CIBER in Business Trends Quarterly
Recently, Dr. Khalid Mansour, Vice President for CIBER’s Strategic Practices, was interviewed for the November issue of Business Trends Quarterly, a print and digital business publication.
In the Question and Answer session, Dr. Mansour discusses the key business issues CIBER clients are facing today. He points out the need for Business and IT to align to reach corporate initiatives and discusses examples where CIBER is driving the alignment that brings positive change for organizations.
Download the interview (343KB)
Download the Podcast (5.9MB)
Also included in this issue of Business Trends Quarterly is the article, “Managing Data as an Asset,” an article by Strategic Practices team members and a new CIBER ad that will reach a BPA audited circulation of 30,000.
- solutions
- vertical solutions
- takeaway pdfs
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Business Intelligence (212KB)
Business Intelligence for Higher Education (306KB)
Enterprise Integration (167KB)
Enterprise Integration for Higher Education (PDF, 960KB)
Master Data Management (PDF, 277KB)
Optimization Jumpstart (PDF, 218KB)
Quality Assurance and Testing Services (PDF, 710KB)
Service-Oriented Architecture (PDF, 726KB)
- white papers
- webinars
- articles
- news
Lean Principles and IT Demand Management
IT spending level is typically based on historical or competitive benchmark
levels. Given the current global economic climate many IT organizations
face frozen budgets and cost-cutting efforts and this puts a squeeze
on many innovative initiatives in the backlog. The only way for folks to
get more done for less will be to plan and prioritize the IT portfolio
based on strategic fit, business value, risk, and complexity.
Take the white paper (711KB)
Ensuring & Maintaining Data Quality: Data Quality for Data in Motion & Data at Rest
Businesses that apply mature Information Technology processes understand “Data Quality as
the foundation of Business Intelligence”, and therefore are aware of data quality problems. At
the same time, there is a common misconception that data quality is expensive and is not
required through early maturity stages. However, this has the opposite effect of accumulating
bad data in the operational data stores and data warehouses, which then requires a huge effort
to fix. This whitepaper, useful for data stewards, enterprise architects, project managers, and
IT executives, examines how the data quality problems arise even in the most controlled
environments and the measures to be taken to ensure and maintain data quality in operational
and data warehousing systems.
Take the white paper (656KB)
Master Data Management: Managing Data as an Asset
With an increase in the pace of business, organizations have already built up Business
Intelligence systems to aid efficient decision-making. Globalization and mergers and acquisitions
have served as catalysts for organizations to realize the criticality of data and data integration.
With this background, many organizations have begun to treat data as one of their key assets.
This white paper explains how core business entities known as master data can be considered
organizational assets and how to manage these entities holistically.
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The What’s and How’s of ETL Architecture
This paper is basically a high level description of a highly technical subject -
Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) Architecture. It is written for IT management and professionals to address and explain an area which often has been overlooked.
Take the white paper (2.5MB)
Organizational Alignment: Empowering The Business
The term Organizational Alignment brings to mind many different interpretations
when spoken of in the context of an Information Technology (IT) organization.
When applied to an organization as a whole, it addresses consistency of purpose
and activity throughout the organization as a means to achieve organizational
objectives. A similar context is true with respect to an IT organization except
that an IT organization typically supports multiple parts of the organization, each
of which each have their own strategies woven into a cohesive organizational
strategy. When Organizational Alignment principles are applied within IT
disciplines, resources create and deliver sustainable business value enabling
business units to achieve their objectives.
Take the white paper (520KB)
Business Intelligence Best Practices: Transforming Data into Information
The introduction of information technology systems decades ago helped organizations worldwide benefit from more efficient operations and greater productivity. Over the
years, companies have acquired volumes of data in these applications, but much of this data is trapped in multiple, disparate systems which cannot easily communicate. As a result, firms must expend considerable effort to tap into the full potential of these data assets to strategically maneuver the business in a rapidly changing and competitive marketplace. The latest evolution in IT is “business intelligence,” which promises to help businesses better tap into and leverage their data assets. But what, exactly, is BI? How can it help? How is it implemented? And what can it do for your company? Essentially a primer on BI, this paper describes BI, how it can help you, and best practices to consider when launching or refining a business intelligence initiative.
