Managed Services
BUSINESS LEADERS increasingly recognise the vital need to better utilise information to support effective business processes, enable improved decision-making, and monitor and track performance. The information needs and solutions vary by organisation. Many, for example, seek a shared and comprehensive source of worldwide customer information, while others may determine that information focused on supplier relationships, financial data, human resources, or enterprise performance management will yield the greatest value. Regardless of the area, these valued information assets are enabling organisations to better integrate across functions and geography, and to tap into the islands of information that have been created over time. When brought together, this information can provide valuable insight to all levels of management, providing attractive financial returns.
The costs for a data warehouse fall into two categories: the initial one-time costs of building and implementing the first development increment, and the ongoing costs of running the system. According to the Gartner Group, a data warehouse implementation budget is typically broken down into 34% hardware, 33% software and development services 33%. When full life-cycle costs for a data warehouse are considered, there is a shift away from capital costs of hardware and software (15% each) to maintenance (40%) and development (30%) services. These statistics demonstrate that the implementation of a data warehouse is an ongoing process. As the business refines and challenges its operations and strategies, the solution must accommodate the resultant business changes as well as process the large volume of data that will be stored and analysed.
The costs for a data warehouse fall into two categories: the initial one-time costs of building and implementing the first development increment, and the ongoing costs of running the system. According to the Gartner Group, a data warehouse implementation budget is typically broken down into 34% hardware, 33% software and development services 33%. When full life-cycle costs for a data warehouse are considered, there is a shift away from capital costs of hardware and software (15% each) to maintenance (40%) and development (30%) services. These statistics demonstrate that the implementation of a data warehouse is an ongoing process. As the business refines and challenges its operations and strategies, the solution must accommodate the resultant business changes as well as process the large volume of data that will be stored and analysed.
The Challenge
Strategic investments in Data Warehouse & Business Intelligence solutions require ongoing access to experience and expertise to maximise the benefits available from the solution. But in today’s dynamic job market this experience is scarce, mobile and, expensive to hire, retain and provide ongoing training and development opportunities to ensure currency of experience and skills. In addition, business peaks and troughs hardly ever match the resource availability so staff utilisation is often not maximised. Hence many organisations have failed in their attempt to successfully implement a data warehouse programme of work that supports the business in the way envisaged by the business users, whilst supporting the ongoing activities necessary to keep the data warehouse application operational.
Scope of Services
Managed Services from BISOFT Business-As-Usual are the total solution for maintenance and support of your data warehouse. The services cover the complete maintenance cycle and are customised to your organisation’s requirements. With this service your entire data warehouse application is maintained by BISOFT Business-As-Usual and offers the direct availability of our expertise, during agreed-upon periods, thus ensuring that the business activities supported by your data warehouse are not disrupted. There are three components to the services:
1 Reactive Managed Services
These are the activities necessary to keep the application operational and hence are performed as a priority. They include:
- Administrative activities (ensure appropriate procedures, standards are being followed, configuration management, maintenance of user ids, etc.)
- Communication activities (the business community is aware of the enhancement release schedule)
- Monitoring activities such as database tuning, ensuring data is loaded correctly and modifying indexes
- Ensuring users issues are resolved (may need to educate the users about the correct use of the application)
- Ensuring data issues are resolved (may need data correction at source or resolution of a software error)
- Logging enhancement requests
- Resolving errors in the production version of the application
2 Proactive Managed Services
These are minor ad-hoc changes that do not fundamentally alter the existing application, for example enhancements to existing summary structures to reflect evolving user requirements, modifications to data acquisition functionality or ad-hoc data loads.
3 Incremental Managed Services
Potential enhancements are identified, the scope defined and costs to implement worked out then presented to the Steering Group for approval and prioritisation. In order to complete the development projects, additional consultants may be needed to supplement the existing support team.
Customer Benefits
Choosing BISOFT Business-As-Usual Data Warehouse Managed Services provides you with the following benefits:
- Reduced risk associated with the retention of quality and critical resources particularly when they are often not needed on a full time basis
- Long-term commitment from both sides builds better working relationships and an understanding of your organisation and “how it works”
- Better development service managed and delivered by a team of professionals with a track record of success who use tried and tested Project Management and Data Warehouse Implementation Methodologies
- Ability to plan ahead with fixed running costs at agreed service levels
Getting Started
Managed Services are priced on an annual basis to provide the type of support needed for your business with a guaranteed minimum number of experienced consultants delivering either full or part-time support. The average hourly rate depends on the mix of resources needed but could start as low as $80* per hour and rise to $110* per hour. Typically there are two ways to get started:
BISOFT has the expertise to put data warehousing to work for you. Our consultants work with data warehouses of almost any size – from single area data warehouses to total enterprise implementations – and can support the entire solution life-cycle from strategy and planning through data warehouse development and ongoing support.
*Exclusive of GST and expenses.
- BISOFT consultants involved in the data warehouse from the outset through one of the standard services offered such as strategy or assessment
- Data Warehouse already operational and BISOFT consultants have had no involvement
>> At the start conduct a Managed Service Data Warehouse Assessment covering all functional and technical aspects of the application and its use. The objective being to understand the scope and nature of the data warehouse and create a baseline from which to commence the Managed Services.
>> The outcome from the assessment is a roadmap to address the shortfalls in the current Data Warehouse including any re-architecture or re-engineering required. The Roadmap provides the framework for on-going data warehousing development and deployment and once agreed becomes the basis for the Reactive, Proactive and Incremental Development services.
BISOFT has the expertise to put data warehousing to work for you. Our consultants work with data warehouses of almost any size – from single area data warehouses to total enterprise implementations – and can support the entire solution life-cycle from strategy and planning through data warehouse development and ongoing support.
*Exclusive of GST and expenses.