I offer the following services on a consulting or project basis:
Data science, analytics and business intelligence competency management: It is very important that the appropriate competency centre is properly placed in the organisation, correctly funded, well managed internally and the appropriate communication and interaction channels are established and followed. I assist organisations in setting up and managing their data science, analytics and BI competency centres, which includes their strategy (below), structuring and staffing the competency, establishing and managing their pipeline of work, the way in which work is performed and controlled, managing SLAs with the business and source system owners, and ensuring that their format and pace of delivery matches the requirements and demands from the business.
Strategy: I draw up and assist organisations to implement their data science, analytics or business intelligence strategy. This includes analysing, documenting and prioritising contents and phasing the implementation according to business priorities. A strategy includes aspects such as organisational positioning and management, funding, implementation teams, technical and information architectures, methodology, data quality, data governance, and much more. The implementation has to be tracked for schedule adherence and business alignment – I assist organisations to draw up the necessary KPIs and implement mechanisms to monitor and track these. The end product is a prioritised roadmap to implement and track the data science, analytics or business intelligence implementation strategy.
Facilitation: A big challenge often is getting executives and other decision-makers to agree on what needs to be measured when implementing strategic initiatives, the standard definitions of KPIs, and the implementation priorities of such initiatives. I facilitate interactive workshops to drive out these aspects, get agreement, consolidate, document and get them signed off.
Business requirements gathering and documentation: This is another form of facilitation, but on a more detailed level to drive out, analyse, document and get agreement on the detailed requirements for an analytics, data science or business intelligence implementation. The outcomes start with business objectives, drives down into detail definitions of KPIs, matched back to data source elements, as well as report, dashboard and other information exploitation requirements.
Data / information analysis: A key part of business analysis is presenting information to users using the appropriate platform (report, dashboard, interactive data analysis facility) and the appropriate paradigm (what types of graphs, suitable dimensions of graphs, colouring, scaling, etc.). With experience in data presentation and specialised training on information visualisation, I consult to information exploitation teams and to information users like executives on the correct platforms and paradigms to use.
Solution architecture and solution sound-boarding: Data science, analytics and business intelligence implementations vary greatly from one organisation to the other. The best fit for each organisation is influenced by its existing vendor relationships, it data volumes, its informational timeliness requirements, information dissemination and exploitation requirements, as well as a wide range of other factors. I assist organisations to arrive at cost-effective and architectures and solutions, or provide an objective sounding board to evaluate proposed or existing architectures.
Dimensional data modelling: Whether on an enterprise data warehouse or on a small data mart scale, with a vast experience in various forms of data modeling, and familiarity with the telecommunications, insurance, banking, retail and healthcare industries, I design, draw up, validate and present appropriate dimensional and relational models.
Training and interactive skills transfer workshops:
- Establishing and implementing strategy.
- Aligning data science, analytics or business intelligence with enterprise strategy.
- Competency management.
- Development and implementation life cycles.
- Business analysis for data science, analytics or business intelligence.
- Dimensional modelling.
- Business analytics
Analytics or business intelligence revitalisation: I provide an assessment of an existing analytics or BI ecosystem, its implementation and information delivery capabilities, from which I derive a roadmap towards a more successful implementation and deployment, while maintaining its existing service to the business. The areas covered include usage, technical and information architectures, organisational placement and management, methodology and approach, team structure and staffing, and data quality. This approach is very useful for organisations to improve their analytics or business intelligence maturity and increase the ROI on their existing initiatives.
Writing: Articles, white papers, audit reports, evaluation reports and other related documents.
Presenting: Drawing up and delivering presentations, workshops and masterclasses.
Media interaction and marketing: TV, radio, printed, on-line and social media, as well as internal communication.
