TOWARDS THE eMERALD CITY
Deploying Information Quality Tools
in a Federated Business
Nigel Turner & John Hodges
British Telecommunications (BT) IM Programme
The BT FEDERATION
BT WHOLESALE
BT RETAIL
• Governance
• Brand
• Parental advantage
• Trading relationships
• End to end processes
• Financials
• eBT
THE BT FEDERATION
BT RETAIL
BT WHOLESALE
• Information & Knowledge
Group
LEGACY THINKING
• Process emphasis - but process reengineering
alone will NOT deliver eBT
• Process and organisational
thinking has encouraged a plethora of
stovepipe systems - Delivery Channels
emphasised at expense of content
• The “Information” in Information Systems
and Information Technology has been
largely neglected to date.
THE INFORMATION QUALITY
IMPERATIVE FOR eBUSINESS
“It is likely that data quality is the most
important problem large organisations
face today. Information is truly the glue
that holds the online organisation together…
Zero latency organisations have to make
the right split-second decisions based on
their available, online data, and that is only
possible if the data is correct.”
KEN ORR - CUTTER CONSORTIUM MARCH 2000
TOWARDS A HIGH INFORMATION
QUALITY BUSINESS - KEY DRIVERS
E-BUSINESS
MARKET
OPPORTUNITIES
BUSINESS &
IT COST
PRESSURES
‘THE
HIGH IQ
BUSINESS’
DATA
SELFMANAGEMENT
CUSTOMER
EXPECTATIONS
REGULATION
LEGISLATION
INFORMATION QUALITY:
THE BEDROCK OF INFORMED
ACTION
DATA CLEANSE IN BT
Best of breed commercial tools more likely to
sustain information quality & integrity because
home grown solutions are:
•
•
•
•
Expensive
Slow to develop & implement
Often rely on excessive manual effort
Tend to be ‘one off’ exercises, where gains are
not maintained…
information quality is a process, not a snapshot
• Often a reaction to problems, so a ‘back end’ focus
predominates
• Solutions not portable
• Learning not shared
IQ TOOLS :
PROJECT OBJECTIVE
To identify, evaluate, test, and implement
proven, industry best information quality
management tools & methods to drive up
information quality in BT to:
ENABLE
eBT
TRANSFORMATION
ENHANCE
REVENUE
OPPORTUNITIES
REDUCE
COSTS OF
FAILURE
IQ TOOLS EVALUATION CRITERIA
•
Ability to identify information quality issues
• Provide information quality metrics
• Automate & support quality improvement activities
• Add value to existing information
(e.g. postcode input & validation, grid references)
• Reconciliation & checks on information flows
PORTFOLIO
INFORMATION
QUALITY TOOLS
Migration Architect / aka AXIO
(Information Transformation)
Autonomous Controls & Recon.
(Information Integrity)
Trillium
(Information Cleanse
& Enrichment)
IQ TOOLS:
CHRONOLOGY
Dec 98
June 99
June 99
IQ Tools Identification & Evaluation starts
IQ tool set determined
Migration Architect
Group MIS Common Data Store
BT Retail Customer Service
BT Wholesale
July 99
Autonomous Controls & Reconciliation
BT Retail Markets
Group Finance
BT Wholesale
BT Cellnet
Dec 99
Trillium
BT Retail Markets
IQ TOOLS CENTRE:
ACTIVITIES 2000/01
April 2000
April 2000
July 2000
Nov. 2000
Dec. 2000
March 2001
Trillium operational in BT
Retail Markets
BT Wholesale Unitech trials
start
BT Retail Address project
initiated
First IQ Tools user group
Framework methodology
drafted
Further deployment of tools
INFORMATION QUALITY
TOOLS - APPLICATIONS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Measure current IQ & establish baselines
Define definitive / best information sources
Highlight information pollutants
Clean information automatically - both in situ
and in data migration
Enrich existing data, e.g. PAF, Third Party data
Audit and track improvements
Maintain integrity across data sources
Extract business rules from information
The THREE STEPS TO THE eCITY:
THE IQ PATH
Application of IQ Tools
LEGACY OSS
*
*
*
*
*
Analyse
Audit
Catalogue
Clean
Maintain integrity
MIGRATION
»
»
»
»
»
Model
Audit
Clean
Enrich
Integrate
BT eTOPIA
e
e
e
e
e
Analyse new feeds
Audit
Clean
Catalogue
Maintain integrity
IQ TOOLS CENTRE:
BENEFITS OF APPROACH
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Creates a centre of excellence / expertise
Promote deployment across the enterprise
Encourage standardisation & common portfolio
Deal with vendor companies centrally
Leverage economies of scale
Serve as doorway to potential vendors
Can fund & support seedcorn and trial work
Provide a “try before you buy” service
Initiate and foster internal & external networking
Accelerate evaluation & deployment
IQ TOOLS: BOTTOM LINE
Realised to date
Anticipated
by end 2000/01
Potential
Benefits
$6 million
$150 million
$1.5+ billion???
IQ: THE TECHNOLOGY TRAP
“There are three roads
to ruin: women, who
are the most pleasant;
gambling, which is the
fastest; and technology,
which is the surest.”
Georges Pompidou
President of France
(1969 - 1974)
WORLD CLASS IQ
INFORMATION CAPABILITY
Info. Tech.
•
Operations
• Process
• Innovation
• Management
Info. Man.
•
Sensing
• Collecting
• Organising
• Processing
• Maintaining
Info. Beh.
& Values
• Integrity
• Formality
• Control
• Sharing
• Transparency
• Proactiveness
Source: Sloan Management Review (Summer 2000)
LESSONS LEARNT
•
•
•
•
•
Need small, but dedicated full time resource
This requires a small central budget,
also used to seed corn and run trials
Requires business leadership, with strong
technical support… IQ is a business problem
To succeed, must lay a great emphasis on
raising awareness and communicating success
To inculcate across the business, must find
senior management champions, but start at
the middle.
TOWARDS THE eMERALD CITY?
Guard: State Your Business
Dorothy: We want to see the Wizard
Guard: The Wizard? Nobody sees
the Wizard. Even I have
never seen him
Dorothy: Well then, how do you know
there is one?