We've been guiding firms through these transformations for many years now. Our observation of, and participation in, successful transformation projects strongly suggest that much better outcomes come from a small team over a relatively longer time frame than from a “quick win” swat team.
But we are also realists. We know the modern corporate culture is very much one of “what have you done for me lately?” As such, we have constructed our program around balancing the seemingly conflicting goals of building for the long term, while delivering demonstrable results on a quarterly basis.
Want to know where to start? Dave McComb has written extensively about the application-centric quagmire and how to overcome obstacles within the enterprise.
Find more on our Publications page as a great way to get going.
A typical transformation project for us is 2-4 of our consultants, paired with members of your staff who will ultimately take over the initiative. We ask clients who are embarking on a transformation to budget at least one year at a time, but only require that you commit to us a quarter at a time.
If you’d like more detail on what a program like this would look like for you, click the Contact button and let us know. We'll follow up quickly and see how we can help.
Data Centric Transformation
The data centric revolution posits that data really is the firm’s core asset. It needs to be expressed in an application neutral format, structure and vocabulary. Four of the core functions that applications currently provide will be shifted to shared infrastructure:
- Data integrity and constraint management will no longer be in the exclusive domain of the application code
- Authorization rules will be expressed once and applied consistently to all access to data
- Navigation through and structure of the data will no longer be mediated by application code
- Interpretation of obscure codes and flags will be purged from the application domain and replaced by governed and well understood, and shared taxonomies
It may sound like we are promoting a product or a platform, but we are not. We are change agents. We are promoting a shift in thinking and implementing to this new paradigm.
This may sound like a bridge too far, but it is something that can be approached in a series of small, incremental steps, each of which is beneficial in its own right, but at the same time makes the end game more and more clear to more and more people.
We can outline, in fairly high resolution, what the end game of the data centric transformation will look like. You may think you are already data centric. Many companies claim to be.
A quick self assessment should disabuse you of this notion.
We also launched the Data-Centric Manifesto to provide a place where people can join the movement and have their voices heard.
We are here for the leaders. If you want to be a first mover, and you want to have the one firm in the world that is furthest ahead in this transition, by all means contact Dave. We need each other.
