Typical organisations have many data sources containing different types of information. Various locations and from different systems. In some instances data may be available from external or third parties. Depending on your needs new sources may need to be created or populated by process changes. 

More is better. Depth and breadth of data improves the usefulness and value thereof. Once we know what data is available we can predict the type and quality of the results - but this entirely dependent on the content and quality of the data.

In some instances it might be beneficial to obtain data from other parties, for instance, your suppliers or clients. We will identify the need and value of these sources and motivate this for your evaluation. If agreed upon the data will be obtained from the various sources. This supplemental data will then be included in the data pool for analysis.

There are many data store platforms and options, but in principle we will define the table, fields and relations required for the extraction sets. If possible we will even do the extraction but typically this is restricted, so we will work with your team to perfect the extraction. It is done in such a way that the performance of your production environment is not affected.

From past experiences, the fresh extracted data set will have a few issues. These range from incomplete fields, inconsistent spelling, missing fields and the like. Thus before one can proceed with the actual analysis the data has to be normalised and completed. We would typically write software routines to autocorrect mistakes and source supplementary data e.g. postal codes. etcetera.

The heart of the exercise – data analysis – takes the normalised data and seeks to extract useful insights. Typically this will be patterns, trends, seasonality, exceptions, minimums, maximums, distributions, averages, sector totals and many more.

To complete this deliverable we will start to collate the insights accross various dimensions, external data points, industry norms and colloquial information to determine insights and information.

With the client's experts we ensure validity of the results.

With the help of your Subject Matter Experts we refine the results until a set of useful and accurate components of information is compiled. Often we find very useful information in areas not where it was expected. Sometimes these are more useful than the answered we set off to find in the first place.

 The results and findings are packaged in the client’s preferred format and delivered to key stakeholders. Where required additional analysis or data gathering is performed to complete this service.

This is an optional component but if our clients request so, we will compile a number of short or long term implementation options with plans, in colaboration with the client's subject matter experts and key stakeholders. These implementations options seek to optimise cost, benefit and time order to implement changes or expansions in the business to harvest the benefit identified in the data analysis.