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A Call To Action

July 15, 2008

One of the calls that nobody wants to get – “the ground beef you just purchased may be tainted with e. Coli”. But, isn’t it better to get that call — than find out the hard way that you shouldn’t have eaten the product? In this day of frequent product recalls, a local firm is doing a fantastic job of connecting with their customers and communicating with them.

During the recent recall during the recent 4th of July holiday, no less, a local grocer notified their customers in a variety of ways. They placed signs in stores in meat departments (but if you are in the store buying meat – chances are you may have already consumed the meat you previously purchased).
Thanks to their frequent shopper program, they were able to track purchases by customers who use the company’s loyalty card. This is normally used to track purchases to accrue fuel discounts, or receive coupons and discounts on future purchases. During the recent recall, they printed a message at the bottom of the receipt to customers whose history showed they may have purchased the recalled product (and instructed the checkout clerk to point out the notice to consumers). In other cases, they actually called customers who used the loyalty card to purchase the tainted product (what a great motivating factor for encouraging consumers to keep their card information updated!).

Obviously a phone call would be best - since there is a time dependent factor for many shoppers – who purchase and immediately use the meat they purchase – but register tape alerts are great for those who stock up and placed the meat in their freezer for later consumption. Better late than never.
Loyalty programs sometimes come under fire – “what is being done with the data?”
“Are they selling personal information?” “Why do I have to give up that information to get lower prices?”

Generally, however most retailers promise that any proprietary information is not shared and only aggregated item data is shared with their vendors. In today’s competitive environment, businesses continually strive to “focus on the customer” and make the customer “# 1” – and develop the strategies that put the customer at the center of their business. Doing so makes customer data increasingly important, with loyalty programs serving as a very effective way of capturing customer data.

Another benefit of customer loyalty programs is the ability to foster two-way communications with customers – this can be done by implementing an active customer feedback system and listening to customers. It not only provides a way to capture customers’ concerns, questions and complaints, but as described above, it can offer a great way to reach out to customers.

For now, I’m fostering two-way communications with my customers by meeting with them, and having conversations with them about how they are communicating with their customers – both internal and external. I’m learning a lot, and hopefully gaining insight into how we can best work with them to facilitate this process. Clearly “one size fits all” won’t be the right answer. By listening, and asking questions, we can make a lot of progress in jointly defining the solution. How are you communicating with your customers?

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Written by SuzanneLorch · Filed Under Business & Leadership, Featured | 2 Comments 

How About A New Opportunity?

July 10, 2008

Here at LUCRUM, we enjoy helping our clients find the right candidates for their open opportunities, but we also enjoy helping our candidates find the right opportunity for them.   Please review our newest positions that we have listed below and should you have an interest in one of these positions, please send me your updated resume in Word format to :  luzzel@lucruminc.com and be sure to visit us at www.thefuturevalueofbusiness.com for the latest technology updates.

1)    Java, CSS, HTMP Analyst with J2EE, Struts 2, Spring 2 and Eclipse IDE with excellent communication skills to work with external clients doing customer requirements gathering, development and installation of Clearspace.  After installation, Analyst will work with clients on updating and developing features as needed.
2)    Programmer Analyst with excellent communication skills in this Contract to Hire role located in Dayton, Ohio.  Our client is a unique global communications company that is seeking the someone who can analyze situations with customers and develop plans/specs to work from.  Coding experience using JAVA, SQL, XML, HTML, DHTML, Web Services  as well as broad knowledge of networks to support and monitor performance of external vendors.
3)    Full time opportunity for local Cincinnati, Ohio firm seeking a Data Solutions Developer with who is Proficient in PL/SQL, SAS, expert in use of ETL tools, expert in system analysis, design and modeling.  5+ years experience in full software development lifecycle, experience with high volume Data Warehousing applications and good working knowledge of UNIX/Shell programming.
4)    Direct Hire need for a Web Application Developer for a Healthcare provider in Dayton, Ohio.  Seeking someone with Microsoft Certifications, VB and C#.net development experience as well as Microsoft SQL Server or other Relational Database experience.
5)    E1/JDE Oracle developer familiar with version 8.11 with Manufacturing Module.  We have 2 opportunities:  1 for 3 month contract to hire and the other one is a 3 month contract with possible extensions to that contract.  Must be able to troubleshoot “go-live” production issues and develop custom integration and enhancements to current systems.  Environment is Manufacturing, AS400, LINUX, and ORACLE with JDE /E1 ERP Implementation.

