AME
AFRICA'S STATEMENT
OF
SATISFACTION WITH SPEEDMINER
In 2002, AME Africa was awarded
the contract for the design, implementation and operation
of an Electronic Patient Record system at the first
world class fully electronic hospital, Inkosi Albert
Luthuli Central Hospital in South Africa.
Adopting the well accepted views
within the Business Intelligence marketplace, AME
Africa undertook a product comparison, and procured
an OLAP 'Cube' based product, which is commonly used
in the Health industry.
Having spent considerable funds,
both internally and with specialized OLAP consultants,
the project, was not to the satisfaction of the users.
An analysis of this 'unhappiness' was then undertaken
wherein the following issues surfaced:
1. The concept of updating the 'cubes'
on a monthly basis were not meaningful as the results
were too late for decision making process;
2. The fundamentals of data is such
that, defining 'fixed dimensions' is not practical
when more
in depth analysis and decisions are required;
Understanding this dynamics led
AME Africa to go back to the 'drawing board' and considerable
effort was spend with the specialists in trying to
'redesign / rework' the existing environment.
There were improvements in addressing day to day standard
analysis but the user could not get to the next level
for more real time, complex analysis. Users were not
able to analyze the data as and when needed without
having some work done on the 'cubes'.
Finally acknowledging that the current
technology not capable of delivering solution to our
requirements, with started to look out for alternative
solution.
Having reviewed many of the 'top
end cube' based systems, which still had the same
limitations, AME Africa was introduced to the Speedminer
DW & BPM. Being very sceptical to the claims of
Speedminer, a pilot was undertaken and the outcome
of this pilot which addressed the complex issues was
astounding, as reported by both the technical team
and the end users, in that both of the above challenges
were met without any loss of the existing functionality.
Furthermore Speedminer, enabled the technical team
to 'customise' the user interface to their exact requirements,
and hence add to their satisfaction. Then came the
real bonus; all of these were being achieved in a
shorter implementation period than the previous technology
and products. The technical staff did not want to
return to the previous method of development, as they
were now able to develop quicker and provide the end
user quality of work which they were very proud of.
Development time of the more complex statistical reports
was cut from an average of four months per module
to only a couple of weeks. This is a considerable
achievement, considering that the base health data
had to be transformed and clinically verified, both
for quality and appropriateness' before being released
to the end users.
Another startling point is that
this improvement was seen after only four weeks of
on site training. The speed at which the learning
curve was scaled can be attributed to the:
1. Flexibility of Speedminer
2. Quality of the support, both
from a technical and application
aspect,
provided by the Speedminer team.
Many products reviewed require Dashboard
views to fit a predefined look and feel, whereas the
Speed Visualizer's dashboard development is limited
only by one's imagination. The large array of embedded
components (features) of Speedminer, is easily combined
to create meaningful views of the data.
Although initially being very cautious
and apprehensive, the development team and end users
are now very excited about the way of working and
the fact that they are making such good progress.
No doubt that, when one considers
investing in Business Intelligence solutions, following
'tried and tested' products and technologies may not
yield the most effective and appropriate solution.
Speedminer DW & BPM certainly should be considered
alongside the 'bigger and more established' players
in the Business Intelligence market.
-- Bryn Woombell
Director and General Manager
AME
Africa
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