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A Component-based Knowledge Management System
This white paper will define knowledge as
ideas, information and the relationships between
various ideas and information.
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Using Metadata and Taxonomies to Enable Enterprise Integration
To manage the risk inherent in enterprise integration efforts, the enterprise needs to be able to name and describe enterprise data. This requires a meta data strategy and approach. In determining the appropriate approach to managing structured and unstructured meta data, IT should look to successful approaches to integrating structured and unstructured data. The organization should consider a Meta Data Tool Kit that includes a collection of taxonomies – the classification schemes used for concepts and objects and the terms employed in those schemes. These taxonomies help knowledge workers from different functional groups, with different backgrounds and skills, to work from a single source of the truth.
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A Taxonomy Roadmap
Building a prototype taxonomy combines a classic pattern for software development with steps used to assemble information products.
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A Taxonomy Framework
Taxonomies are classification schemes for things: concepts, objects, actions, and events. They are built using controlled language sets. The result is a single source of the truth and an unambiguous starting point for communications between groups or individuals who typically use different terms to describe the same or similar things. Most business architectures require multiple taxonomies. Initial iterations should start small, leverage existing efforts, and be built manually. Once they become large enough, taxonomies benefit from specialized tools to mine documents for taxonomy terms and to classify documents according to their content.
Take the white paper (226KB)
Best Practices for Assembling Integrated Taxonomies
What do you do if one group in your enterprise calls an apple an apple, another calls it fruit, and a third refers to it as produce? You need to create a collection of their specialized taxonomies -- their vocabulary sets and classification schemes. The price of failure can be great, since bad integration of data can be worse than no integration. Companies attempting enterprise integration should provide their knowledge workers with an Enterprise Meta Data Toolkit. Assembling this toolkit involves acquiring universal taxonomies if applicable, and collecting others from functional groups across the organization.
Take the white paper (130KB)
A Targeted, Top-Down Approach to Sarbanes-Oxley Data
With the advent of Sarbanes-Oxley 404, CEOs and CFOs must attest to the data that appears on corporate financial reports. This paper describes a top-down, targeted approach to achieving confidence in that data.
Take the white paper (324KB)
An All-Domino Application for SQL-Like Querying of Notes Data
Can you query a Notes database the same way you can an Access --- or Oracle, or DB/2 or Informix --- database? Can users choose a database, pick a "table," select fields, construct criteria, and get back a results set ready for analysis? For Notes as it comes out of the box, the answer is no. However, using an application created by Keith Nolen --- AllDomino Query --- the answer is yes.
Take the white paper (243KB)
A Best Practices Assessment
The Best Practices Assessment ensures that people know what management think is right, and they have a series of recommendations for improving their business processes to achieve what is right. This implies that once the Best Practices Assessment is complete that the Best Practices are made known to all involved persons. A Best Practices Knowledge portal on the company Intranet, along with training how to use it effectively, is in itself a Best Practice.
Take the white paper (319KB)
Enterprise Information Management in the Real World: Strategies for Success
Enterprise Information Management—or EIM—encompasses several important contemporary business concepts: Business Intelligence, Data Governance, Data Warehousing …
Transforming Legacy Applications To .NET Through Automated Migration
Access this CIBER and ArtinSoft webinar replay to learn about the alternatives available for modernizing or transforming your legacy applications, with a focus on lower cost, low-risk software migration options.
