Greetings!

I hope that this email finds you well.

I'd like to share a good article on modern data modeling, why it's important, and how it can help your organization. The abstract and a link to it are below.

ABSTRACT: Data modeling has expanded to support data management, data governance and data intelligence. Managing the metadata is the key to managing, governing, and cultivating the intelligence from the design. The article does a good job explaining the reasons why it is difficult to manage what you can't see, or to make good decisions from lack of visibility. The needed visualization for the design is provided through data models which in turn create the metadata to standardize the data design across the enterprise.

Modern Data Modeling the Foundation of Enterprise Data Management and Data Governance

If you have any comments or thoughts, we would love to hear from you.

Sincerely yours,

Michael Cesino

Visible Systems Corporation recent data governance solution is designed to govern data in accordance with the most recent data privacy and security regulations (updated 4/19/2021).

The Visible Data Governance edition is now available for you to ascertain and comply with the critical underpinnings of data governance.

Visible Data Governance  (Click here to view the PDF) includes these features:

1. Readily examine all representations of sensitive data in your enterprise architecture, system design, system architecture and configuration documentation; change control records; other relevant documents or records.
2. Find out who the personnel are responsible for establishing the systems; personnel with responsibilities for updating the systems; and personnel with information security responsibilities for systems and networks.
3. Reuse various design time components, work product, including native to cut down on the amount of time in developing data governance processes
4. Organize processes for managing baseline configurations; for developing and documenting an inventory of system components; and for updating inventory of system components.

Upon Implementation ...

1. Apply personal and sensitive data recognition techniques so you are better able to control user experiences.
2. Support model and data integration from major databases to work effectively across platforms. Contains a query analysis to enforce differential privacy for general-purpose SQL queries - embedding a differential privacy mechanism in the query directly; the transformed query enforces differential privacy on its results and can be executed on any standard SQL database.
3. Manage the privacy data life cycle from collection through storage, analysis, transfer and disposition.
   
   Click on Privacy Data Life Cycle image below for more details and recorded demos.

Data Integration – The combining of data from different sources into one source.

If you are a systems analyst, data integration may become second nature at one point, however until then, it can take some practice and reassurance that everything has been integrated correctly and thoroughly. Data integration often includes working with an application programming interface (API), which is an interface which allows two applications to interact, or talk, with each other. Having a reliable systems design that integrates disparate and distributed data can help data be read in a new and unique way. Aren't you curious to see what your newly integrated data could reveal? This could help your business gain new insights and advantages, and therefore increase business performance. Before any analytics can be performed on data, it must be integrated properly, which is why ensuring that you have integrated your data properly is significant.

Problems & Difficulties of Data Integration

Some problems could include: uncertainty of data, management, syncing across data sources, finding insights, and skill availability.

• Finding a systems analyst to employ could be difficult, as there is a need for more people in the field.
• Even though integration tools may be used, it is not uncommon to face tool incompatibility, so double check that the integration tools you are planning to use actually work with each other.
• If you do not have a plan with specific steps to integrate data, havoc could be wreaked, as some companies may want to jump from project to project, and if you do not have tracks to look back on, you may not know where you left off or when, so make sure to have an action plan which will assist in you following through and finishing anything you start.
• Don't take technology for granted! Explain to anyone who is ignorant why and how data integration will save time and money in the long run. 

How Do I Ensure Reliable Data Integration?

• Use the right, compatible tools
• Have a plan of action
• Acknowledge the importance of integration

Your business environment is constantly changing and being able to effectively manage that change is crucial. Updated om 4/20/2021.

The Business Analyst Perspective:

In an ever expanding business world, business analysts are your company's first multi-faceted solution to growing with the constant change of the business environment. Business analysts link a company's technology and objectives, assisting in the process of turning data into revenue at a more efficient pace than a company without a business analyst. Business analytics solutions can be expensive, so it is helpful if your company has a reliable business intelligence software as well.

One of the core skills of a business analyst is actually management. With the ability to manage, along with the other skills necessary of a business analyst, there is only success to follow.

Some other necessary skills of a business analyst include: communication, technical skills, analytics, problem solving, decision making, and negotiation and persuasion skills.

A business analyst has many goals, the main ones being: meeting deadlines, cost controlling, and ensuring the proper implementation of a solution to a problem.

