The Challenge

Leadership identified a need for a new project and portfolio management system to drive continued progress and rapid global delivery of pioneering healthcare equipment. The firm charged an internal division with implementing the strategy, direction, and development of this company-wide solution.  Success meant improvements in managing project time, resources, and costs!

The biggest hurdle to an already tricky project was the need to integrate enterprise-level reporting and analytics – and self-service business intelligence – with the new management system. The analytics piece needed to deliver data the day the project management system rolled out, not weeks or months later... and leaders here only wanted to pay for services they were using, not big investments in infrastructure.

These additional expectations meant the out-of-the-box solution was out of the question - it lacked  the sophistication and elasticity the vision demanded. The division turned to trusted ally BlueGranite for assistance. We collaborated to quickly build a cost-effective platform the company could roll out rapidly, and continue to scale over time.

Outcome & Results

Factoring in project needs and constraints, we determined a cloud-based modern data platform would provide the sophistication, elasticity, and flexibility needed to not only get the job done quickly, but also provide a stable foundation for future development. Smooth compatibility with the new project management system combined with cost-savings, speed, and a feature set that the medical innovator previously didn’t have.

Prior to cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service options, a project like this typically required significant capital investments in hardware and infrastructure, and while this approach still makes sense in some cases, it was not the best fit here. Instead of waiting on infrastructure and architecture, our team began the job as soon as we learned the requirements, with minimal startup costs.

We created a data lake atop the project management system, we fed that into a data warehouse,  and a few steps later, gave business users the ability to create interactive reports and visualizations on top of their data. The high-level architecture diagram below displays the solution and data flows:

Once the solution was in place, users also wanted a way to develop their own reporting methods – but directly accessing the stored data meant navigating a complex set of security permissions. In less than 24 hours from the time of the request, we deployed a solution giving them secure, easy access to user-friendly data. A similar on-premises solution might have taken weeks by comparison! Working in the cloud, we could quickly and securely give users what they wanted without jumping over hurdles.

Whether you need a cloud-based or on-premises analytics solution, our expert team can help transform your enterprise. Contact us today to learn how.