Make Your Data Shine: Protect Your Company’s Image by Maintaining Good Quality Data
This article by Joyce Norris-Montanari, appeared in Teradata Magazine in September 2008
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A Bifocal
Strategy for Data Quality
This article, by CIBER’s Ashu Bhatia first appeared on TDAN.com in September 2008
Take the article (1.4MB)
06 Oct 2009
CIBER Adds to SAP Partner Credentials By Providng SAP® BusinessObjects™ Solutions
Read the press release |
Take the PDF (25KB)
01 Jul 2009
CIBER Wins Contract With Ohio University For New Student Information System
Read the press release |
Take the PDF (25KB)
28 Jan 2008
Joyce Norris-Montanari Joins CIBER as Principle Architect Of Global Enterprise Integration Practice
Read the press release |
Take the PDF (25KB)
04 Dec 2006
CIBER and Microsoft to Host Ohio Seminar on Service-Oriented Architecture
Read the press release |
Take the PDF (25KB)
08 May 2006
CIBER to Host Kansas City Seminar on Service-Oriented Architecture
Read the press release |
Take the PDF (25KB)
- client spotlight
- case studies
- client quotes
CIBER has completed the redesign and redevelopment of the first of three hospital patient flow and capacity management applications for Pittsburgh-based TeleTracking Technologies.
Read the press release 
Take the case study (334KB )
Using their body of datawarehousing best practices as an architectural framework, CIBER helped the The Principal Financial Group understand the primary components of a datawarehouse and how best to structure based on the information collected through interviews.
Take the case study (49KB )
American Red Cross
CIBER's Implements Distributed Client-Server Technology to ARC Sites Nationwide
Read more
International Theme Park
CIBER Helps Architect State-of-the-Art CRM Infrastructure for an International Theme Park Take the PDF (46KB)
Major For-Profit Health Care Organization
CIBER Completes a Customized IT Assessment Take the PDF ( 286KB)
Major Japanese Auto Manufacturer
CIBER Build New Parts Recovery Portal Application Take the PDF ( 288KB)
Pharmaceutical Manufacturer
CIBER’s Datawarehouse Supports Enhanced Decisions And Performance For Pharmaceutical Manufacturer
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Principal Financial
CIBER Selected by Principal Financial for Datawarehousing Assessment Take the PDF ( 49KB)
San Francisco International Airport
CIBER Helps San Francisco International Airport Attain Year-2000 Compliance, Meet Staffing and IT Needs
Read more
Sports Association
CIBER’s Network & Internet Services Boost National Sports Association’s Performance
Read more
State of Colorado
CIBER Engaged to Assist the State of Colorado in Planning for Statewide IT Transformation and Consolidation Take the PDF ( 304KB)
“Ohio University is partnering with CIBER to significantly change how technology aids in the delivery of services to students and faculty. CIBER’s expertise with complex Higher Education projects made them well equipped to assist us with this extensive transformation.”
Brice Bible — Chief Information Officer , Ohio University
“CDC Alerting Service provides an enterprise alerting service infrastructure that CDC Centers, Institutes, and Offices (CIOs) can securely integrate with their disparate technologies. CDCAS provides a truly reusable component framework that allows CDC to easily expand communication capabilities with little or no impact to the CIOs while reducing the cost of ownership for CDC and our Public Health Information Network (PHIN) partners. The CIBER team has expertly created CDCAS to meet both current and future needs with a highly flexible architecture and component model.”
Robb Chapman — Program Manager, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
“CIBER impressed us with their understanding of local government challenges and concerns. Not only does the CIBER team bring to the table significant technological expertise, but a solid understanding of local government processes and issues as well.”
Catherine Maras O’Leary — Chief Information Officer, Cook County, Ill
“The department recognizes that it doesn’t have the skills or expertise to create the enterprise architecture framework. We hired CIBER to do the work and transfer the knowledge to our employees by training and mentoring us. CIBER will act as a ‘bridge’ until we develop sufficient competencies within our own staff.”
Bill Shaw — Manager, Enterprise Architecture Group, Idaho Transportation Department
“We wanted an IT services company that would provide the most tangible value to address our critical AD migration program. CIBER stood out as offering the best value to the government.”