A qualified business analyst should have a degree in a related field, such as information technology, since business analyst programs are not widely available. They should also have passed the CBAP exam to be industrially recognized.

Business analysis is your company's key to making better business decisions, faster. After all, time is money. If top companies are utilizing business analysis and finding success in the usage, shouldn't your company be using it too?

Microsoft

Microsoft implemented a collaborative approach among their analytics team of 1,200 by shifting their employees into fewer buildings. This resulted in a 46% decrease in travel time for meetings, therefore giving the team more time to work on the important stuff: analyzing.

Uber

Uber created its Customer Obsession Ticket in 2018, which is a business analytics tool that uses machine learning to improve speed and accuracy when responding to support tickets. This has resulted in a 7% reduction in the time it takes to respond to support tickets, and thus better customer satisfaction.

What can your company increase speed on, resulting in better customer satisfaction and therefore better revenue for your company?

The Data Analyst Perspective:

Any business is also bound to come across data and statistics. Knowing how to utilize those numbers will make or break a company. As artificial intelligence grows in capability and popularity, it might seem like a great option, however AI often combines statistics, analytics, and machine learning into one subject. In reality, these are all very different and need to be analyzed separately. This is why using a machine won’t benefit your company as much as utilizing real people. So, your company's second multi-faceted solution to growing with constant change of the business environment is to hire a data analyst, perhaps even before anyone else.

Ask your data analyst to achieve the height of what they can in their specific area of expertise, whether it be statistics, analytics, or machine learning, and then focus on the other two areas. After all, being an expert in one and mediocre in the other two will be more beneficial than being merely mediocre in all three. 

According to research done by Trilogy Education, the five most important qualities for a data analyst to have are: data analysis, SQL, data management, business intelligence, and data warehousing.

Data analytics is a complicated job, so let's face it, much of the time an initial attempt can be improved upon. Some main road blocks for data analysts include culture, structure, and approaches to problem solving. Analysts often fail at explaining the details to the decision maker of the company. After all, not everyone is well versed in data analytics. In a survey done by Kaggle, four out of the seven biggest road blocks of getting the full value out of a data analyst comes down to the last mile issues, and yes, this is very frustrating to both parties.

How can your company better utilize data analytics without the road blocks? The answer to that is to gather a small team of data analysts, with a chief analytics officer. Perhaps hire other employees to help with the transition of versing the decision makers on the information from the analysts. The work of the analysts is hard enough, so asking them to go through the steps of presenting it in a way that a non-analyst can understand is almost too much to ask. Companies need to think of data analytics as a multi-step process, hiring different people who can fulfill these different steps, and therefore bridge the gap between the analyzed data and the understanding of the data. The use of cloud storage may be beneficial as well, since it opens up optionality and makes all data easier to transfer into the data bank and access, without disrupting analysts and business applications in the process.

In between the Business and Data Analyst, the Systems Analyst needs to understand how to leverage and integrate these perspectives!

While data is the foundation of a business, harnessing it is challenging since some data is formless. Visible Systems took up that challenge by using The Universal Model Framework as a means of detecting  patterns in data. Using The Universal Model Framework you are able to get a head start on your data modeling efforts and you don’t need to re-invent the wheel each time your business introduces a new system. This can help you save a lot of time and effort that can then be re-utilized in other productive endeavors.

Modeling data when needing to aggregate data across multiple data sources:

Even though most data modeling efforts are data modeling constructs that have been created numerous times before, doing so can be a challenge. Additionally, though many applications are supported from single data source, decision support processes may require additional data sources especially for solving problems that require hybrid, multi-faceted solutions. By showing interdependencies, The Universal Model Framework enables us to easily aggregate data across multiple data sources.

The Universal Model Framework enables:

• Grouping activities according to subject areas and business function before designing architectural road maps, keeping your business strategy in mind. This allows us to determine the business objects and functions necessary to achieve the intended goals.
• Examining changing requirements and what they can do for existing business processes, design, and development.
• Collaborating with key decision makers and providing consistent support for applications, data requirements, and requests.
• Accumulating essential information into sound business terms that stakeholders, employees, and management can understand and utilize.

You can think of the Universal Model Framework as a large ontology from which taxonomies are derived for a better understanding of your business domain. Each entity, when viewed within the context of a taxonomy represents a cohesive business intel. Henceforth, data can be viewed from a number of different perspectives and when instantiated can be queried and viewed as they are in a specific moment. For instance, an entity that is viewed from a sales perspective will have different business intel when it is viewed from, say, a production perspective.

