BUSINESS CHALLENGE:
When an Intelligence agency organization needed to optimize its ability to identify and integrate internal and external data coming from multiple sources in multiple formats, normalize it and ensure this data was readily available for critical decision making, it faced a huge hurdle. The organization is responsible for a critical mission: track strategic investments in infrastructure, assets, collection and analysis; and enable stakeholders to view and analyze the data collected to make critical decisions regarding resource alignment, program justification, and mission decisions. This includes decisions around funding, R&D investments, strategic planning, and appropriate budget cuts and increases. Collecting disparate data from multiple sources cost the agency thousands of man hours, and there was no efficient way to properly view and analyze all the data to identify trends, or similarities in organizations for R&D and other shared needs, or to quantify an asset’s contributions to validated requirements and intelligence priorities and gaps. Stakeholders who needed to make funding decisions based on trends and priorities were frustrated. There was no consistency in timeliness and standard of the data, no clear chain of custody. The challenge was clear: if data cannot be efficiently collected and trusted to produce meaningful and intelligent information, government will waste time, money, and compromise the performance of ongoing programs. The organization needed a solution that would maximize operational efficiency and support its mission.
STRATEGIC SOLUTION:
Utilizing their systems integrator and software engineers, OG Systems (OGS) and its partner ValueMetrics, highly regarded DoD/Intelligence systems integrators that specialize in systems development and integration, leveraged InQuisient’s innovative data management platform to create a new system. This system now rapidly collects data from disparate sources with a clear chain of custody, integrates and normalizes the data, and provides reports from trusted data-driven decision making based on up to date and accurate information in a matter of minutes instead of hours. This new system has played a pivotal role in improving the organization’s capabilities in meeting its mission requirements.
This collaborative solution provides the organization with:
- Strategic Plan development, integration and execution management
- Organizational alignment and traceability to strategic, operational and mission outcomes
- Identification & management of quantifiable gaps and shortfalls
- Analysis of systems and functional relationships
- The development and management of program plans
- Support in the identification of current functional requirements
- Mission support
RESULTS:
This solution, built by OG Systems using InQuisient’s data management platform, provides up to date, trusted information so stakeholders can make data-driven decisions with confidence. The system captures the performance needs of validated requirements, and evaluates system performance against those needs in order to assess system viability and identify opportunities for R&D investments; points out where there are redundancies and areas where savings and efficiencies can be realized. Integrating and normalizing decision relevant data provides an analytical environment that allows decision makers to understand the pedigree of intelligence requirements and needs, facilitating informed and impactful course of action and investment decisions. All data points are linked, enabling in-depth analysis of any or all data points and of critical interdependencies. The system implements “content perspectives” enabling users at all levels of the organization to analyze data relevant to the decisions they need to make, approaching it from the perspective that is specifically pertinent to their position / role in the organization. There are unrestricted options for different comparisons and analysis, revealing previously unknown associations, and enabling decision makers to now run ‘what if’ scenarios. Stakeholders can now create with confidence strategic plans that are actionable, measurable and outcome-focused.
The organization realized the following benefits from implementing this solution:
- Validated the need to implement a common taxonomy
- Drastically improved the quality and timeliness of external source data integration
- Significantly reduced data call response time
- Automated production of Budget Cycle data calls (OMB, CFE, Congressional)
- Rapid (< 1 day) production of ad-hoc data call responses
- Integrated and maintained guidance and priority source documentation
- Identified changes in priorities, and their impacts on current activities
- Easily maintained alignment with National and Operational Strategies
- Provided integrated analysis of current assets, requirements and products data
- Allowed quantified identification of asset contributions to validate requirements and intelligence gaps
- Aligned budget data with production data, allowing for cost analysis per product in support of program justification
- Automated standardized reporting, as well as rapid production against ad-hoc reporting requirements
- Allowed analysts to spend significantly less time responding to data calls