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Written by LindaUzzel · Filed Under Jobs | Leave a Comment 

Putting your baby to bed :-(

July 10, 2008

Well, not a real breathing, baby food eating, diaper filling baby anyway.  What I’m talking about it is retiring a system that you were also responsible for creating and implementing.

In the beginning, there was a problem.  The problem was the client’s inefficiency in closing the financials and reporting said financials out to the masses.  Enter LÛCRUM.  LÛCRUM has a long history of solving complex data problems.  LÛCRUM delivered an enterprise data warehouse that allowed integration of various financial systems into a single repository with a common vocabulary that facilitated timely financial reporting to the organization.

Fast forward 4+ years.  The data warehouse keeps on chugging.  It performs monthly financial closing processes admirably.  Data is still integrated from numerous sources.  People still depend on the “numbers” that come from their financial reporting.  Enter “change”.  The client has been acquired by another company.  The buying company also has a data warehouse and decided to integrate the two together. 

Before we can decommission the data warehouse, the financial processes need to be migrated.  The buying company handles the development aspects of the migration to the new architecture and BI toolset; however the existing support team is the SME with respect to the existing system.  Discussing, detailing, and discussing again the AS-IS requirements with the development staff explaining what has to be re-created, the certain business nuances to be aware of, performance and tuning considerations, and other “why’d you do it that way” discussions.

As with all systems reviewed in retrospect, you’re going to find some things that you’d might change if you could have a do-over, however for the most part, LÛCRUM’s EDW has stood the test of time and required very little enhancements/rework.  Here are some observations that I believe resulted in a stable, high performing and well accepted data warehouse:

1.       Implemented Ralph Kimball’s methodology.

2.       Shielded the data warehouse from source system changes based upon SLA’s between the two parties.  When the source systems underwent changes, they were responsible for maintaining a standard data submission format.

3.       Shielded the BI tools from the underlying database tables.  All interaction was through database views thus allowing the data warehouse to make modifications along the way that minimized downstream impacts.

4.       Utilized an enterprise job orchestration tool.  This allowed for interaction of various upstream and downstream systems in a packaged application capable of communicating with various system platforms.

5.       Due to large data volumes, special attention was made to insure high performing interaction with data.

6.       All “heavy” lifting of data was performed at ETL time resulting in simple SELECTs from the BI toolset.  This prevented the client from being tied to a BI toolset.

7.       An online meta data repository was utilized to allow users to understand what data was in the data warehouse and/or what a particular business term meant.

8.       Visual production support processes were implemented that permitted the support team to be proactive in working through issues rather than being reactive to problems.

9.       Extensive testing was performed during development and implementation.  Unit, String, Regression, Performance, and User acceptance.  Almost an obnoxious amount of testing, but well worth it in the end.

10.   LÛCRUM built it! (Come on, you saw that coming didn’t you?)

 

Next steps are the decommissioning project.  We are figuring out what data needs to be archived for potential future reference.  Where will this subset of legacy data reside?  How might it be accessed?  What dependencies exist with the server architecture?  What parties need to be involved (server operations, UNIX team, storage team, dbas, etc.)?  How quickly can it be done?

All good things must come to an end.  I am proud to say that I was a part of this initiative at the start as well as at the end.  Our solution solved a problem.  Now it’s someone/something else’s turn to reach up to the bar that has been set.

Time to start singing a lullaby…

Dave

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Written by Dave Cordas · Filed Under Information Technology | 2 Comments 

Work for Lucrum

June 24, 2008

Recruiting is my life! My name is Linda Uzzel and I’m the SR. Recruiter for LUCRUM. I’ve been in this business for over 13 years in the Dayton, Cincinnati and yes Phoenix Marketplaces. Many of you in our local marketplace know me and I encourage you to email or call to update me on your current employment status. Here at LUCRUM, we enjoy helping our clients, employees and consultants find the right position for them. Please review the newest positions that we have listed below and should you have an interest in one of these positions, please send me your updated resume in Word format to : luzzel@lucruminc.com and be sure to visit us at www.lucruminc.com for the latest technology updates.

  1. Network Security Analyst, this is a 3 month right to hire with a local Cincinnati based firm looking for someone to provide Tier 3 support, security monitoring, firewalls/IDS/IPS management, computer security forensics and vulnerability testing. Must have 3-5 years of Network Security and have experience with routers, switches, firewalls and other network devises: Solaris/AIX/Linux/Windows, forensic tools and developing scripting code.



  1. Sr. Java Developer with J2EE that has excellent communication skills to work with external clients doing customer requirements gathering, development and installation of Clearspace. After installation, developer will work with clients on updating and developing features as needed.



