. Here’s the overall picture: Note that the higher layers tend to be more client-specific; whilst the lower layers tend to be similar between clients. You can see an example of a Business Architecture for a Mental Health Trust on SlideShare.
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  Redwing White PaperGreenfield Business Intelligence © Redwing Business Intelligence Limited 2002 – 2015 Page 5 of 6 Software Redwing has accumulated a substantial amount of software assets over the years. Some of these form the basis of Redwing’s Software-as-a-Service products for the NHS. There is a complete Integrated Governance data warehouse covering Incidents, Communications, Risks, etc. There is a data warehouse for hospitals. Redwing did a substantial amount of pro bono work for Edge Hill University. As part of that work, Redwing developed a complete prototype Higher Education business intelligence system, and gave it to Edge Hill University. Here is the data warehouse: And here’s a sample output:
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  Redwing White PaperGreenfield Business Intelligence © Redwing Business Intelligence Limited 2002 – 2015 Page 6 of 6 Staffing In the previous section, the Edge Hill prototype was mentioned. When Redwing took over the business intelligence programme at Cardiff University, one of the first actions was to install the Edge Hill prototype. This prototype served as a model solution, for training purposes. When questions arose about data structures, or solution management, staff already had a model solution to refer to. Redwing’s philosophy is that whilst the Redwing approach may not be the theoretical best, it is proven to work, and therefore it should be followed until the greenfield programme is thoroughly established and is no longer greenfield. This keeps staff focused on product delivery, rather than anything else. In the Overview, it was mentioned that Redwing has pre-defined organisational structures and job descriptions. Here are the essential organisational components: Here’s a chart showing technical skill requirements: