Problem: Our client needed to provide their executive management, investor relations team, and business unit presidents with real-time access to statuses related major development projects. Specifically they were most interested in estimated and actual ship dates, delivery risk metrics, and changes in funding requirements. They had access to such reports however, the reports were not available at the required interval, they were hard to decipher, and not formatted for quick and easy access via mobile devices.
Background: Much of the data needed for the reports existed in the current enterprise data warehouse however, certain calculations that would provide the necessary percentages and ratios required for the metrics were not included. Additionally, the data was being updated through various batch jobs with portions of data updated nightly, weekly, and monthly.
Exploratory Phase: After initial requirements gathering and a review of their existing infrastructure, we presented options which included the use of existing native applications that provided financial chart and report creation. These existing applications could interface to their data warehouse with some tweaking however, the reports could not be customized to the extent the client was requesting. It was clear the client wanted to have full autonomy of all report elements including specific placement of fields, fonts, and colors. Additionally, the client anticipated that they would have future requests related to functionality as user maturity grew.
Solution: We
partnered with the firm's internal data warehouse team, designed and implemented a specialized view that consolidated the necessary data and facilitated calculations. We identified areas in which we could create triggers for real-time population of the data warehouse from source systems and in other cases we increased the batch job intervals. An API was created for use with the iOS mobile application.
We developed an iOS mobile application that displayed the reports and metrics most important for the client. Users could gain access to critical information while out of the office and during their frequent travel required for their job. Additionally, we developed an interface that allowed for two-way correspondence between project managers and stakeholders.
The application allowed executive management, business presidents, product managers, and project managers to identify risks early on and take action before impacting revenue projections and customer satisfaction.
