revolutionizing strategic analysis
Summary
Increase Alpha was engaged by the leading market data provider to revolutionize a core information product for the Investment Banking industry. Employing leading technologies, we transformed this core product to deliver data with greater speed, accuracy and end-user flexibility.
This product is now a cutting-edge decision-making tool adopted by 49 of the 50 largest major investment banks around the world. Users are able to rapidly uncover the information they need, spending less time on data collection and report generation and more time on the most lucrative product and customer segments. Our client has experienced rising market share and customer satisfaction is rising as an increasing number of their clients adopt the new solution.
Customer Profile
The client is a leading information services company with over $12 billion in annual revenue. The company delivers business intelligence solutions through innovative technology applications to a wide variety of industries, including the legal, financial, and healthcare industries. To meet the evolving needs of its customers, our client prides itself on delivering data products with cutting-edge tools, including mobile, iPad enabled and cloud powered solutions that meet the demanding needs of its customers
Problem
As the rapid delivery of large volumes of complex information constitutes our client’s core business, it is critical that their solutions generate maximum value for customers by enabling rapid reporting, business intelligence analysis and decision-making. This product was geared for strategy leaders in the Investment Banking industry, the existing application was dated and possessed significant technical limitations – both front end and back end – that needed to be addressed with a new technology solution. A complete overhaul of the product using leading Business Intelligence technologies was deemed critical to ensure existing customer satisfaction and retention and to increase our client’s market share.
Objectives
Increase Alpha was engaged to revolutionize this product by developing an advanced decision-making tool. Our services were solicited to assess business and end user needs, envision possibilities, establish an innovative and technically robust design and execute full product development. Moreover, our team was also engaged to provide long-term implementation, customization and maintenance services for our client’s end customers in the investment banking industry following the launch of the product.
Process
Identifying High-Level Requirements
Increase Alpha employed a methodical, comprehensive and agile approach to unearthing initial business requirements. While database and system design experts analyzed the existing systems, business analysts assessed and documented client goals. The following high-level goals were established for the project:
Through our in-depth analysis of client requirements, we proposed a solution applying proven technologies in an innovative way. Employing an Agile development methodology, our team rapidly constructed a basic Proof of Concept (POC) that embodied the expressed client requirements:
Delivering the Solution
Through in-depth analyses of business requirements, our expertise leading technology platforms, and our deep commitment to driving the project forward, Rolling Forecast Solutions, LLC delivered a solution employing Microsoft Business Intelligence technologies:
Evaluation
Results and Benefits
Our extreme focus and attention-to-detail enabled our client to bring the new product to market in less than 10 months from project launch. Rapidly driving the project forward, we resolved the data conflicts and legacy issues with the OLAP database.
We developed a robust front-end application that has undergone rigorous QA testing. At present, the product has been purchased by several top tier investment banks, and numerous other investment banks are moving forward to adopt and implement the new solution. Engaged by a perpetual contract to provide deployment support to our client’s Investment Banking customers, we continue to provide a number of services, including technical implementation, data restructuring and customization, end-user training, custom report building and additional product support.
Lessons learned
Reflecting on our success, we identified four drivers that were critical to our top performance:
Increase Alpha was engaged by the leading market data provider to revolutionize a core information product for the Investment Banking industry. Employing leading technologies, we transformed this core product to deliver data with greater speed, accuracy and end-user flexibility.
This product is now a cutting-edge decision-making tool adopted by 49 of the 50 largest major investment banks around the world. Users are able to rapidly uncover the information they need, spending less time on data collection and report generation and more time on the most lucrative product and customer segments. Our client has experienced rising market share and customer satisfaction is rising as an increasing number of their clients adopt the new solution.
Customer Profile
The client is a leading information services company with over $12 billion in annual revenue. The company delivers business intelligence solutions through innovative technology applications to a wide variety of industries, including the legal, financial, and healthcare industries. To meet the evolving needs of its customers, our client prides itself on delivering data products with cutting-edge tools, including mobile, iPad enabled and cloud powered solutions that meet the demanding needs of its customers
Problem
As the rapid delivery of large volumes of complex information constitutes our client’s core business, it is critical that their solutions generate maximum value for customers by enabling rapid reporting, business intelligence analysis and decision-making. This product was geared for strategy leaders in the Investment Banking industry, the existing application was dated and possessed significant technical limitations – both front end and back end – that needed to be addressed with a new technology solution. A complete overhaul of the product using leading Business Intelligence technologies was deemed critical to ensure existing customer satisfaction and retention and to increase our client’s market share.
