Scenario

Nelson City Council identified that the organisations need for information was stretched using the current processes and systems that were in place.

David Wright Nelson City Council IM Team leader recognised that they had silos of data across all the core systems that they utilised which made it difficult getting information out. With the disparate nature of the systems and departments utilising the various tool sets that they had, the council had a limited organisational understanding of their data.

It was accepted early on that they needed to get the right information, which was timely, going out to the key people within the organisation. Nelson City Council recognised that the reporting tools they were using weren’t effective; the organisation needed a better way of delivering information to their stakeholders (executive, councillors, department heads etc).

Nelson City Council required better information to make decisions so they engaged the services of Montage, a Business Intelligence specialist, to lead them through the Business Intelligence Discovery process.

Nelson City Council initiated an internal resourcing project called Project Balance with Montage. Project Balance was a council-wide effort to align resources to a set of key projects in order to ensure successful execution.  It focused on bringing visibility into the organisation allowing them to manage critical internal resources more efficiently.

Wright comments “Historically it took months to prepare data and collate information across all the departments.  We required a solution that would give us not only accuracy and integrity of information across the different departments but provided an organisational view of the council”.

Montage and Nelson City Council needed to deliver a solution that improved organisational visibility in a timely manner. “The solution needed to show our ability to deliver, we have 400 projects a year ranging in size and we needed to get an overall view of our projects and our capability to deliver” said Wright.  

Solution

Through Montages lead, the partnership designed and developed an Information Layer (Data Warehouse) that integrated the information held in the various core systems (excel workbooks, NCS financial system). The Data Warehouse gave the Council one source of the truth and whilst it really highlighted to the business which information was important it also helped the business in other areas including data management.

The project wasn’t just about technology; it also focused on the internal people and process as well. Montages experience and knowledge of delivering successful Business Intelligence solutions meant that Nelson City Council knew what skills were needed to deliver Business Intelligence into the organisation. “Montage brought in the skills where appropriate and nurtured and trained our internal resources, they really believed in partnerships.”

The technology was already available, as Nelson City Council had the various Microsoft tools (SQL Server 2008, SSIS) as well as Yellowfin which provided an intuitive way to explore and present the data. Yellowfin provided Council staff with an effective, easy to use interface to deliver an overview of project performance in the form of dashboards. These dashboards align performance at various levels of accountability and enable the users to drill through to underlying data and reports for more transparency.

Results

The Business Intelligence solution allowed Nelson City Council to meet the needs and requirements of the business which wouldn’t have been possible without the right Business Intelligence Framework in place. “Montage’s experience meant that they focused on getting to understand the business. They looked at the relationship as being long term, with benefits for both parties; a true partnership model.”

The first key result for the organisation is that they are now less reliant on the core systems of data that they hold. As Wright points out: “As long as I’ve got access to data, the reports and information will still be there, so we are not tied to any one supplier”.

The second key result is their ability to provide more to the end user; they are now spending more time getting the right information to the decision makers and less time dealing with the concerns and challenges of their core systems.

“We now have a better understanding of Business Intelligence and also a better understanding of our information” said Wright. Nelson City Council has seen improvements in data quality and integrity. “Things are a lot more transparent, our internal customers want more information and the desire for information has increased. The uptake has been positive, the team is able to deliver weekly information where as previously there was no information, or it took months to prepare”.

Montage looked at the bigger picture, focusing on the future requirements as much as current. “Montage made sure they understood the business and were structured and clear, which was important as tight deadlines and changing requirements made it a difficult project”. The partnership model has also meant that Montage worked with the Council to develop the team internally plus had the knowledge and experience of what it takes to support a Business Intelligence solution.

Nelson City Council worked hard reviewing and understanding their data across their diverse systems, this has allowed them to commence their journey to enable a single source of the truth.  Paul Brown, Montage Project Manager adds “Without the knowledge and efforts of the Nelson City Council project team the Business Intelligence solution wouldn’t be as robust”.

The Nelson City Council team endeavours have meant the data inconsistencies and the management of new and atypical processes have been addressed in a timely manner and thus reduced the stress and increased the confidence in the solution. The Nelson City Council and Montage partnership has been essential in ensuring the solution can be managed internally.

A sign of how far Nelson City Council has come on their Business Intelligence journey is that they now have defined and developed guiding principles and strategic objectives that all Business Intelligence projects need to be reflective of and aligned to.

• One source of truth
• Make optimal use of internal resources
• Focus on enterprise wide value
• Strategy supports achievement of KPI’s
• Single organisational view of data
• Consolidate / integrate systems
• Improve ability to access data to support business
• Make data a corporate asset

As for the future, Nelson City Council is at the start of their Business Intelligence journey as they look to develop and expand their Business Intelligence solution across other areas of the business.