The Universal Model Framework brings these perspectives together in a comprehensive, meaningful way. In some ways, it is the sum of the parts of your business that have hidden potential which can be tapped into via different perspectives.

Click here for more about the Universal Model Framework.

The Enterprise Architect Perspective:

As the business world grows, so does the influence of an Enterprise Architect. Overtime this position has become more of a necessity in modern-day businesses with the growing impact of digital transformation along with the ever changing world of business. Implementing new systems and softwares is a vital part of this position. Therefore it is crucial to have a framework that provides an in-depth look across strategy, people, processes, data, networks and locations. That is why an Enterprise Architecture framework called The Zachman Framework was founded years ago by John Zachman.

The Zachman Framework establishes a set of standard perspectives to help you to better understand your business and to enable your business succeed.

“If you want to build several skyscrapers, your architecture should include a plan for the city!” - John Zachman. Such is the case for an enterprise.

Do you know how change affects your enterprise? Your stakeholders? Your systems? We'd like to hear how.  Take a moment and tell us about your greatest challenge. Also, feel free to get a copy of our White Paper "The Value of an Information-Driven Enterprise Architecture".

Updated April 20, 2021

Running a smooth operation requires the right techniques and tools to help you run a business efficiently and effectively. As an operations manager knowing your role and its importance to the enterprise will ensure satisfaction and a smooth sailing ship.  

At Visible Systems, we maintain Operation Management deals with the creation of goods and services through the application of a business model - vital in both service and manufacturing firms.  Operations Management has a primary objective, which is to employ the company’s resources to produce goods and services fit for the market. And, we'd like to add ....in the most agile manner. This post highlights the definitions, importance, and function of this concept.

What is ‘Operations Management’

Operation Management is in charge of managing the conversion process. This unit handles the day-to-day running of the business to ensure operations within the organization are carried out smoothly. It is also in charge of production administration, manufacturing and other processes like the rendering of services.

BREAKING DOWN ‘Operations Management’

In short, everything regarding involves utilizing resource such as designing, implementation, and control is the duty of operation management. And the sole aim is to deliver the desired products and services to clients while also ensuring that all parties involved are adhering to the policies presented by the management of the company. The focus is also to make sure that there is little or no wastage during and after the production process, through the effective use of the firm’s resources.

Specific Responsibilities of Operations Management

As earlier mentioned the duty of the operations manager entails making sure that resource are used for the right thing and plays a significant role in the production process to ensure the team delivers quality output. Below are the functions of operations management.

• Finance

Operation management’s responsibility is to make sure that the company’s resources are used in the right manner to generate goods that satisfy its customers.

• Strategy

• Product Design

It is the operations manager’s responsibility to come up with product design that not only caters to the needs of customers but follows the market trend.

• Forecasting

Operation management also predicts the performance of products or services in the future. In other words, he critically analyses what customers’ demand for certain products would be in the future.

Importance of Operation Management

The role of the operation manager is to ensure that products or services are always available and reaches customers promptly. He also makes sure that raw materials are transformed successfully into finished products. One importance of operation management is to improve the overall productivity of the business. Resources are also used properly in other to eliminate wastage and boost profit.

To continue, with running a business, try to have an image or an idea that will help you organize your thoughts and ideas into one specific packet. Being apart of the management team, its okay to organize your thoughts and illustrate it out and portray it to other people. One way to help you is the business plan. 

In its simplest form, a business plan is a guide—a roadmap for your business that outlines goals and details how you plan to achieve those goals. If you’ve ever thought about starting a business and written down a few ideas about your business strategy on the back of a napkin, you’ve written a business plan.

Now, to successfully start and run a business, you’ll need more than a sketch on a napkin. Thankfully, modern business planning is simpler, easier, and faster than ever before. Business plans can be as short as one page and are rarely longer than 10 pages.

To give you a clear understanding of what a Business Plan is, here is my example I did from high school. In my high school career, we were given the opportunity to research something we were interested in and I chose starting a new business and becoming an entrepreneur. In this term, I chose to research and learn about business plans about companies. In my case, I have chosen to start a business called NJ Bakehouse. In this business, we are known for bakeries and cupcakes and our wonderful atmosphere and service.

