Data Services

Blue Beacon uses exceptional innovation and creativity to help clients rein in their voluminous data and use it as a strategic asset. We offer end-to-end data management, from strategy through implementation. Additionally, we make sure that all data initiatives are aligned closely with clients’ business objectives.

We encourage clients to manage data with dual goals: effectiveness and efficiency for today’s applications and flexibility to enable tomorrow’s business initiatives. By establishing an ongoing program to manage data, Blue Beacon helps organizations use data more effectively. Our program provides a cross-enterprise view of data and includes enterprise-wide foundational activities and initiative-based projects, all supported by a clear data strategy.

By addressing data as a program, organizations can use it to support numerous business lines or initiatives. This approach also allows them to prioritize and fund data projects as a combination of infrastructure and business priorities; thereby leveraging the benefits of shared data even more effectively.

Blue Beacon helps companies improve their ability to leverage data resources; reduce data errors, inconsistencies and duplication; and create consistent information throughout the organization. Additionally, we gain control of information scattered about the enterprise and/or trapped inside individual applications, enabling companies to collect and synchronize data. Moreover, we help clients create an enabling platform for business integration by unifying their information, both internally and externally.

Data Strategy

Determining the best ways to rein in data and use it as a strategic asset can be overwhelming. At Blue Beacon, we help companies determine how best to support the needs of the business through effective collection, maintenance, dissemination and sharing of information. By aligning data strategy with business goals, we address data holistically—helping companies gain a clearer picture of what their data can do for them, and how it can happen. An effective data strategy:

• Improves leverage of data resources
• Increases operational efficiency
• Integrates data across applications and fosters reuse
• Enables data scalability/adaptability
• Controls data redundancy.

A clear Data Strategy helps establish a basis for sound architecture, planning and implementation—the building blocks for effective information sharing. Additionally, optimized data quality and reliability help maintain consistent information throughout the organization.

Although business drivers remain the focus of the Data Strategy, technology considerations help establish a proper balance between tactical (application) and strategic (corporate) data requirements. This comprehensive approach results in increased effectiveness of business initiatives - including enhanced data services for customer integration, customer reporting, marketing and sales, and internal analysis.

Data Integration

Collecting data from throughout the organization and turning it into consistent, useful information is often a huge challenge. However, companies that manage to do it gain significant business value, including:

• Better, faster decision making
• More accurate sales and marketing campaigns
• More complete understanding of customers
• Enhanced ability to manage suppliers
• Better cost control.

Blue Beacon helps clients gather data and optimize its use throughout the organization. We employ a thorough assessment of a company’s ability to leverage its data across the enterprise, as well as its technology capabilities. By gaining control of information scattered throughout the organization and/or trapped inside individual applications, companies can collect and synchronize information, allowing all parts of the organization to “share the wealth.”

We leverage a deep understanding of the technical complexities required to extract data from a repository and integrate it with similar information mined from elsewhere in the organization. We determine the appropriate data integration model—real-time or batch—to ensure performance, cost and technical complexity align with business need and value provided. Identifying and optimizing redundant data allows companies to benefit from application consolidation, leading to a more simplified, economic portfolio. It also results in enhanced flexibility, which enables companies to embark on new business initiatives. Our holistic approach enables the entire organization, as well as trading partners, to benefit from shared data.

Data Quality

Evolution and continuous improvement to data quality leads to real business value. We create an optimized platform by aligning clients' quality strategies with their business goals, enabling them to:

• Improve leverage of data resources
• Reduce data errors, inconsistencies and duplicates
• Create consistent information throughout the organization.

Blue Beacon views data quality as a full life cycle activity. Considering it from the onset of any process or system initiative is a prerequisite for successful optimization. To help companies achieve this, Blue Beacon determines the key business drivers that impact data quality, and the data required to support them. Then, we analyze the data to assess its quality and consistency. We use the results to ascertain the appropriate course of action for quality improvement, and then make required enhancements. By measuring the results and reporting the findings, we feed information back into the beginning of the improvement process

Legacy Transformation – A structured but flexible approach

All migrations are complex, long-term projects that can seem overwhelming and require substantial investment. At Blue Beacon, we understand that business priorities drive migration and recognize that different organizations face different challenges, therefore our migration approach allows us to tailor strategies and solutions accordingly. To help companies better manage transformation efforts, Blue Beacon has developed a Legacy Migration Roadmap—a plan that plots their objectives, direction and alternatives, step by step. The Roadmap helps clients migrate applications toward changing objectives, using a defined process focused on business goals. It also separates daunting projects into manageable, defined phases; each of which delivers value.

Forming the proper team is critical to legacy migration. It requires commitment and cooperation from stakeholders throughout the organization. These include business and IT executives and application and industry experts. Migration must especially be supported by business sponsors and entrenched within IT.