Chuck McCallar — Chief Technology Officer, Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield
Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy blog
Business Drivers and IT Strategy
posted: 20 January 2010 by Gregg Powers
Master Data Management
posted: 08 December 2009 by Ashu Bhatia
See more articles in the Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy blog
For more information about our Enterprise Integration services & solutions, please contact:
bbird@ciber.com
Bonnie Bird
Manager, Marketing
Our Global Enterprise Integration Practice designs, builds, implements, and supports enterprise IT architectures. We integrate data, processes, and applications to deliver fully functional solutions tailored to your business needs. Our best-of-breed tools, methods, best practices, and skilled resources in enterprise architecture, enterprise information management, and process integration can transform your raw data into actionable business information.
Comprehensive Capabilities Drive Business Results
CIBER has a wide range of capabilities and services to meet your current and future enterprise integration needs, such as:
Enterprise Architecture: The description of the current and/or future structure and behavior of an organization's processes, information systems, personnel and organizational sub-units, aligned with the organization’s core goals and strategic direction.
Process Integration: The set of broad spectrum processes that govern the organization, integrated systems, and architecture that comprise business systems as well as IT projects.
Enterprise Information Management (EIM): The broad spectrum of technologies and best practices encompassing business intelligence, data warehousing, and data integration.
Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise architecture is at the heart of any enterprise strategy. It provides the supporting systems to further business strategy. To fully use current and future technology, your enterprise architecture must be stable, consistent, accessible, and aligned to the business.
CIBER’s team of experts designs best practices-based, service-oriented, component-based architectures that can be reused across multiple business processes and applications. This allows for flexibility and adaptability to market dynamics, and enables more efficient replacement and integration of application components.
We work with you to ensure that your enterprise architecture and developed applications satisfy business needs. An architecture or integration solution that doesn’t incorporate your key data, applications and business processes isn’t really a solution.
Process Integration
Process integration capabilities, such as service-oriented architecture (SOA), are not a technology; rather, they are a method of conceptualizing, designing, and implementing business software applications and infrastructure. Process integration incorporates centralized and disciplined enforcement of industry standards, assembly of reusable autonomous business functions (also called “services”), and loosely coupled connections between services.
Process integration capabilities, including SOA, benefit your business by extending the functionality and life of existing IT assets, reducing architectural complexity, decreasing duplication of services and data, and increasing business flexibility and agility in responding to market changes.
But process integration also places important demands on the enterprise to adjust organizationally, behaviorally, and culturally.
CIBER has developed a comprehensive methodology and toolset based on industry best practices and our experience to ensure that SOA is effectively developed and deployed in close coordination with the business imperatives that drive your enterprise.
Process integration lets you mold IT around the needs of the business, instead of molding the business around the needs of IT.
Enterprise Information Management (EIM)
EIM is not a technology or a product, but rather a continuous process for organizing, structuring, and managing your organization’s information assets, independent of technology platform or organizational structure.
EIM’s objective is to integrate business goals with technology, so you can manage data to simplify business processes, increase productivity, and enhance adaptability.
There are many components or initiatives you can implement to achieve EIM, including business intelligence, data warehousing, data governance, and data integration activities. An integral piece of a successful EIM process is business intelligence (BI).
Business Intelligence: Transforming Raw Data into Actionable Business Information
“Business intelligence” refers to a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, accessing, and analyzing data to help enterprise users make better business decisions.
A business intelligence initiative can help your organization create an infrastructure to transform raw data into useful business information so you can monitor the marketplace and measure company performance.
For instance, a BI initiative often takes the shape of just-in-time reporting, web-based portals, or executive dashboards. These all provide secure access for authorized individuals to view a wealth of information, both visually and according to specification.
Business intelligence systems combined with enterprise information management initiatives can help transform your operational system data into an analytical system data structure that supports your business needs. This structure enables business executives to obtain a historical view of operational data, thus reducing the burden on your IT resources, and enabling executives to make proactive decisions instead of reactive ones.
