International Theme Park Chain-BI Roadmap

A Major International Theme Park Chain Selects StatSlice to Develop and Implement Its Business Intelligence Roadmap

The Background – Improve Results on a Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform 

This large national theme park chain wanted to improve visibility into key performance aspects of their operations.  The management team realized they were lacking a comprehensive reporting and analytics platform. This was causing the organization several pain points:

• Putting together consolidated reports for all parks was very cumbersome
• Consolidating data from various source systems was a manual process
• Certain data points were not accessible to them making impossible to make the best operational decisions

As a result, they wanted detailed information from one access point as opposed to the complicated process of finding it through multiple points.  This included insight into cash flow, revenues, and profitability across their highly-distributed business.

The office of the CIO directed this initiative with strong desires for continuing to utilize the Microsoft platform for their IT needs.  They required a multi-year roadmap to attain their goals for reporting and analysis of the theme park business operations requirements.  While the long-term roadmap was needed and a vision created, near-term results were also a high priority.  Measures of success included:

• Capturing a comprehensive list of data management systems within all the business units throughout the  corporation and all its parks
• A business intelligence roadmap covering all business units and stakeholders
• An optimal roadmap layout
• Realistic milestones that take into account the organization’s resource limitations
• Establishing a strong business case for  implementing the roadmap

The office of the CIO directed this initiative with strong desires for continuing to utilize the Microsoft platform for their IT needs.  A multi-year BI roadmap and vision were to be the end result.

The StatSlice Approach

Out of seven service providers that were considered and the final two that delivered assessments, the client ultimately selected StatSlice to help build and deliver the Business Intelligence roadmap.  StatSlice used its extensive experience with the Microsoft BI platform to deliver a high-quality BI roadmap within limited budget constraints.  StatSlice consultants interviewed 25 business executives in a series of working sessions.  They combined the survey feedback and produced an extensive BI roadmap report.

StatSlice approached this challenge from a comprehensive perspective and evaluated all the various facets of the client’s needs. The engagement started with a general methodology for conducting a BI assessment.  Then a customized approach was applied, taking into account their unique needs and environment, including these steps:

• Assessment introduction and vision
• Unique questionnaire customized for each interview session
• Group interviews with subject matter experts (SMEs) and key stakeholders
• Map of the current system data flow
• A developed and refined BI roadmap based on core requirements
• The process of documenting phases, estimated work effort and priorities
• Assembly of BI phase deployment cumulative impact analysis
• Review of BI roadmap and projects with project sponsors

This was a short-duration, high-impact project where the StatSlice team produced results quickly. It required high-level planning where coordination and immediate results were critical.

The Results – A Corporate Business Intelligence Roadmap

Within a few weeks, the StatSlice team produced a 75 page complete BI roadmap and strategic plan for the company. This deliverable included a prioritized breakout of subject areas where business functions needed to be addressed (for example: accounting, sales, and operations).  The roadmap estimated improvements over the next several years for key corporate BI initiatives, including estimated costs, benefits, and a future vision.

As a result, the client got a clear picture about their BI needs for the future and what they could accomplish by making the proposed technology and management investment.  The assessment report was accepted and the organization was ready to implement the first few phases of the roadmap, with more to be rolled out in the coming months and years.

Summary

The Challenge

The company wanted a better system to look into key metrics of their operations.  The current method was time consuming, cumbersome, and had manual processes where inaccuracies could arise. In some cases, the data was simply not accessible for them to even analyze.

The Solution

Perform an effective and thorough BI assessment by meeting with many company managers to make sure all the needs were documented and included in the master plan.  From there, StatSlice built a complete BI Roadmap and outline initial key projects based on the user assessment.  While it was a long term plan, immediate results were also important.

The Result

StatSlice was quickly able to produce a complete BI Roadmap of the company’s critical information—and from all sources.  The company was provided with project ideas for improvement, complete with costs, benefits, and their role in a future vision.  This led to the first of several key initiatives with StatSlice.

Industry

Theme Park and Entertainment

(c) 2013 StatSlice Systems. All rights reserved.  This case study is for informational purposes only.  StatSlice makes no warranties, express or implied, in this document.

To download the formatted PDF case study, click below:

Case Study: International Theme Park Chain – BI Roadmap