Presented at IBM Cognos Forum 2009. a) This case study describes the challenges in designing and implementing a BI COE. You will learn how The Nielsen Company leverages internal staff in the BI COE to support a total of 30,000 employees and a distributed global Cognos development environment.

1. The Nielsen Company BI COE:
A Case Study
John Boyer, The Nielsen Company
Edie Harrison, The Nielsen Company
Katie McCray, IBM

2. BI COE Case Study
> Who We Are
> What It Is
> What We Do
> How We Do It
> What We’ve Done
> What We’ve Learned
> Where We’re Going

3. WHO WE ARE
> Speakers
> Corporate Background
> BI COE Background
> Where the BI COE fits
> Where the BI COE sits

4. Corporate and BI COE Background
> The Nielsen Company
• Consumer
• Media
• Business Media
• Integrated Services
> Application Development / Shared Technology Services
• Dot Com apps
• BI Media
• BI Consumer
• Portal
• STS Support Team

5. What is a BI COE?
> Textbook Definition
> Practical Definition

6. Our Mission

7. How the BI COE Relates to its Environment
> Upwards
> Sideways
> Downwards
> Outside

8. WHY A BI COE?
> Purpose > Primary Benefits
• Quality of deliverables • Consistent message
• Success of projects • Reusability
• Adoption of common vision • Convergence
• Bridges the gap between
business and IT
• Limits re-learning

9. Where the BI Intranet /
Dot Com
COE sits within Data
COE Portal
COE
Management
the Nielsen COE
Engagement
COE
Enterprise
PMO
COE
Database
COE
SOA
COE
Application
BPM
COE
Teams
BI COE

10. BI COE – Org Contributions by SDLC
Ideation Assessment Requirements Detailed Spec’s Development / Test Release Maintenance
Ongoing project collaboration through BI COE PM team
Ongoing support of shared environments, release process and application hosting
OOM Assessment Adoption
Solution Definition
Development Consulting Services
Closeout
OOM Assessment Architecture Leadership
BI Consulting Services
Closeout
Delivery of shared services and application delivery frameworks such as presentation services (Page Bus) & BI Service (BI Bus)
Project lifecycle
Support & Deployment Team Adoption Team
Project Coordination Team BI Advisory Team Shared Components Team

11. BICC Survey Findings IBM Cognos 2008

12. HOW WE DO IT
> Design of the Nielsen BI COE
• BI COE Structure and Responsibilities
• Departmental and Vendor Interactions
• Project involvement and touch points
• Dependencies for success
• Measurements for success

13. WHAT WE’VE DONE
> Adoption Team > Adoption and Development Team
> Platform Team > Support and Delivery (Platform) Team
> Advisory Team > Advisory Team
> Project Management Team
> Shared Components

14. Adoption Team
> On-boarded over 40 application teams
> Addressed scalability of Adoption Team
> Implemented “constant review” for on-boarding projects
> Streamlined On-Boarding Documentation and Processes
> Updated model to provide continuous project interaction
> Implemented a standard Cognos TCS status reporting
process

15. Support and Delivery (Platform) Team
> Expanded environment
> Made documentation available in iShare
> Implemented outages management
> Created JIRA and change management
> Standardized processes
> Created SLOs
> Overcoming challenges of managing and integrating off-shore
team

16. Project Management Team
Phase of SDLC Data Access Databases used
Stack Security Schedules and
considerations Migrate Future plans
Answers Skill level

17. Project Management Team
I am a unique and special snowflake

18. Project Management Team
Development Traffic Cop
Challenges
Standards Efficiency expert
Evangelist

19. Advisory Team
> Interacted proactively in 30+ Projects
> Developed standard project review process
> Established proactive Cognos environment monitoring
> Evaluated new products and vendors
> Initiated planning for application convergence
> Initiated recurring vendor communications
> Documented and published proven practices
> Created Self-assessments with algorithm for project risk scoring
> Developed 10+ project prototypes and proofs of concepts
> Trained and mentored project teams
> Capacity planning for custom and upgrade environments

20. WHAT WE’VE LEARNED
> Project Management
> Application Development
> BI COE

21. Project Management
> Got a plan? (Project Planning)
> Is there a method to the madness? (Methodology)
> Can we talk? (Communication)
> Got a minute? (Time Management)
> Can I friend you? (Networking)
> Do you mind? (Emotional Commitment)
Microsoft Word
Document

22. Application Development
> Run the numbers (SLOs)
> Acknowledge the greater good (Enterprise vs Project Goals)
> Know whom to trust (SME as experts)
> Trust but verify (Competence)
> Be the white on rice (Availability)
> Build a covalent bond (Team dynamics)
> Know your limits (Support and backup)

23. BI COE
> Evangelize and proselytize (Adoption Message)
> House rules (Standards)
> Role playing (Define role of BI COE)
> Everyone needs a hand to hold onto (Support and maintenance)
> Things we should have learned in kindergarten (Sharing –
information, resources)

24. WHERE WE’RE GOING
> Conclusions
> Recommendations
> Vendor Recognition
> Take away

25. Conclusions
> What has worked
• 1+ years in – sustained personnel changes, growth, building of team
• Supported all above achievements
• Add third bullet here
> What hasn’t worked, or what hasn’t worked for everyone
• One size does not fit all – Shared environment aren’t perfect for all
teams
• Organizational Changes – New teams
• Herding cats
• SLOs

26. Recommendations
> Executive sponsorship
> Dedicate appropriate resources
> Create a plan – then change what doesn’t work
> BI COE with a bite
> Constant monitoring
> Start your own BI COE

27. Vendor Recognition
> Cognos > Motio
• Products • Products
• MotioCI
• Cognos 8.3
• MotioADF
• Partnership • MotioPI
• Support • Services
• Services > Composite
• Products
• Clustered Enterprise
Software
• Services
> TCS
• Services

28. Take away
> Business Intelligence Key Performance Indicators
• What do you want on your dashboard?
• As you develop your BI COE, make sure you monitor your progress.
• It is not possible to recommend one and only set of KPIs.
• Choose between three and five of the metrics below to start
measuring.
• Choose metrics that are meaningful, easily captured and on which
you can take action.
• Make sure you’re measuring quality, timeliness and cost (in dollars
or hours).

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