Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence Strategy Assessment
Pharmaceutical Firm Saves Significant Time, Money and Resources on Data Warehouse
Business Challenge
A major pharmaceutical company who discovers, develops, manufactures and markets leading prescription medicines, and many of the world’s best known consumer products, was seeking independent, objective insight on the scope, sizing and duration for the second phase of their Global Safety Data Warehouse initiative. The company had already implemented the first phase, but was disillusioned when it took 30 percent longer than planned; required 80 percent more resources than expected; and cost almost 200 percent more than budgeted. Leary of the time and cost estimate they received from their first phase implementation partner(s) to complete phase two, the company’s Senior Executive Management team asked CSI to evaluate the current situation – from business drivers to scope to architecture to resource planning.
Data Warehouse Center Solution
Data Warehouse Center – leveraging more than 15 years of experience in developing and applying best practices in data management, business intelligence and data warehousing for Global 2000 companies – offers the most comprehensive framework to assess and formulate optimized strategies. Structured plans, processes, and best practices allowed Data Warehouse Center to quickly assess this company’s drivers, requirements, critical success factors, organization and architecture. In less than three weeks, Data Warehouse Center provided strategic guidance on timeline, resource allocation, effort and costs to successfully implement phase two of their global safety data warehouse initiative. This guidance was further supported with more than 25 major recommendations, a reduced and strategically aligned project scope, a comprehensive project plan, and a best practices recommendation for staffing with multi-skilled and multi-role resources. As a result, the company moved forward and implemented the second phase of its global safety data warehouse initiative in less time, with fewer resources and with significant cost reduction over original estimates.
Phase 2 Global Safety Data Warehouse Estimates:
| Initial Estimate | CSI “Best Practices” Estimate | Savings | |
| Duration | 12 Months | 7-8 months | 3-4 Months |
| Maximum Resources | 22 | 14 | 8 Resources |
| Cost | $4 Million | $1.9 Million | $2.1 Million |
Return on Investment
Data Warehouse Center core competencies, best practices and proven methodologies, coupled with superior knowledge and experience from implementing large-scale data warehouses, resulted in a savings of $2,100,000. However, ROI was more than just a cost savings over other estimates; the savings of three to four months and eight allocated resources to utilize on other initiatives, in addition to the cost savings, was invaluable.