As I was speaking to a potential client recently, I realized that someone had tried to sell her BI in a box. Even with our appliance Integra, I would not dare call it a plug and play solution. Why? There is so much that needs to happen before you get useful information out of your BI initiative. Out of the box, Integra includes the following:
· The ETL (extract, transform and load) software required to connect and integrate data.
· A semantic dictionary of healthcare terms for mapping source data to target data
· A data warehouse (customizable to house EMR, financial and other data).
· Pre-loaded metrics
· A fully integrated BI reporting solution.
· Pre-built reports.
· The hardware to house all this.
And you still wouldn't call that BI in a box, you ask? Absolutely not! And here is why. Even with all of this functionality built in, there is one thing missing. No prizes for guessing what it is. What is missing is “YOUR" data! Guess what, without that, the greatest BI in a box solution won't be of much use to you.
So let's take a look at what needs to happen before this becomes the BI 'Solution' that works for YOUR organization.
· Implementation Planning – During this initial phase the following will occur:
o Gather full set of reporting requirements.
o Gather testing requirements.
o Gather production deployment requirements.
o Identification of systems of record (SOR) and the tables/fields needed to satisfy the end reporting requirements.
o Mapping documents for each SOR are created. These documents include:
§ Source field name, data type and format.
§ Target field name, data type and format.
§ Cleansing requirements for each field.
§ Business logic needed to translate from source to target.
o Create development, testing and implementation plans for the next phases of this project.
· Customization – The actual customizations are created during this phase.
o Data for each SOR is gathered.
o Cleansing ETL processes are created for each source record.
o ETL processes are created and unit tested for each SOR.
o Reporting cube(s) are customized to support reporting requirements.
o Reports are created/customized and unit tested to requirements.
o At the end of this phase, the hardware is delivered to your site and the processes are connected to your SORs.
· Testing – Testing will be performed to the requirements which typically includes:
o Systems Integration Test (SIT) – Full nightly runs are performed and system is tested for correct technical functionality.
o User Acceptance Test (UAT) – A test bed of users are allowed to use the system to ensure requirements have been met from a business/clinical viewpoint.
· Production Deployment – The system is moved to your production environment and the system is made available to your users for consumption.
So folks, next time someone tells you that there is a plug and play solution for BI that does all of these things automagically, please call me right away! I would like to see this wondrous new thing and pay my respects. You can reach me at kishore@metaanalytix.com