In my business plan, it includes an executive summary of the company, a company description, operations and management, products, services, marketing industry, advertising, competition, locations, loans, and appliances needed for the business and a conclusion. Typically, a business plan ranges from one page to ten pages, it depends on how much you need in your plan and how much detail you want to provide to help you in the future. You can make it short and simple or you can make it creative and understandable.

In a business plan, all of these topics are necessary because essentially, you are planning out your whole plan for the business hence the name. the executive summary clearly states what the business is known for and its goals in the current and future state. The plan identifies and recognizes its competitors in the location it is desired in. As well, in order to run a business, it needs to obtain licenses, sometimes loans to help out, and the purchase of appliances and furniture.  The business plan is essentially your plan in running the business and making it succeed in the future with goods and services. From analyzing results and data, to labor costs, to competition, to operations etc. This business plan will guide you through a starting business. 

Making decisions can be extremely tough especially in the business industry whether it is in a crisis or making a decision in general. Strategize what is the best plan and what is efficient and effective. Consider all the information to help you. Here are some helpful tips to help you make your decision easier and run smoother. 

1. Stay calm/ relaxed 

2. Look/research at your resources 

3. Gather the relevant information 

4. Ask for opinions 

5. Thoroughly think through 

6. Take Action 

7. Learn from your mistake/ success and grow within 

With making business decisions, always remain calm even when there is a crisis. I know this is hard but try to stay calm and relaxed therefore you might make the wrong decision due to anxiety and pressure. Take time to breath and get into the mindset and then make the decision. always look at your resources and see what we can do with the information already given to us. Next, research some more and gather more information to help you! The more information, the better. You can learn more as well as see what others have to offer. As well, always ask for help if needed. Ask around and talk to people that you trust and are reliable for the situation. Asking for their opinion and advice isn't a bad thing. Having another set of eyes and ears is extremely helpful because having their perspective added onto yours, you might learn something. As well, they might have you see things in a different perspective, something that you never even considered. Having help is always an advantage. After having the relevant information in front of you as well as asking for advice, it is time to think strategically. Before you are ready to kickoff your next project, see here how to level set your project strategy by using one of our industry templates.

Updated 4/20/2021

Can IT and Business Work Together in Harmony?

For years, business executives and IT experts have been at loggerheads with one another. Both work differently albeit for the same goal – ensuring the business stays on track and meets its revenue milestones regularly. However, both speak and utilize different languages and that goal is lost in translation, so to speak.

The main issue lies in the fact that technology plans do not take business realities into account and conversely, business plans over estimate tech capabilities. Nowhere is this more apparent than in data governance and the ownership of that data.

Ownership of data is passed back and forth between both parties - one that is responsible for directing and storing the data via application systems and the other is responsible for reading and using the data to determine business outcomes.

However, are each using data productively? Both IT and Business have distinct pieces of the puzzle that can help their organization meet goals more efficiently and effectively. However, for that to be possible, they have and close that gap in terms of who is responsible for what.

Blended Business Models That Bridge the Gap between Technology and Business Goals

This is what we advocate here at Visible Systems. We understand that no department can work in isolation but it can flourish by collaborating using one of many available enterprise frameworks. resources via collaboration. These frameworks, for example, the Zachman Framework, are no longer only IT-centric as there has been a significant shift that is also focused on the business perspective.

This is where blended solutions come into the picture which emphasize the fact that today technology cannot exist for its sake alone – it has to be tailored to suit the business and the customers.

This has also resulted in blended job titles that focus on the best of both worlds such as business process and enterprise architect teams. While they work on different tasks, both realize that their ultimate goals are the same and to meet them, they have to coordinate their efforts.

One of the best examples of this blended approach is data modeling. Even though business process teams and enterprise architecture teams depend on it, they rely on different levels and use different tools. However, a consolidated approach to data modeling can streamline mutual business plans and ensure reciprocal outcomes.

What role does an Enterprise Architecture play?

Enterprise Architecture helps business management achieve its strategic goals. It supports the company in creating competitive advantage, reduces risks and enhances cost-efficiency and scalability. Mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing and major organizational changes all set additional demands on the flexibility of Enterprise Architecture.