How Can CIBER Help Your Organization?
Having assisted numerous clients in a vast range of industries, CIBER offers clients the following services.
Discovery
The discovery is a short-term, yet high-impact initiative to capture your organization’s current state of affairs. Starting with a one- or two-day visit to your site, we obtain a “snapshot” of your organization’s current IT position by collecting and analyzing system-level documentation, business objectives, and vision and mission statements.
We interview key individuals and conduct group analysis to identify your business drivers and IT requirements. We strive to understand how the system currently meets or misses business needs based on our experience and industry examples.
We then go off-site to analyze the data, meeting with you again approximately two weeks later with recommendations on how you can narrow the gap between current and desired IT states.
Assessment/Roadmap
An assessment requires more rigorous information gathering than a discovery session, and offers more comprehensive analysis of your organization and enterprise architecture as a result.
We interview key IT and business stakeholders, review documentation, and conduct group analysis sessions to identify your business drivers and IT requirements. We strive to understand how your current system meets or misses your current and future business objectives.
We assess the current state and help develop the future state of your enterprise integration architecture and compare that to industry examples for information management. From that we prepare a gap analysis, which identifies high-level critical requirements and priorities to determine the best way to move from the current state to a tactical and strategic future state.
CIBER can also evaluate and recommend technology and its components, assist with return-on-investment (ROI) calculations, and contribute to building a business case to present to executive management or the board of directors.
The end result is an overall strategic enterprise “roadmap” that describes the scope of the effort, identifies discrete tasks and projects to undertake, denotes timelines and deliverables to incrementally implement an enterprise integration program.
Development
Experts from our Global Enterprise Integration Practice and our local branch office take the results of the roadmap and work with you to design, build, and launch your enterprise integration initiative using our proven methodologies. This involves the collaboration of CIBER’s technology, people, and processes with yours in a continuous initiative of process improvement.
Our proven, disciplined processes enable us to achieve project goals on time and on budget, allowing us to focus on driving costs and delays out of the process, so we can drive quality into it. We’ll work with an eye toward measurable business results: cost containment, faster time-to-market, and minimized risk.
Support
CIBER views every client engagement as a relationship, not a transaction. We work with you to ensure that your system performs as expected, providing knowledge transfer to your team members so they can address issues as they arise. By nurturing independence while promoting project success, we offer you a smooth transition to the new system, yet we’re available whenever you need our assistance.
Trust Your Business Data With CIBER, the Business-Focused Consultants
For more than 30 years, CIBER, Inc. has helped businesses and government entities build, integrate, and support their mission-critical business systems. Mid-market and Fortune 1000 organizations turn to CIBER to find ways to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and streamline business operations.
CIBER’s renowned subject matter experts demonstrate industry thought-leadership through our participation in industry groups, such as DAMA (Data Management Association), TDWI, and OMG, and through authorship of numerous articles, white papers, and books about business intelligence, data warehousing, data governance, enterprise architecture, and other prevalent IT topics.
We utilize a proven approach that is cost-effective and produces highly scalable and repeatable solutions. We overcome risks and hurdles with targeted planning, unique solutions, and highly skilled and respected resources.
Why CIBER?
With more than 90 offices worldwide, including 60 offices in the U.S., CIBER has the global resources of an international firm, while offering the local accountability and relationship management of a local partnership. We provide technical, business, and industry expertise, but remain technology-agnostic. At the same time, we maintain strong partnerships with leading technology companies, such as SAP, Oracle PeopleSoft, and Lawson, so we are current on their technological developments and have colleagues to partner with when a challenge necessitates it.
CIBER is included in the niche quadrant of Gartner, Inc.’s Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Services, North America, 2007 (published 3/13/07).
In addition, CIBER has been rated the 8th best global IT outsourcer by the Brown-Wilson Group, author of The Black Book of Outsourcing, which surveyed and compiled responses from 18,000 business decision-makers regarding their experiences with outsourcing firms.
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