Rapid Report Development for Business Intelligence

Rapid Report Development for MicroStrategy

Stop Wasting Time, Talent and Money

Initiating new Business Intelligence (BI) projects can be time consuming and costly. IT leaders pressured to create new efficiencies struggle to assemble distributed teams with the right skills and experience. The BI user community measures a successful BI project on the strength of accurate, relevant, and user-friendly reports, but delivering to these expectations is a challenge.

Rapid Report Development for MicroStrategy Lancet has delivered to high user expectations for years. We think BI applications should be built by real BI people who can both talk the business and also make the BI technology work. LancetOnDemand is an efficient and more cost-effective way to use Lancet expertise by moving development off-site, while keeping interaction and communication close to home.

OFFSITE... NOT OFF-SHORE
Many organizations have moved some IT functions off-shore to cut costs and speed up development. While some have succeeded, most have discovered off-shoring their BI development has few true cost, speed or quality advantages. LancetOnDemand provides the benefits of lower-cost remote development, pragmatic processes to ensure speed, and highly experienced BI practitioners to assure quality.

THE LancetOnDemand™ DIFFERENCE

Each client is assigned an experienced and industry-savvy Lancet BI architect. The BI architect is the bridge between your organization and the LancetOnDemand team. The BI architect will work one-on-one with you to make sure that your reporting requirements are well understood and can be properly implemented. Nothing gets dropped while translating complex business requirements into detailed report specifications. Our BI architects are certified MicroStrategy developers with current hands-on product skills. They can quickly determine if a business request is feasible and can accurately estimate the level of effort required to complete the work.

All report specifications are documented using Lancet’s Report Definition Document and Metric Definition Document templates. These templates are adopted as standards by Lancet clients nation-wide. Each template has been refined over time to ensure they effectively capture business requirements. At the same time, they provide developers the information needed to successfully create user reports. Frequently these documents are also leveraged for user acceptance testing, as well as end user training once the reports are fully integrated into the application.

Each member of our LancetOnDemand team is also a certified MicroStrategy developer. Their expertise spans all aspects of the product suite so you can be assured requirements turn into deliverables quickly and efficiently. The BI architect will direct the reporting team to ensure clear understanding of the requirements and deliverables. Should questions arise during the development process, the BI architect will be there to guide the team.

Once reports are completed, the BI architect will provide a thorough walk through and acceptance review via a teleconference and web-based sharing sessions. Should changes need to be made, the LancetOnDemand team will implement changes as quickly as possible. Once all reports have been accepted and approved, Lancet will assist you in migrating reports to their desired environments.

HOW IT WORKS

Initial Visit: Your BI Architect visits your site to meet your team, and learn your business rules, data model, and reporting requirements. We initiate project documents, review your existing MicroStrategy project and environment and arrange for secure remote access to your development systems. The length of the visit will depend on the size and complexity of the data model, business requirements, and requested reports.

Remote Development: Your BI Architect assembles your LancetOnDemand team and begins development at the LancetOnDemand Development Center. The BI Architect will continue to be your contact point as development progresses, and will personally supervise the Lancet development team. We provide weekly status reports that keep you updated on the development process and conduct periodic online walkthrough meetings to solicit your feedback.

Quality Assurance: Upon completion of development efforts, we test all facets of each report to ensure the deliverable matches your requirements. We create customized test scripts and use cases to assure each deliverable functions as expected. The BI Architect will inform you when reports are available for acceptance testing and will drive defect resolution and further report refinements as needed.

Final Handoff: Once the reports have passed user acceptance testing, they are ready to be migrated into your production environment. LancetOnDemand provides the necessary support to assist you in migrating all reports into your production environment. We will update and forward all documentation for your final review and if necessary, we are can assist you in creating customized training materials specific to the newly developed reports. Your BI Architect will be available for an onsite visit in order to walk your team through the final deliverables.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Iterative Prototyping: Project sponsors may have trouble imagining how a report will look and feel once implemented in your environment. We offer iterative prototyping exclusively with LancetOnDemand. With an understanding of your requirements and sample data, we develop a working prototype that simulates the final deliverables before significant effort takes place. Iterative prototyping ensures common understanding so time and money are not wasted.

Ongoing Support: Lancet is committed to client success and provides support whenever needed. We’ve earned a reputation based on reliability, accuracy, and honesty. We pride ourselves on the professional relationships we’ve fostered over the years and continue to leverage our expertise to ensure our client’s success.

Stop wasting time, talent and money. Leverage the expertise of Lancet. Contact us at 952.230.7360 to find out how you can realize immediate savings, increased performance and enhanced user satisfaction.