Business Intelligence Cloud Implementation

DDI's business intelligence (BI) tech stack consisted of a few static SSRS reports, built on an on-prem SQL stack (SQL, SSAS, SSRS, SSIS).

The technology was poorly designed and implemented, resulting in a constant flow of bugs and manual updates to keep revenue reporting remotely accurate, preventing the team from putting any real time, effort or even thought into expanding or improving the platform.

To further compound the issue, the BI Product Owner had just been let go.

Task

After four months on the job leading the customer relationship management (CRM) revitalization, I was asked to take on the full job duties of the BI Product Owner, while continuing the rapid acceleration of the CRM platform.

Action

I broke the team into two focus groups, one tasked with knocking out a reduced set of production support bugs aimed at maintaining business continuity, the other aimed at rapidly identifying an MVP model of a sustainable and scalable cloud BI platform. I then augmented that vision by roping in a handful of internal and external experts, and rapidly moved into the "build" phase.

Throughout the process I also collaborated with the Finance and Oracle ERP experts within the company to gain a very detailed understanding of the data and database.

Lastly, I spent every free moment learning Power BI, in order to gain a better understanding of the realm of the possible, the speed at which progress could and should be made, and to challenge the team on designs and commitments.

Result