Public Sector Workshop - Manhattan

I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to speak at Oracle's Public Sector Workshop at the beautiful Madison Avenue office in Manhattan last week.

This event was well attended by many of the city's agencies. In fact there was a standing room only feel to the room.

Oracle did a fantastic job of getting the users to connect to this hands-on lab. Full color step-by-step manuals were provided to each of the attendees.

I was asked to provide some insight as to how the Public Sector should proceed in their pursuit of OBIEE and the Analytic Applications. You don't get a second chance when you send in your recommendations to the city council and such. You have to do it right the first time.

BICG has completed over 280 successful implementations of OBIEE and the apps. Many of these have been in the public sector. Our group concensus came up with the following 7 tips for success in the Public Sector.

1. Do not boil the Ocean. - Deploy Analytic Applications in small projects. Do 3 or 4 areas at a time.
2. Sponsorship - Ensure the need for the BI/DW solution is sponsored be an executive.
3. Role Definition - Define clear project roles and responsibilities. Project Manager, Business Sponsor, Technical Sponsors etc. This is a must.
4. User Adoption - Involve the business users throughout the project / including the build phase / use iterative business reviews / brand the project and the interface design.
5. Experienced SI - Use a system integrator such as BICG that fully understands how to deploy Oracle's BI Solutions and has a proven track record.
6. Validation - Data validation is key. Data must be accurate and trusted. Get sign-off that the data is valid and trusted during the testing phase.
7. No Short Cuts ! - Ensure that you deploy a good solution for the users. Get business buy-in and feedback throughout the project.
   

Oracle has several more of these workshops coming up over the next few weeks. If you would like to hear the logic that goes behind these recommendations, contact your Oracle rep for a seat at the workshop - or drop me a line! I would be happy to discuss this with you. See you at the workshop !

-Steve

Public Sector Workshop - Minneapolis, MN

BI Consulting Group co-hosted a hands-on workshop with Oracle in Minneapolis, MN on July 28. The hands-on workshop was geared towards a Public sector audience and featured customers who have purchased Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus (OBIEE+) or are evaluating purchasing OBIEE+.

BI Consulting Group presented an overview of OBIEE+ as well as dove into the best practices when developing reports and dashboards as well as explained how to build a successful Public Sector BI Strategy. BICG also presented the workshop portion of the day where students were able to get hands-on experience with Answers. Students learned a lot about how to build Answers queries and how to apply best practices to Answers and dashboards.

For info on workshops and ones that are coming to a city near you, please visit:

http://www.biconsultinggroup.com/aboutus.asp?CategoryID=373