DATA ENGINEERING

Designing, Engineering, and Delivering your Custom BI Solution

Data Engineering-min (1)

MandA Data

Our customers are solving challenging problems for different vertical markets, particularly related to industrial and utility segments. Firmographs has a broad understanding of industrial/engineering trends and challenges in these markets.

We combine that market awareness with careful customer discovery to yield optimal results in a 6-step process:

1. Discovery.  Each consulting engagement begins with a discovery process to understand your business objectives and confirm a match between our capabilities and your needs. Once we have general agreement on the project deliverables, we’ll agree to a timeline and execute a scope of work.  Depending on the project scope, we may recommend a proof-of-concept.

2. Project Concept.  All projects start with a strong conceptual design.  It is important to start with the end in mind. We work with you to ask and answer, "what are the most-compelling business questions we would like to answer?"  

3. Configuration Design.  Concept in-hand, we design the database model that will support answering our compelling questions.  That model may include our data, your data, and other information you or we license from 3rd parties.  We’ll identify data that needs to be added or appended and formulate a plan.

4. Data Sourcing and Preparation.  We are experts at efficiently sourcing additional data, and where needed, FirmoGraphs will source additional data sets or elements.  All data will be normalized and prepared. This may include additional processes such as geo-tagging to support map visualizations. Our tools and approaches are flexible in that a completely-clean data set is not required to start visualization and analysis.  This matters since many BI projects fail to start due to a lack of “perfect” data.

5. Visualization Design.  There are effective and poor ways to show data relationships. Picking the most-appropriate visuals can make the difference between success and failure in any BI exercise. We recommend and create the appropriate charts, graphs, maps, and other representations.  

6. Solution Refresh.  With the delivered, FirmoGraphs will plan an appropriate data refresh strategy that meets your requirements.  Sometimes data changes infrequently, and an annual refresh is sufficient. Other times a quarterly, monthly, or weekly approach is warranted.  The right refresh strategy will protect your BI investment and keep the solution continually improving.