Enterprise Information Alignment

A large international quick service restaurant corporation is re-designing its major business functions to propel itself into a new era of growth. The greatest leverage will come from intelligently transforming and integrating its business processes in Finance, Supply Chain, Human Capital, and Restaurant Operations. If the processes are to be integrated, the data and information must be defined, standardized and managed in a way that optimally enables all business functions. The entire information life cycle must be coordinated between the multiple business units and the solution must be implemented in multiple countries.

I was hired as the lead analyst to define the data standards, the global business rules, and data management business processes for the product information that flowed between business partners in the Supply Chain.

• Formed information profiles (data entities, data elements and definitions) by surveying existing data systems
• Facilitated meetings with key business process owners to refine the information profiles and to determine which data entities/elements were candidates for global standardization
• Authored the business guide to understanding the standard structure and definition of the item information
• Designed (with the business owners) the business process for managing the data; presented and reviewed the new process to management
• Gathered and managed the requirements for the application that must maintain the standardized information
• Conducted a "build vs. buy" analysis to select a solution for the data maintenance applications
• Wrote functional specifications to customize the selected application software, including specifications for application extensions, reports, interfaces, and conversions

My global business rules document became the definitive standard of data administration for the business owners. It clarified the characteristics of each data entity, the rules for when data is created or existing data is modified, and the rules for configuring the data for specific business situations. The data administration personnel were able to make intelligent decisions about item setup and maintenance. The solution provided a solid data foundation for all the technology systems and business processes.

This was the most complex information project I've ever led. Resolving differences in terminology was a painful, but enlightening experience. The debates over what constitutes a distinct item or product were the most enlightening. (A rough corollary is the debate in the library community over what constitutes a new electronic work.) Most information integration projects must tackle the issue of data/information "grain" or the level of detail at which to track information. Loss of grain can impact business performance while increased grain can result in administrative nightmares.