Flexible Data Model Supports Power BI Reporting Today & Integration with Azure Tomorrow
Senturus designed a flexible data model that allowed this healthcare provider to meet its immediate and long-term reporting needs. Architecting an extensible model allowed the client to meet demands for broader Power BI reporting insights ahead of – and later integrate with – a larger initiative to move to a centralized and modern architecture in Azure. Senturus also helped the Azure team identify and address technical and data transformation gaps in their architecture and roadmap.
Challenge
The revenue management analytics (RMA) group needed more reporting granularity and metrics than was provided by their existing patient billing reporting. Their solution leveraged an on-prem database populated from Epic Clarity and ePREMIS. Data was accessed via Cognos cubes that focused only on actual versus budget. For additional reporting needs, users were dependent on IT. The RMA group wanted to move to a flexible Power BI or Tableau solution that would deliver ad hoc self-service for in-depth insights.
Meanwhile, other departments also struggled with analytics platforms that could not easily scale to meet changing business needs. The company wanted to move to a modern cloud-based architecture and was in the early stages of rolling out Microsoft Azure. The aim was to enable its various business groups to leverage data from, and build solutions on, a centrally managed platform. The RMA group was hoping to leverage this initiative.
Solution
Senturus worked in partnership with the RMA group and Azure team. We went to work architecting a model for the RMA group that would leverage the functionality of the new Azure architecture. The Azure team had not yet onboarded tenants and looked to the RMA group as their first partner. This work revealed a host of technical and process issues that needed resolution.
Senturus helped bridge the gap between the enterprise IT team and the business units. We advocated for the tenants’ technical needs and defined the various data transformations that were necessary for downstream business reporting.
To accommodate the RMA group’s needs for immediacy, Senturus constructed a new semantic model in Power BI. It leveraged and expanded the existing data platform and was architected to include functionality that would be present in the new Azure-based analytics platform.
- Defined a new Kimball-style dimensional model that would reside within the data warehouse.
- Provided oversight to the RMA group as they populated the data warehouse.
- Gathered reporting requirements to identify missing dimensions and measures in the existing architecture and model.
- Made sure all dimensions and tables in the database were piped from source data to ensure business logic was built into the datamart.
- Provided new, streamlined business logic to enable easier, faster downstream reporting.
- Added upfront costs to the model, a key subject area from Clarity that was missing from the existing solution.
- Provided architectural oversight, modeling, development and co-development based on our recommended reporting solution in Power BI.
- Provided – and continue to provide – training to the user community, as needed.
Provides fast, on-demand insights in Power BI and eliminates the need to go to central IT for additional ad hoc reporting needs.
Benefits
Senturus gave the RMA group the flexible, interim reporting solution they needed while helping the Azure team get the tactical and process clarity required to rollout a centralized reporting system.
RMA group solution:
- Provides fast, ad hoc reporting with expanded insights.
- Eliminates the need to go to central IT for deeper or additional insights.
- Supports both executive management and regional teams.
Azure team guidance:
- Brought clarity to important technical and process issues and the need for a strategic shift.
About our client
The client is one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit healthcare companies. It employs approximately 213,000 employees and physicians and serves more than 12.7 million people from 39 hospitals and 622 medical office buildings in nine states and the District of Columbia.
