Database development (MIS 533) MBS in Management Information Systems and Managerial Accounting Systems (2007 / 2008) Fergal Carton Business Information Systems

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Last week Systems implementations: technical skills Enterprise system implementations Hans exercise on resources (Synergy) –organisation by function (Sales, Inv, Fin)

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development This week ERP project resources and what they do –Team creation –Collecting requirements –Data issues –Handover and helpdesk issues –Post go-live Hans team organisation (Mercury) Cisco case study

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development ERP projects: resources required Users / power users User management Steering Committee Functional analysts Application expert DBA’s / Sys Admin Project team Process leads Project Managers Technical Project Business process

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development ERP projects: resources required Software vendor Hardware vendor Users / power users User management Steering Committee Functional analysts Application expert DBA’s / Sys Admin Project team Process leads Project Managers Systems Integrator Technical Project Business process

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Team creation Multi-disciplinary Full time Decision making power Budget Representative – team leads Balance between allegiance to team and to area of competence Team spirit Team awareness Must have support from organisation

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Team Characteristics Typical size: 25 to 60+ FTE Team leads: 10 to 20 Functional area experts Special roles: –Project manager –Integration manager –Data conversion and migration –Training manager –Hardware / IT specialist –Platform expert –Communication about project (internal & external)

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Collecting requirements Interviews with key individuals Observation of activities Consultation of documentation Surveys Targets: –Staff –Suppliers –Customers –Other constituencies when needed (eg: vendors…) As-Is + New requirements Brown papers

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development What can go wrong: data Data not available –feature activated from implementation onwards –Massive manual data entry (?) –Eg: different account structure Incomplete data –Some fields are missing Inconsistent data (eg: engineering vs accounts) Wrong level of granularity Data not clean - incorrect Most new system requires changes due to their different data structure / activity system

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Resources : Technical (data) Data clean-up team Data conversion team Data conversion programmer Legacy data team Data quality testing and maintenance …

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development What is the common data model? Products –Marketing –Products for Sales orders –Inventory availability for commit dates –Up to date prices –Production planning –Logisitics and distribution Customers –Marketing –Sales orders –Logisitics and distribution Money –Invoicing –Revenue reporting –Cost forecasting and control

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Data issues … Getting and maintaining clean data –When creating a new customer, who has control? –42 occurrences of Siemens in your customer database, what do you do? –Customers exist in ERP core database, but also in several legacy systems. How do you make sure they are in synch? –…

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Data cleaning must address Different department record same info under different codes Multiple records of same company (under different names) Fields missing in input tables (eg: a/c #) Different depts. Record different addresses for same customer Use of different units for time periods

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Data Upload Several rounds: –Trials –Static data –Open items –Dynamic data - transactions –Balances Staging areas –Local initially –Then central area Upload into live system –Specific predefined sequence (RDB) –Extract, translate, load –Rental of platform specific tools from vendor

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Database issues … Guaranteeing “high availability” How often should Test be refreshed? How many environments should I have –Test –Production –Development –Training –Business Simulation –… If I implement a change to Production, do I need to implement the same change across all environments? 20 programmers developing / testing new code every day: how do I track releases to production? … JB McCarthy: Testing on live system

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Project issues: resources Availability of team members / users Decision making processes Developing workarounds Timeline too tight to allow resolution of issues Massive learning curve for team Expectation management Retaining ownership of process related decisions

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Resources : Technical (IT ops) Database administrator Systems administrator Operators : core apps Server operators Storage technicians HelpDesk …

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Project handover to HelpDesk Prior to go-live, implement procedures for : –Logging calls such that it will be routed to the right person and tracked, reported on and escalated –Training for HelpDesk to be able to ask the right questions concering an application issue –Troubleshooting application issues to be able to deal with simple “fixes” –Ongoing consultation with application team regarding new functionality being rolled out, common errors, planned outages, …

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Systems admin issues … Ensuring system access for users New users Changes to existing profiles System downtime for maintenance Forcing users out of system Tracking source of corrupt data to user profile …

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development HelpDesk issues … Calls arriving at HelpDesk are either : Forgotten password New user Changes to user profile Printing problems Connectivity problems Response time problems System crashes System error messages PC problems I need more training …

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development HelpDesk issues … …or : Functionality questions (how do I transact an invoice?) Process questions (when should I post to GL?) Reporting (I need a revenue report)

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Post Go Live Team is disbanded –Back into business –Promoted –Next wave of roll out Structure is permanently altered – eg: shared services ERP team put in place –Data experts / maintenance –Application experts – on-going developments and fixes –Platform experts – uptime –Business analysts – look to future releases and future requirements –Typical size 20 /25 staff full time for a multinational –Various names used – eg: knowledge centre

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Post Go Live Yes, but the point I’m making at the moment, is that the solutions to the problems we have right now is for the business to change, for us to change, not for IT to put fixes in place …that’s not always feasible because it impacts your customer, it impacts yourself, and it’s not taking into account really what’s taking so long.

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Post Go Live The technical support offsite is atrocious. We are very very disappointed with that. … Since the core team moved away, and since the next wave started for SAP implementation, they lost interest

MBS (MIMAS) / MIS533 / Database development Post go-live example “There was an awful lot of resources thrown at go- live, most of those resources were gone after go- live. Trying to get something fixed, it wouldn’t happen.” “In order to actually utilize it in a way that actually improves our lot, took, is still taking, quite a long time, and if you can’t do it yourself, it’s even worse, because you can’t get IS available, at times to do the work.“