The purpose of Enterprise Architecture Management is to:

• Provide a long-term view and facilitate the development of the company’s processes, systems and technologies as well as the execution of the business strategy
• Create, manage and develop a holistic, interconnected model of the enterprise that encompasses processes, information, applications and technology
• Ensure consistency and enable integration
• Create, develop and manage a holistic, high-level roadmap of engagements and projects that realize required solutions and to provide a clear path from current state to target state
• Enable lifecycle management of the solution portfolio

Digitalization has a major impact on Enterprise Architecture, as businesses flow over enterprise boundaries and business solutions expand to cover customers and ecosystems as well. A traditional monolithic architecture becomes complicated to manage and limits creativity inside company boundaries. The IT Standard for Business presents an approach that gives more room for planning the digitalization by integrating business to different ecosystems. The modularity of this approach allows a more agile development of architecture for different business areas.

The elements of Enterprise Architecture.

The major focus of this approach is on the vision, future state and business development of the company, which fall under the Business Architecture layer. The Business Architecture integrates company to various ecosystems, such as customer and partner ecosystems. The company itself is a corporate ecosystem with dependencies between business units and incorporates a business support ecosystem that consists of all vendors and partners related to business support (i.e. HR, Finance, IT, Legal). The vendor ecosystem could, for example, be business subcontractors, component suppliers and service suppliers to name a few. And finally, the partner ecosystem defines the dependencies between business partners, who have a peer role towards the business.

With Enterprise Architecture looking ahead, we also need to look ahead into our current and prospective consumers. Will they stay or will they go? What products will we need to invent in order keep them interested? However good your product or service is, the simple truth is that no-one will buy it if they don't want it or believe they don't need it. And you won't persuade anyone that they want or need to buy what you're offering unless you clearly understand what it is your customers really want.

What can we gleam from an Enterprise Architecture about our Customers?

Knowing and understanding customer needs is at the center of every successful business, whether it sells directly to individuals or other businesses. Once you have this knowledge, you can use it to persuade potential and existing customers that buying from you is in their best interests.

A well planned out and constructed Enterprise Architecture tells you what you need to know about your customers, how to use this information to sell to them more effectively, and how to win business from your competitors.

Why do your customers need you?

Every business needs a reason for their customers to buy from them and not their competitors. This is called a Unique Sales Proposition (USP). Your USP can be identified by completing the phrase "Customers will buy from me because my business is the only..."

Your USP can change as your business or your market changes, and you can have different USPs for different types of customer.

For example:

All of these USPs can be effective because they are driven by what the customer looks for when making a buying decision.

It's a good idea to review your USPs regularly. Can you tailor your products or services to better match your customers' needs? Consider asking your customers why they buy from you. This will tell you what they think your USP is - this may differ from what you think your USP is.

It's also useful to check constantly what your competition is doing. Remember - if your competitors are doing the same, your USP isn't unique any more.

What do you know about your customers?

The more you know about your customers, the more effective your sales and marketing efforts will be. It's well worth making the effort to find out:

If you're selling to other businesses, you'll need to know which individuals are responsible for the decision to buy your product or service. For information on targeting decision-makers, see our guide on how to target the right people in an organization.

You can learn a great deal about your customers by talking to them. Asking them why they're buying or not buying, what they may want to buy in the future and asking what other needs they have can give a valuable picture of what's important to them.

Strong sales are driven by focusing the benefits that your product or service brings to your customers. If you know the challenges that face them, it's much easier to offer them solutions.

It's also well worth keeping an eye on future developments in your customers' markets and lives. Knowing the trends that are going to influence your customers helps you to anticipate what they are going to need - and offer it to them as soon as they need it.

You can conduct your own market research and there are many existing reports that can help you build a picture of where your customers' markets - and your business - may be going.

The customer's current supplier

Chances are your potential customer is already buying something similar to your product or service from someone else. Before you can sell to a potential customer, you need to know:

The easiest way to identify a potential customer's current supplier is often simply to ask them. Generally people are very happy to offer this information, as well as an indication of whether they're happy with their present arrangements.

If you can find out what benefits they're looking for, you stand a better chance of being able to sell to them. The benefits may be related to price or levels of service, for example. Are there any benefits your business can offer that are better than those the potential customer already receives? If there are, these should form the basis of any sales approach you make.

Ten things you need to know about your customers

The Extended Enterprise

Collaboration as an enabler of Business Intelligence. Updated on 4/20/2021.

