Blog: Claudia Imhoff

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September 27, 2006

An Interesting Conference - MMIS

I just got back from a most interesting conference in Providence, RI, dealing with US states' Medicaid agencies. It was the MMIS conference. Here is a case study from the conference dealing with one state's BI efforts. I hope you enjoy reading about it.

This case is from Michigan – one of the most sophisticated enterprise BI/data warehousing solutions I've seen in state government. Here are some facts about their environment:

-- They have 9,000 users, 5 major departments, 20 agencies, 100 + bureaus

The goals for the Michigan Department of Community Health BI environment were to:

1. Pursue agenda advocating & protecting Michigan citizens’ health

2. Implement a delivery system across all services that is accessible, efficient, effective, and innovative

3. Provide services and support including those that are preventive, restorative, and that mitigate effects of disabilities

4. Protect and improve the health outcomes of people of Michigan

5. Achieve quality improvement through meaningful accountability

6. Promote excellence and accountability in the design and administration of the Department of Community Health

Now how did they accomplish these goals? The Agency with the help of Bull Services (a consultancy specializing in state Medicaid agency BI) created a sophisticated enterprise data warehouse environment. Here are just a few of the remarkable returns from their efforts:

The State of Michigan has been able to:

1. Exceed $100 million per year in Medicaid/HHS savings - a truly remarkable number!

2. Obtain a holistic view of child to assess education needs

3. Reduce overall health care administrative costs by 25%

4. Revolutionize management of Foster Care program with GIS tracking

5. Track nearly $1 billion in HHS dollars to validate & cross-check EBT vendor

6. Link 251 State courts for greater efficiencies & common view of defendants

Michigan state government depends on data warehouse as information backbone that includes advanced analytics, data mining, data warehousing, and decision support capabilities, and contains more than 2.5 billion records.

It is encouraging from my standpoint to see a state create such a mature and useful BI environment. There are not too many states that can make such a claim. OK -- the rest of you states -- here is a model for you to emulate!

I welcome comments from other state agencies for Medicaid. Tell me how you are doing in your quest for BI.

Yours in BI success,

Claudia

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September 24, 2006

How to Compete Using Analytics - Tom Davenport's Take

I just returned from attending the Teradata Partners conference in Orlando. Besides being a lot of fun, it was also quite informative. I think my favorite session was Tom Davenport's in which he discussed competing on analytics (the title of his book as well). Here are a few brief points from his keynote.

According to Tom Davenport, it takes five things to be able to compete on analytics:

1. Knowledgeable and committed leadership -- that is, find the right CEO, one who is passionate and committed to analytics. Find one who is willing to make the investment it takes to create a proper analytic environment.

2. Use sophisticated analytics throughout the enterprise -- makes sense to "spread the wealth" of the analytic capabilities deeper into the organization. The use of the more sophisticated forms of BI -- predictive analytics and modeling -- must be widespread and available to all employees -- at all levels.

3. Determine your distinctive capability -- whether it is superior customer service or a speedy supply chain or customized products, or some other capability -- then use the analytics to support this capability.

4. Manage your analytics at the enterprise level -- especially if you want these to be the basis of your competitive advantage. This means managing not just the analytics but also the people, technology, skills, etc. No fiefdoms please!

5. Have large-scale ambitions and results for your BI environment. This means you have a grand vision long before you have the environment set up. Know what it takes to create a world-class analytic environment and go for it!

For more on his article in Harvard Business Review, click here. To read more about Tom Davenport, go to his website.

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