  1. Programmer Analyst with excellent communication skills in this Contract to Hire role located in Dayton, Ohio. Our client is a unique global communications company that is seeking the someone who can analyze situations with customers and develop plans/specs to work from. Coding experience using JAVA, SQL, XML, HTML, DHTML, Web Services as well as broad knowledge of networks to support and monitor performance of external vendors.



  1. Full time opportunity for local Cincinnati, Ohio firm seeking a Data Solutions Developer with who is Proficient in PL/SQL, SAS, expert in use of ETL tools, expert in system analysis, design and modeling. 5+ years experience in full software development lifecycle, experience with high volume Data Warehousing applications and good working knowledge of UNIX/Shell programming.



  1. Direct Hire need for a Web Application Developer for a Healthcare provider in Dayton, Ohio. Seeking someone with Microsoft Certifications, VB and C#.net development experience as well as Microsoft SQL Server or other Relational Database experience.

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Written by LindaUzzel · Filed Under Jobs | Leave a Comment 

Describe Your Day

June 12, 2008

When analyzing information, one tends to always limit one’s view to a certain time frame.  Whether by a specific date or over a span of days, data is often meaningless unless you can put a box around it.  Obviously other filters come into the mix (product, geography, corporation, etc.), but the common denominator is most often time.

Having been a part of a number of data warehouse projects, the “Date” dimension is a common debate session and is often re-invented from project to project.  Why?  When it comes to high pressure deadlines and deliverables, why can’t we have a cookie cutter Date dimension that can be tailored and tweaked as necessary to meet your project needs?  Well, we can, but first we must decide on what the cookie cutter attributes would be for the dimension.

Take a few moments and see how many different ways you can describe a day. Tick, Tick, Tick.  How many did you come up with….5, 10, 20?  I came up with 84 (including a few found courtesy of internet searches) and then stopped.  Some examples….actual  date (duh Dave!), Month name, Week starting date, Quarter number, Weekend indicator, Fiscal Year, Last day of Month indicator, Day number of the year, etc.  Obviously some of these attributes can be readily calculated using database SQL functions, however when dealing with large data volumes, reading directly from a table vs. computing on the fly is preferable from a performance standpoint.  You also don’t want to burden an end-user to have to understand how to strip out the day portion of a field formatted in MM/DD/YYYY.

The Date Dimension is one of the few dimensions in the data warehouse that you can pre-populate once and forget about it.  With 365 days per year you can populate your table with 50 years of data for the low low cost of 18,250 records (give or take a leap year or two)…peanuts in DW speak.  Now give your user 84 different ways to describe a day.  Pretty powerful analytics to browse through.  How many sales are closed on the last day of the month?  What is the average attendance of a baseball game on a weekend compared to a weekday or a holiday?  How many weeks has your system been operational since its inception?

One common debate topic on the Date dimension is whether or not one should use intelligent or non-intelligent surrogate keys.  Surrogate keys provide a means to relate a metric/fact (i.e. Sales revenue) to a dimension (i.e. Date, Product, Sales Rep) that describes that metric/fact.  Common practice is to use non-intelligent surrogate keys in order to not tie the data warehouse to business codes that could conceivably change over time.   An example of a non-intelligent key would simply be a numeric field that automatically increments each time a new dimension record is added to the table.  Meaningless to you and me, but insures that the connection between the metric/fact and attribute will never be broken.  One could argue that the Date dimension is not susceptible to changing over time.  For instance, if we took today’s date and converted it to an intelligent key of 20080612, this would never change over time.  I could then write queries directly against my business metrics and limit them based on my interpretation of a date without having to perform a database join to the Date dimension resulting in a faster query.  Something to consider though is a common practice of placing records within a dimension to associate metrics that have an “invalid” or perhaps “not applicable” dates associated with the transaction.  If my Date dimension has a intelligent numeric surrogate key, that I have to come up with some bogus key (i.e. perhaps 9999999) to hold an “invalid” value or maybe -1 to mean “not applicable”.  Now it becomes difficult to interpret these values on the fly.  With a non-intelligent key, you are able to make these “non-dates” easily identifiable by simply including another attribute such as Type of Date.

What about Time of Day?  Time is a bit different.  How many different ways can you describe 1:00?  AM/PM, Work shift (maybe).  Normally time attributes are linked within the context of a day.  For this reason you normally don’t see a separate Time dimension and in fact, it is becoming more acceptable to just include the date/time combination as another kind of metric on your transaction while still allowing for the additional 84 ways to describe the day.