Objectives
Increase Alpha was engaged to revolutionize this product by developing an advanced decision-making tool. Our services were solicited to assess business and end user needs, envision possibilities, establish an innovative and technically robust design and execute full product development. Moreover, our team was also engaged to provide long-term implementation, customization and maintenance services for our client’s end customers in the investment banking industry following the launch of the product.
Process
Identifying High-Level Requirements
Increase Alpha employed a methodical, comprehensive and agile approach to unearthing initial business requirements. While database and system design experts analyzed the existing systems, business analysts assessed and documented client goals. The following high-level goals were established for the project:
- Ensure data accuracy and reliability: Underlying source data was dispersed in multiple systems throughout our client’s organization. Moreover, legacy data and poor design led to numerous data conflicts and inhibited simple product updates. Our goal was to streamline this source data into an effective back-end application that could flexibly and easily integrate with front-end interfaces.
- Optimize the product interface usability: End customers were dissatisfied by the present product capabilities. The front-end interface restricted end-user control and allowed for limited ad-hoc analysis and reporting capabilities. It was vital to ensure that the new product design would align with the needs of the end users.
- Maximize ad-hoc analysis capabilities: As value would be defined by end users by their ability to rapidly access and analyze data and to generate reports, it was deemed critical to design a business intelligence solution maximizing these capabilities.
Through our in-depth analysis of client requirements, we proposed a solution applying proven technologies in an innovative way. Employing an Agile development methodology, our team rapidly constructed a basic Proof of Concept (POC) that embodied the expressed client requirements:
- POC Back-End Development: Extracting select source data from legacy systems, we design a simplified star schema data mart to structure the source data. We then transformed the data mart into an OLAP cube to facilitate front-end integration
- POC Front-End Development: We developed a SharePoint user interface with dashboards and visualization and integrated Excel Services to demonstrate Pivot Table functionality.
Delivering the Solution
Through in-depth analyses of business requirements, our expertise leading technology platforms, and our deep commitment to driving the project forward, Rolling Forecast Solutions, LLC delivered a solution employing Microsoft Business Intelligence technologies:
- Back-end source data was organized and structured through Microsoft Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) via Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS).
- Rapid ad-hoc analysis and reporting capabilities within Microsoft Excel enabled users to drill deep into data and quickly generate reports.
- Dashboards, scorecards and data visualization in Microsoft SharePoint facilitated an intuitive end-user experience.
Evaluation
Results and Benefits
Our extreme focus and attention-to-detail enabled our client to bring the new product to market in less than 10 months from project launch. Rapidly driving the project forward, we resolved the data conflicts and legacy issues with the OLAP database.
We developed a robust front-end application that has undergone rigorous QA testing. At present, the product has been purchased by several top tier investment banks, and numerous other investment banks are moving forward to adopt and implement the new solution. Engaged by a perpetual contract to provide deployment support to our client’s Investment Banking customers, we continue to provide a number of services, including technical implementation, data restructuring and customization, end-user training, custom report building and additional product support.
Lessons learned
Reflecting on our success, we identified four drivers that were critical to our top performance:
- Solid Vision – Through our robust client assessments and feedback from end users, we maintained a strong overarching vision for the solution that incorporated the business results it was meant to achieve. Focus on this overarching vision enabled us to maintain focus as specific requirements rapidly evolved.
- Frequent Client Communication – In order to ensure this precise alignment with business requirements, clear, constant and consistent communication was deemed paramount. In line with Agile development methodologies, weekly iterations of our Analysis Server and Cube development were presented and thoroughly reviewed by the client until the development was finalized.
- Precision – It was essential that the final data mart and cube reflect the business model and the underlying data from the legacy systems. In dealing with such a large, complex dataset, great attention was given to even the smallest of details.
- End user focus – A constant focus on solving the end user’s underlying problems gave our client the ability to deliver an intuitive decision-making tool that far exceeded any other business intelligence product in the industry.