Big Data Processing

What was the challenge faced by the business?

An established marketing services business had invested heavily in its data processing capabilities to underpin new products and services and process 100's of millions of data records on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. The costs associated with this were growing and the business was finding it difficult to scale-up the new capabilities.

How we helped

We were was asked to:

  • Conduct a review of the entire data processing capability, including people, processes, technology (including infrastructure) and operating model

  • Develop a roadmap of change for the business to reduce fixed costs, increase efficiency and provide future scalability

Review & Audit

  • Review all existing data processing capabilities, spanning people, process & technology (infrastructure & applications), identifying strengths, weaknesses, issues and risks

  • Analysis of the cost base to understand the total cost of ownership and the key drivers of costs within the data processing operations

Strategy & Roadmap

  • Developed and refined with the board a 2 year roadmap of change, both tactical and strategic to address the issues identified

  • Worked with the client's infrastructure hosting partner to develop a new infrastructure architecture to address identified risks and issues

Delivery

  • Oversaw the development of the proposed infrastructure changes from an architectural concept to a deliverable plan

  • Provision of subject matter expertise to drive key initiatives and new products/services forwards, ensuring they delivered the intended business changes and benefits

  • Provided coaching and mentoring for key staff moved into new roles to deliver the strategic plan

  • Communicated the outcomes of the review and the agreed change roadmap to the whole business to ensure staff were engaged and supportive of the plans

The Results

  • Re-platforming of the data processing infrastructure reducing long term total cost of ownership and providing flexible & cost-effective future scalability

  • Key risks addressed through a series of quick wins & additional people capabilities

  • Strategic change programme commenced, with board tracking progress on a quarterly basis

  • New product development roadmap agreed and integrated into the broader strategic technical change programme