Business intelligence is the use of technology to analyze, discover, and identify business data. You can’t afford to have a business intelligence system, that is, well, unintelligent! Join the list of constant growth of companies who benefit from business intelligence. As of 2015, there were an estimated 30 to 50 million websites using Google Analytics around the globe. With the increasing popularity of Google Analytics and artificial intelligence, business intelligence is being overlooked, when in reality a business intelligence strategy is what your enterprise needs to look at in order to produce actionable and meaningful insights. 

Some positive effects of implementing business intelligence at your company:

• Cost reduction
• Increase in efficiency and productivity
• Supports decision making
• Improves sales
• Reveals opportunities.

Key performance indicators (KPI's) are the foundation of business intelligence and need to be viewed across the enterprise. It is therefore important for your company to be able to collaborate about this information and how it is used in your business strategy.

Business strategy may seem easy enough to follow for some; however, how well-informed as a whole is company about the business strategy? A team succeeds by working together within the transparency of all information. 

All should also have the ability to give input on the business strategy. Some of you in a single area of a company have better insight as to what that sector needs than, for example, another in a different sector. If a business is failing to implement its business strategy early enough, it is usually due to the lack of collaboration and lack of groups able to work together to execute the business strategy. By working together, not only will most people end up pleased at the end of it by being able to provide input but everyone will understand the details of what is expected of them, and will be reassured – because they had input – that their area of the business is doing what will be best for that part of the company. Top management can then make sure that all employees grasp the strategy, clarifying any details that are needed. 

Collaborate Using Data Visualization

If business intelligence makes the data easier to understand, then data visualization turns that into a story. According to Predictive Analytics Today, "it is estimated that over 1 billion terabytes of data are generated in a year." There are many data types of be visualized, including one, two, and multi-dimensional data, among other types. 

Some common interactions with this data in the data visualization process include painting, brushing, identifying, and scaling it. So, what are the best practices considering there are so many options of how to visual the data? 

Some best practices include:

Knowing Your Goal
Ask yourself: "What is my goal?", "Who is my intended audience?", and "What is my desired effect on my audience?"
Using Correct Data – Quantitative vs. Ordinal vs. Categorical
Quantitative – Used to define how much there is in a particular thing
Ordinal – Data that has a logical sequence and is logically accorded together
Categorical – Data which belong together
Keeping Visualization and Dashboard Simple
A simple, easy to read dashboard results in maximum impact, and this will help your audience better access and understand the information, and help answer questions faster.
Keeping Users Engaged
Regular emails and metric-driven notifications offer continual engagement and calls to action.
Empowering Your Audience
Identify your highest priority viewer and tailor your data visualization towards them, as this will empower them. Then, consider which KPIs answer important business strategy questions, as this will ensure your visualization contains meaningful and actionable data. 
Designing Interactively
First, gather all your requirements for data visualization, then design a prototype and give out the feedback in an interactive form. Next, you can revise based on this experience.

Collaborate Using the Cloud

Through the use of cloud storage, optionality–the potential for options–opens up, and this has a positive effect on business strategy by making data easier for everyone to access and does not disrupt the analysts or business systems when new data is uploaded.

The cloud has also made paying for only what you use when you use it possible, resulting in more money saved. Especially important as more and more enterprises move to the cloud, is to separate your storage and compute, says Starburst. Contrary to what some may think, this will save money but will not sacrifice performance, compared to the old model of storing and computing in one. 

Competitive Advantage to Clarify Goals

Today, no business can work in isolation without floundering. An organization’s success is dependent on a complex network of partnerships that combine resources to clarify the services and products that should be presented to the market. This is known as the extended enterprise, a concept that has far reaching repercussions if it is managed smartly.

With collaboration on a large scale, organizations have access to massive amounts of data that, if utilized correctly, can be used to meet critical business goals. Even if some organizations choose to work independently via agreements, they are still part of the architecture that influences the exchange of information, money, and services.

This collective intelligence and the data that generates from are a gold mine if they are managed smartly. Since most of that data lies outside an enterprise, businesses need a single platform that can help them leverage that intel and turn it into a competitive edge.

