The importance of Business Intelligence spans industries and types of organizations. Having accurate, immediately available reporting makes the most of any type of organizational data, from customer/client information to supply chains and beyond. The need to manage complex information is universal.
DataTerrain recently had the opportunity to work with a major for-profit college, illustrating yet another industry utilizing modern BI technology. This American institution was using SAP Crystal Reports in the PeopleSoft application, and brought DataTerrain onboard to perform automated transition to Oracle BI Publisher-based PeopleSoft reports. Over the course of the two-month project, several reports were successfully converted to the new reporting system.
The DataTerrain team understood the critical nature of the reports, and initiated the project with a comprehensive approach to gathering requirements. After careful analysis of the client’s stated needs, DataTerrain recommended a method of upgradation, and went on to develop an end state architectural design, a keep/drop decisions matrix, a testing strategy, and a step-by-step plan for implementation of the PeopleSoft platform.
This detailed plan included the continuous involvement of the client’s IT team at every stage of the upgrade process, ensuring that all involved parties remained on the same page, that requirements were under constant consideration, and that the transfer of reports (and the surrounding knowledge) happened in an efficient, timely manner. DataTerrain also conducted early user previews during the development stages to avoid any requirement gaps that may have occurred in the initial exploratory and gathering phases.
Continuing this trend of close collaboration with the client, DataTerrain team members interacted with members of the client’s organization on a weekly basis, discussing any arising problems, new requirements, or difficulties navigating the upgraded BI and reporting platform. All reports were successfully migrated and converted to PeopleSoft via DataTerrain’s automation tools, allowing for on-time delivery and zero bugs reported by the client.
DataTerrain’s team of developers efficiently worked in PeopleSoft code (PeopleCode) to embed the new reports and dashboards to be integrated in the enterprise application. The team worked to understand the existing application coding standards and features before moving on to modify the code. Our team developed extensive documentation on the existing application code and changes being made for any future reference. All modifications to the code were done by the DataTerrain team so that the customer experienced a seamless transition experience. Our team conducted training sessions for the customer along the transition to the new reporting system, backed by continued hands-on support.
It is critical to note the look and feel of the reports were one of the conditions of this transition to the new system of reporting. The similar look and feel means that formats / buttons / filters / parameters are placed similarly to the legacy reports. DataTerrain has followed best practices and utilized the new features in the new reporting system keeping track of functionality of the legacy reports. The similarity in functionality saves the years of efforts in building the reports in the first place. All the reports have a specific goal to deliver and the team works to ensure that goal can be carried on in the new systems unless the customer requires any change. The continuity to the new systems with the familiar functionality reduces the training time taken to prepare the users to the new system and greatly enhances the usage of reports.
The DataTerrain team for this project consisted of experienced developers, testers and project managers. Each member of the team worked directly and diligently with client leaders and IT staff to understand specific needs, how the client has been using their existing reporting technology, and the advantages they aimed to receive through upgradation. DataTerrain team follows the customer change management process so that the teams from the customer side of the project are fully up to date on the progress. This clearly helps all the members of the project to be in sync as progress is made on many fronts such as PeopleCode, reports and dashboards.
The client, a fully accredited American college with undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs, fully embraced the architecture and features proposed by DataTerrain. The close collaboration between the two organizations ultimately led to beyond satisfactory results for the college, and new development opportunities for the team implementing the upgraded Business Intelligence solution.
Working across industries can sometimes present challenges, but DataTerrain takes pride in seeing each of these opportunities as a way to deepen the team’s overall understanding of BI needs, and embraces the chance to create customized reporting solutions for clientele of all kinds.
To learn more about DataTerrain’s automation tools, and how state of the art Business Intelligence can benefit your organization, visit https://dataterrain.com/.