So while we are often pressed to work faster and better everyday, it makes sense to take some time out to build your toolbox of re-usable components.  The Date dimension is a good place to start.  Create the dimension in a data modeling tool such as Erwin.  You can then create various data definition language (DDL) scripts to a variety of database platforms (Oracle, Microsoft, etc.).  Build a one-time CSV file to populate the table and you can even eliminate the need to ETL the data into the table by creating Insert commands with the scripts.  Might not be the fastest way to actually insert the data into the database, but with a one-time operation that will occur on your time, why bother with something more elaborate?

Anyone tell me if 5/20/2041 is a US holiday without checking?

Dave

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Written by Dave Cordas · Filed Under Information Technology | 1 Comment 

Recipes for Success

June 11, 2008

Using unique experiences to reach out to customers…. is the theme of a recent WSJ article that featured John Bostick, executive chairman of LUCRUM, and also President and CEO of dbaDirect. The article talks about how different small companies create unique opportunities to meet with their customers. The article was published on Friday, May 30, the very day after I attended one of John’s classes up at Jungle Jim’s in Fairfield, Ohio (another exercise in unique customer experiences - they have every imported food you never knew you needed ‘ 6 acres of food under one roof’ http://www.junglejims.com )_
The class I attended was called ‘Hot Thai Summer Sizzlers”. John prepared some wonderful Thai dishes, and Jim Hennessy showcased several unusual beers that enhanced the flavors of the food (except for the Paulaner Heffe - beer and clove are not good flavors in beer, in my opinion!). In the class, John prepared and discussed the origins of many of the exotic dishes he was preparing, but in an easy to understand and appreciate manner - demystifying many otherwise exotic dishes and convincing me that just maybe I should try this at home sometime. Everything was delicious, and while, a few offerings were too spicy for some of the attendees - don’t say he didn’t warn you about the peppers! - the different beer offerings were a great way to ‘cool the palate’. Several LÛCRUM customers and their family members attended, and as the WSJ article discussed, it was a great way to get to know people outside the normal business environment. John and I both share the common experience of having worked for IBM, and are rooted in the belief that ‘people buy from people they like’. So, having the opportunity to get to know our customers in a more relaxed environment is something ingrained in us, starting with our days at ‘Big Blue’. The best testimony to the value they received from the class is the number of folks that were signing up for the next class! - Obviously, it was an enjoyable, informative session.
Just like trying new foods and beers can provide an enjoyable experience, trying new business offerings and concepts can also lead to a positive experience. For example, one of the offerings that is unique to Lucrum is our ‘Strategic Alignment Session’. Using a guided methodology, our consultants facilitate sessions for customers - taking them on a journey - starting at the beginning, and discussing their history (which quite frequently, everyone has a slightly different recollection of!), and using that shared history to guide the participants on the journey, resulting in a shared experience, mutual goals and ways to achieve those goals. These sessions are one of those things that you just don’t fully appreciate until you’ve actually observed, participated in, or spoken to someone about. I sat in on one session during my first weeks with Lucrum, and was impressed by the way our consultant (Eric Duell, in this case) led a diverse customer group at a local chemical firm through this process as they attempted to design a new customer pricing system. In the past few months, Eric has conducted sessions for 2 of my customers - both in very different businesses - one, a large financial institution, where we helped an off-shore firm develop a new sale and marketing plan. And then most recently, we drove a few hours north and used this same process with another custom in the non-profit sector, bringing together a very diverse group including marketing, IT, creative, and education departments, resulting in a new vision for a major website re-design for their institution.
In both instances, there were participants who walked into the session, thinking “this better be good, they convinced me to give up 2 days (or 2 - ½ days) of my time”. By the end of the first session, or even sooner, you could see that their impressions had changed, and they were eager participants in the process - and walked away from the sessions with a new vision and ideas on how to lead their organization through the next phase of their business plan. And, some were even ready to ‘sign up again’ for more sessions - to utilize this process in other aspects of their business.

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Written by SuzanneLorch · Filed Under Business & Leadership | Leave a Comment 

When Life Gets in the Way of A Great Blog Post

May 15, 2008

If you’ve read any of my previous postings, you know that I put a lot of thought and detail into each of my blogs. I have to say sorry that I’ve missed you all lately, but life has started to get in the way. I have several partially complete. But then…

This week - Urgent priorities with my new client, Ipsos, and other major client needs are driving my time. I also have a member of my team in town from Newfoundland.

Last week - I started to come up to speed with Ipsos and had meetings all day each day.

Prior week - I was finishing my Data Strategy/Architecture role with Kroger which required me to max out each day.

But, at night… Had lots of family things going on…you know what it’s like trying to balance work/home life. :) !