The Visible Systems Advantage

At Visible Systems, our aim is to help organizations make better business decisions by helping them leverage data that is working behind their enterprise architecture. With our help:

• Stakeholders can use the collective data powering their enterprise architecture to gain insight about business objectives across different verticals.
• Data managers can get to the data that matters and share metadata, models, and glossaries across an extended architecture.
• Organizations can benefit from a simple framework in one integrated platform for efficient and quick decision-making.

Next Step:

Read more about how a "unified" view of the Enterprise plays a key role in collaboration and see the article published by the Harvard Business Review on "The Business Case for Curiosity".

The Universal Model Framework

Updated on 4/20/2021

The Business Analyst Perspective:

In an ever expanding business world, business analysts are your company's first multi-faceted solution to growing with the constant change of the business environment. Business analysts link a company's technology and objectives, assisting in the process of turning data into revenue at a more efficient pace than a company without a business analyst. Business analytics solutions can be expensive, so it is helpful if your company has a reliable business intelligence software as well.

One of the core skills of a business analyst is actually management. With the ability to manage, along with the other skills necessary of a business analyst, there is only success to follow.

Some other necessary skills of a business analyst include: communication, technical skills, analytics, problem solving, decision making, and negotiation and persuasion skills.

A business analyst has many goals, the main ones being: meeting deadlines, cost controlling, and ensuring the proper implementation of a solution to a problem.

A qualified business analyst should have a degree in a related field, such as information technology, since business analyst programs are not widely available. They should also have passed the CBAP exam to be industrially recognized.

Business analysis is your company's key to making better business decisions, faster. After all, time is money. If top companies are utilizing business analysis and finding success in the usage, shouldn't your company be using it too?

Microsoft

Microsoft implemented a collaborative approach among their analytics team of 1,200 by shifting their employees into fewer buildings. This resulted in a 46% decrease in travel time for meetings, therefore giving the team more time to work on the important stuff: analyzing.

Uber

Uber created its Customer Obsession Ticket in 2018, which is a business analytics tool that uses machine learning to improve speed and accuracy when responding to support tickets. This has resulted in a 7% reduction in the time it takes to respond to support tickets, and thus better customer satisfaction.

What can your company increase speed on, resulting in better customer satisfaction and therefore better revenue for your company?

The Data Analyst Perspective:

Any business is also bound to come across data and statistics. Knowing how to utilize those numbers will make or break a company. As artificial intelligence grows in capability and popularity, it might seem like a great option, however AI often combines statistics, analytics, and machine learning into one subject. In reality, these are all very different and need to be analyzed separately. This is why using a machine won’t benefit your company as much as utilizing real people. So, your company's second multi-faceted solution to growing with constant change of the business environment is to hire a data analyst, perhaps even before anyone else.

Ask your data analyst to achieve the height of what they can in their specific area of expertise, whether it be statistics, analytics, or machine learning, and then focus on the other two areas. After all, being an expert in one and mediocre in the other two will be more beneficial than being merely mediocre in all three. 

According to research done by Trilogy Education, the five most important qualities for a data analyst to have are: data analysis, SQL, data management, business intelligence, and data warehousing.

Data analytics is a complicated job, so let's face it, much of the time an initial attempt can be improved upon. Some main road blocks for data analysts include culture, structure, and approaches to problem solving. Analysts often fail at explaining the details to the decision maker of the company. After all, not everyone is well versed in data analytics. In a survey done by Kaggle, four out of the seven biggest road blocks of getting the full value out of a data analyst comes down to the last mile issues, and yes, this is very frustrating to both parties.

How can your company better utilize data analytics without the road blocks? The answer to that is to gather a small team of data analysts, with a chief analytics officer. Perhaps hire other employees to help with the transition of versing the decision makers on the information from the analysts. The work of the analysts is hard enough, so asking them to go through the steps of presenting it in a way that a non-analyst can understand is almost too much to ask. Companies need to think of data analytics as a multi-step process, hiring different people who can fulfill these different steps, and therefore bridge the gap between the analyzed data and the understanding of the data. The use of cloud storage may be beneficial as well, since it opens up optionality and makes all data easier to transfer into the data bank and access, without disrupting analysts and business applications in the process.

In between the Business and Data Analyst, the Systems Analyst needs to understand how to leverage and integrate these perspectives!

