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A major public university medical school and hospital system faced a proliferation of data systems, each designed to serve individual parts of the institution. In an effort to simplify the disparate metadata strategies, security approaches, and project lifecycle decision benchmarks, the institution engaged a “big four” consulting firm to create a new Enterprise Analytics Roadmap. The CIO of the medical school engaged Cory and David to evaluate their work.

Each part of the roadmap and all supporting documents were analyzed against the Data Management Association’s Body of Knowledge:

  • Data quality
  • Data architecture
  • Data development
  • Data warehousing
  • Metadata
  • Business intelligence
  • Documents and content
  • Database operations
  • Data security
  • Reference and Master data

Starting from this well-understood set of industry best practices, important gaps were identified in all areas of the roadmap.

To provide a context for the medical school’s plan, Cory also conducted qualitative interviews with CIOs of similar institutions. The findings from these interviews were used to highlight approaches by other experts in the field that could be replicated or transferred to the institution, and characterize the institution’s data governance maturity by examining comparable institutions.

The institution is now in a position to proceed with an enterprise-wide development plan that conforms to comprehensive data governance standards. Particular advantages of the new plan include:

  • Assuring security compliance for HIPAA-based medical information;
  • Establishing foundations for greater control and use/re-use of both clinical and research data assets through well-defined reference data, master data, and metadata management strategies;
  • Providing cost control for pilot systems and projects under development;
  • Benchmarking approaches against similar institutions; and
  • Serving as a model of data governance excellence for the broader academic institution.
Testimonials

David drove the project to completion and was extremely effective in a difficult corporate environment. I would hire him again without question.

Warren Schlicting
Senior Vice President / Comcast

I had the opportunity to hire Cory to document a multi-year, multi-institution (academic and industry) research network that involved over 70 participants with as many projects. Cory conducted interviews with key members of the research network, reviewed key projects, analyzed this data, and produced a detailed report on the activities of the network, with an emphasis on analyzing the structures of collaboration that did and did not work. The report was simply outstanding. Throughout the project, Cory constantly excelled in both his social skills and his research skills. His deliverables were on time and thorough, and his insights were exceptional.

Carl DiSalvo
Associate Professor / Georgia Institute of Technology

Cory is a top notch professional. In addition to being a strong Human Factors consultant, he was also instrumental in management collaboration and decision making. His expertise, focus, and creativity under pressure made him a tremendous asset to our team.

Paul Cutsforth
District Sales Manager / Cequent Performance Products

Cory was a pleasure to work with on a critical training development project. He brought deep knowledge of adult learning theories to his work and presented us with practical suggestions that improved our training delivery almost immediately. In addition to delivering the project, Cory also helped us to gain better insight into our own processes and work culture.

Sara Ulius-Sabel
Global Innovation Senior Manager / Whirlpool Corporation

David has a superior ability to quickly assess a situation and identify business needs then translate them into an action plan.

Kerry Little

I hired Cory to lead the design and development of a website documenting the research network. Cory identified a great designer/ developer and managed the project perfectly. The design and content were outstanding, and the website launched on schedule. Simply put, Cory is outstanding and I will hire him again.

Carl DiSalvo
Associate Professor / Georgia Institute of Technology

David has the uncanny gift of identifying business needs by asking on-the-mark questions at a macro level and translating them to applications in a most granular and accurate fashion.

Gerard Broussard

I engaged with Research At Work Consulting for review of the University of Michigan Enterprise Analytics Roadmap. We asked the RAW team to look for areas that were either underrepresented or missing. Since we thought we had done a comprehensive roadmap, we were surprised with the results. The RAW team did an excellent job of comparing our roadmap to national standards and identifying areas requiring additional definition. It was a thoughtful and thorough review.

Mary Hill
Director of Data Management Services / University of Michigan Medical School

Cory contributed great thought leadership to our project - especially in the area of adult learning and best practices. He was attentive, diligent, and a pleasure to work with. If you're looking for a strategic consultancy with a diverse yet competent portfolio, RAW Consulting should be your clear stop!

Annaliese Wimbleton
Global Innovation Manager / Whirlpool Corporation

Cory’s interdisciplinary background gave him the ability to see patterns and solutions across different domains that were not apparent to others on the team. These valuable insights have led to opportunities for improvement in the way Intel manages its relationships with academic institutions. I am looking forward to my next occasion to work with Cory.

Ken Anderson
Principal Researcher / Intel Corporation