Overview
The final project for this course is a two-part project: an executive presentation and a technical proposal. The final project presents a detailed scenario regarding the merger of two insurance companies.
For the project, the student is positioned as the chief information officer (CIO) and is asked to lead an initiative to merge the data infrastructures of both insurance companies into a single consolidated data warehouse.
For the first part of the project, the student prepares an executive presentation to outline the project, its importance, and its scope. For the second part, the student prepares a technical proposal that outlines in greater detail how the data from both organizations will be unified into a data warehouse.
The project is divided into three milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Two, Four, and Six. The Final Project will be submitted in two parts: Part I in Module Eight and Part II in Module Nine.
In this assignment you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
Assess the effectiveness of data warehouses and database management systems in supporting specific business goals and decision making
Design architectures for data warehouses that address business problems and increase business opportunity
Construct plans for implementing a data warehouse that meet stakeholder needs and business specifications
Analyze constraints and opportunities associated with integrating data from various systems into a data warehouse
Develop strategies for ensuring data integrity, accuracy, and quality by employing appropriate data scrubbing and integration techniques
Prompts
Scenario
Refer to the following scenario for the background and basis for your data warehouse design:
Imagine you are the chief information officer (CIO) for Virtual World Insurance Company, an organization located in San Diego, California. It provides auto insurance coverage to more than 100,000 customers across the United States and currently has 100 employees.
Virtual World Insurance Company has recently acquired Maxon Insurance Company, located in Ontario, Canada. Maxon Insurance Company has 10 employees and provides auto insurance to 10,000 customers in Canada.
As a result of this merger, the chief executive officer (CEO) has asked you to look at a data warehouse as a viable solution for merging both information technology (IT) infrastructures. After doing research, you decide to create a data warehouse that will combine the customer information from both companies into one centralized location.
Maxon Insurance Company does not have a relational database. In fact, the company currently stores its data in multiple data sources. As a result, Maxon Insurance Company's data does not have any unique identifiers. Also, customers with multiple insurance policies have duplicate records. Each spreadsheet repeats the customer's demographic information.
Each insurance company utilizes a distinct customer relationship management (CRM) system. The CRM systems are used to keep a record of all customers and any communications that are sent to customers. The CRM systems tie into an in-house billing system that is used to bill for insurance premiums, insurance deductibles, and any other billable items.
To manage organizational operations, each company uses a different enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The ERP systems are used to manage human resources (hires, terminations, etc.), payroll, budgeting, accounting, and fixed assets.
To streamline operations and reduce maintenance costs, all data systems (ERP, CRM, billing, etc.) will need to be consolidated into a data warehouse. This will avoid duplicated information and data redundancy.
Prompt I: Executive Presentation
Prior to creating the technical proposal for the data warehouse, the CEO would like you to present to the C-level executives the concepts of a data warehouse.
The purpose of the presentation is to discuss the viability of creating a data warehouse and providing justification to allocate resources to complete this project.
Given your research, how viable an option is creating a data warehouse? What evidence exists to support the decision to merge the existing IT infrastructures into a data warehouse? What are the key potential issues and the key goals that the data warehouse needs to meet? What are some potential issues you might face in merging the two infrastructures? Prepare a presentation that discusses:
I. Concepts of a Data Warehouse: Assess the value of using a data warehouse. Specifically, discuss the types of information that a data warehouse should include and how the information is organized. Why is a data warehouse the preferred solution? What value would a data warehouse add to a business?
II. Integration of Data Sources: Discuss in detail the sources of information that can be integrated from the various operational areas of the organization.
For example, while some information is housed in Excel spreadsheets, sales and marketing data may be in a CRM (customer resource management).
III. Pros and Cons:
a) Cost and Return on Investment: How is the cost of a data warehouse worth the investment? What type of information can a data warehouse provide that would make the cost more acceptable?
How will the organization benefit from a data warehouse? Are there any negative consequences of having a data warehouse? Which specific operational areas will feel the benefits?
b) Required Resources: What are the costs associated with a data warehouse? Will any additional staff be required to maintain and support the data warehouse? Be sure to explain the importance of each resource you identify.
c) Informational Value: How can the information in a data warehouse add value to the organization? What specific business opportunities could be illuminated and how would the use of a DBMS help solve business problems?
d) Limitations: What are some functions that a data warehouse cannot perform? How scalable is a data warehouse? How can the organization overcome these obstacles to ensure data quality? Support your conclusions.
IV. Key Business Considerations: Address some of the business-related considerations. Some considerations include: Prior to investing in a specific data warehouse, what type of hardware and/or software will you consider? Will you hire a consultant to help with the implementation process? What is required prior to moving data to a data warehouse? Will there be necessary training? Support your conclusions.
V. Closing statement: Summarize the overall presentation with care. This is your closing statement, the last message to your audiences and your last chance to convince them of the value of a data warehouse for solving their business problems.
Prompt II: Technical Proposal
Having successfully explained the value of designing a warehouse to facilitate the merger between Virtual World Insurance Company and Maxon Insurance, you are now responsible for creating the full-fledged proposal.
Your proposal must include your architecture and a technical plan for implementation that highlights potential difficulties. It is important that you communicate in a manner that can be understood by executives, but can also be understood by members of your IT group to plan for future implementation.
The challenge will be balancing audience-appropriate communication with adhering to the technical nature of your task. Remember to include all of the necessary aspects of a data warehouse and to attend to potential issues, both common aspects and those unique to your organization.
Your technical proposal must attend to the following critical elements:
I. Introduction: Provide an introduction that lays the groundwork for your proposal and tells the audience both what the point of the proposal is and how it will benefit the organizations.
II. Data Warehouse Architecture:
a) Architecture Design: Provide a clear visualization of the architecture, showing the important aspects that will allow for integration of
organizational information.
b) Architecture Defense: Explain the architecture that you have designed and the reasoning behind the choices you have made. What approach did you take in designing your architecture (for example, did you follow a top-down or bottom-up approach or did you incorporate strategies from multiple approaches)? How will your architecture address business problems? Be sure to provide support from relevant sources or examples.
c) Database Management System (DBMS): Provide your justification and rationale for the DBMS that you select. Discuss the DBMS tools that you considered. Why was the DBMS you selected the best choice for the organization in terms of supporting decision making and aligning to the business goals?
III. Implementation Plan:
a) Timeline: Include a reasonable timeline for implementation. Considerations include: Is there sufficient time between milestones? What
milestones and key deliverables will be required to complete the data warehouse from start to finish?
b) Resources: What resources will be required for implementing the warehouse? Will you use your local IT department or an external vendor?
What are the approximate costs for this project? Why are the resources you have identified necessary? Provide examples to support your claims.
c) Training: Propose a logical training plan for employees. Be sure to specify the level of training needs for various positions and explain your
reasoning.
d) Security Policy: Craft a policy for maintaining security that meets organization needs. Considerations include, but are not limited to: Who will have access to the data warehouse? Who will you work with to determine access rights for users? Will employees have access to the records from both companies?
IV. Data Integration and Scrubbing:
a) Data Integrity: How will you combine date fields with various formats (i.e., MMDDYYYY vs. DDMMYYYY)? What other data issues will need to be addressed?
b) Primary Key(s): What will you use as a unique identifier to combine the records? What primary keys, foreign keys, and indexes will you need to create?
c) Customer Data: Once the data is merged into the data warehouse, how will you be able to differentiate customers from Virtual World Insurance Company and customers from Maxon Insurance Company?
d) Duplicate Data: How will you eliminate duplicate records in the database to ensure data quality?