While data is the foundation of a business, harnessing it is challenging since some data is formless. Visible Systems took up that challenge by using The Universal Model Framework as a means of detecting  patterns in data. Using The Universal Model Framework you are able to get a head start on your data modeling efforts and you don’t need to re-invent the wheel each time your business introduces a new system. This can help you save a lot of time and effort that can then be re-utilized in other productive endeavors.

Modeling data when needing to aggregate data across multiple data sources:

Even though most data modeling efforts are data modeling constructs that have been created numerous times before, doing so can be a challenge. Additionally, though many applications are supported from single data source, decision support processes may require additional data sources especially for solving problems that require hybrid, multi-faceted solutions. By showing interdependencies, The Universal Model Framework enables us to easily aggregate data across multiple data sources.

The Universal Model Framework enables:

• Grouping activities according to subject areas and business function before designing architectural road maps, keeping your business strategy in mind. This allows us to determine the business objects and functions necessary to achieve the intended goals.
• Examining changing requirements and what they can do for existing business processes, design, and development.
• Collaborating with key decision makers and providing consistent support for applications, data requirements, and requests.
• Accumulating essential information into sound business terms that stakeholders, employees, and management can understand and utilize.

You can think of the Universal Model Framework as a large ontology from which taxonomies are derived for a better understanding of your business domain. Each entity, when viewed within the context of a taxonomy represents a cohesive business intel. Henceforth, data can be viewed from a number of different perspectives and when instantiated can be queried and viewed as they are in a specific moment. For instance, an entity that is viewed from a sales perspective will have different business intel when it is viewed from, say, a production perspective.

The Universal Model Framework brings these perspectives together in a comprehensive, meaningful way. In some ways, it is the sum of the parts of your business that have hidden potential which can be tapped into via different perspectives.

Data Discovery

Rethinking Data Discovery

While organizations may go through some growing pains, customer dissatisfaction can derail even the best laid plans. Forecasting business and operational needs on the basis of irregular and unreliable information can have costly repercussions. If the analytical tools you have are not producing results that can help you make personalized decisions, it might be time to rethink data discovery.

With both internal and external influences, the data you seek may seem abstract. Today, enterprises need agile data discovery platforms that can take diverse information into account along with variables that can be used in models. At Visible Systems Corp, we can help you harness the data you need in a rapidly evolving business environment to gain a competitive advantage.

Here are just some ways we can make a difference for your enterprise:

Recognizing Patterns in Existing Data

Looking for searchable solutions in a pile of unstructured data is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Our technicians are trained to spot hidden trends and patterns in that tangled web. Through this process, we will gather, catalogue, annotate, and combine it into an understandable and user-friendly format to streamline critical decisions. This allows us to create results that unlock actionable insights for business growth.

Saving Time and Resources

At Visible Systems Corp, we understand that traditional data analysis tools are only designed to analyze data that is in a specific format. However, most data is formless since it is sourced from different locations. Using data discovery, we can aggregate and format it from various sources to streamline analysis. This results in data that is in the right format, which can ensure timely deliverables.

We realize that data discovery is a continuous process and old data is as valuable as fresh data. That is why as it is accumulated, we clean and store the existing data besides ensuring that it remains available for future use.

Streamlined Data Modeling

Unlike outdated data analysis models, with our data discovery we model your business data using an understandable structure.  This includes harmonizing disparate sources to ensure a uniformity that can make streamlined data analysis possible. This affects businesses directly unlike their predecessors that involved the processing of huge amounts of data for actionable results.

Next Step:

Read more about how a "unified" perspective of the Enterprise plays a key role in understanding change and see the article published by the Harvard Business Review on "The Business Case for Curiosity".

Updated on 4/20/2021

Is Systems Analysis an Art or a Science? Let's take a look at the Science first.

Much of the art of Systems Analysis come in understanding the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and which type of SDLC (Waterfall, Agile, Spiral, Iterative) to apply in a given project. Some difficulties of SDLC is understanding when the SDLC should be applied, lack of flexibility, quality issues, and integration issues. By adapting e-Engineering, it should not matter. Through the e-Engineering methodology, activities are performed “just in time,” i.e., when they are most needed in an enterprise’s unique environment.

As a practicing Systems Analysis, we'd like to hear from you on what best practices you have used. Do you consider it a science or an art?If you are curious on how to approach your practice more along the lines of a science than an art then provide us with your feedback below and we will send you our E-Book on "e-Engineering - A Unified Methodology for Enterprise Transformation".