I’ve got one finishing high school, one just finished her first year of college. Two proms. One 8th grade formal. One child going to Orlando for two weeks, another going to Destin for a week. Three awards ceremonies. One child with recent medical issues and blah blah blah and so on….

So, I am trying to get back in to balance and expect to reach a proper rhythm again soon. Or my head will explode! I miss you all and hope to post some great content soon.

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Written by Scott Felten · Filed Under Information Technology | 2 Comments 

We Win When We Talk About Them

April 17, 2008

I never thought I would pick up sales tips from James Carville, but sure enough it has happened. Over the past weekend I was watching one of the Sunday morning political shows, and Carville, joined by his wife Mary Matalin, was discussing the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Specifically he discussed one of the tenets of running a great campaign he learned from former President Clinton, who love him or hate him, was a great campaigner. The idea he put forth was so simple but so correct. “If we are talking about them, we are winning.” “If we are talking about us, we are losing.” Now, the idea behind his comment is perhaps a little different in the context of a political campaign as opposed to a sales call, but how incredibly insightful is that. The best sales calls often involve very little “selling.” If the person across the table from you is talking, and you are discussing them - not you - you are winning. I have experienced sales calls where you trot out every feature, function, advantage, benefit, company history, past clients, and on and on, only to walk away saying to myself, “I just don’t think we will win that one.” By the same token, many of the best calls I have ever made, involve asking questions, and then listening to someone else talk about themselves. Yes I can tell people LUCRUM is Cincinnati’s best provider of Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Collaboration, (all of which I believe) until I am blue in the face, but if I don’t understand them first, I am losing.

I observed this first hand today while on a sales call with two of my colleagues. We had a great meeting that lasted well over an hour, very little of which was spent discussing LUCRUM. In doing so, we identified numerous business problems LUCRUM can solve through our understanding of technology. More importantly we took the first steps toward building a new relationship with them based on understanding of their unique business needs. No pushy sales pitch. No dog and pony show. Just having a real and meaningful conversation about them When we are talking about them… we win.

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Written by DAVIDeBOWMAN · Filed Under Business & Leadership | 1 Comment 

Is that really a Source System?

April 17, 2008

Last week I needed to purchase a new memory card for my daughter’s digital camera.  Because I rarely go to a brick-n-mortar electronics store anymore, I headed to Amazon.com.  After a few minutes of browsing, I found exactly what I was looking for.  I added the item to my shopping cart and proceeded to checkout.  As I was entering my payment/shipping information, I realized that I wasn’t actually buying the memory card from Amazon, but rather from a reseller on the site.  No problem, I didn’t necessarily care who I got it from.   I just wanted a product that met my needs at a reasonable price.  So in this case Amazon provided the service and another vendor provided the goods.  Daughter happy = Daddy happy.

Take this scenario into our consulting world and in particular, data warehousing.  A data warehouse is a repository of data.  Data is collected from various source systems residing throughout a company’s infrastructure and integrated, consolidated, and aggregated in a meaningful manner for decision making.  The source systems provide the service, but is the data they are providing necessarily originating from them?  Maybe yes, maybe no.  Do I care?  Maybe yes, maybe no.

The purist will say that if data isn’t originated in a system, you should keep swimming upstream to the “ultimate source”.  In this fashion, you’ve reached the system of origin and life is good.  But what if this information isn’t meaningful until it is been run through the company’s legacy costing model written in a proprietary system and supported by Bob who runs “process X” twice/month and doesn’t know much more than that? 

Given today’s ever increasing pressures on delivering more value in a shorter timeframe, is it better to deliver the goods to fulfill the customer’s need or improve the service by which the goods are delivered?   It’s a balancing act of business value, effort, and time.  I’m all for improving processes.  The cleaner the process, the more maintainable it becomes.  However, my job is also to meet my customer’s expectations.  One of the biggest values in data warehousing is its ability to “Unhide Data”.  I’ve come across numerous projects that have spun their wheels in source system analysis.  Manual processes were perceived as bad and had to be improved.  The timeline for delivery didn’t change, as a result, later phases (design, development, and oh my gosh testing!) just shortened.  Was that good time spent?  In most cases, the final answers came back as “leave the source alone, it’s working”.  Hours/days were lost and now the team had to work harder and longer with greater stress to meet deadlines.  Because of this, I would rather deliver solutions in multiple phases.  The first phase delivers the quick value (no need to look at the man behind the curtain).  Subsequent phases can look into the feasibility of streamlining manual processes and/or swimming past the legacy costing model.  Choose your battles and move on.

So which is it, give me the service or give me the product?  The answer is both…just give me a solution that delivers it.

Dave

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Written by Dave Cordas · Filed Under Information Technology | 1 Comment