Business Intelligence & Data Warehouse Strategy Services for UNICEF

Request for proposal for UNICEF Business Intelligence (BI) & Data Warehouse (DW) strategy Services

Background: The SAP based ERP application was first launched in 1999 for UNICEF Head Quarter(HQ) locations. It was subsequently re-engineered, expanded and then launched worldwide branded as VISION in January 2012.  VISION, an IPSAS compliant ERP system is based on SAP R/3 ECC 6.0 ERP system on HP UNIX Operating System with Oracle as underlying database.  It includes core business areas with related business processes namely planning, budgeting, grants management, finance, human resources and supply (procurement & logistics). VISION is complemented by inSight, a UNICEF corporate Business Intelligence(BI) and Performance Management System.  inSight is based on an enterprise data warehouse system henceforth called UNICEF Data Warehouse (UDW), Microsoft BI tools and SharePoint.  UDW is an in-house custom data warehouse solution on HP UNIX Operating System with Oracle as underlying database.  VISION is a critical source of information for UDW.  Data in UDW is populated via SAP Business Warehouse(BW) extracts housed in Oracle database and directly from VISION via flat files. UDW also houses non-SAP data from other applications. The inSight platform serves as a single portal for all UNICEF BI reporting, dashboards and Key Performance Indicators(KPIs). The inSight platform is a data source for enterprise web services and hosts custom bespoke applications to serve UNICEF Country Offices.  Further, the inSight platform is a critical data source for UNICEF Transparency portal which has a high visibility across the organization and to external audiences.UNICEF ERP and performance management ecosystem is managed by UNICEF and hosted in two locations. The live production systems are hosted in a commercial data center and the development & test systems in UNICEF data center.   In the event of service interruptions in the commercial data center, UNICEF data center assumes primary role to support business continuity.

Problem Statement: UNICEF has recorded a steady 40% data growth annually and an increasing demand for innovative strategic solutions since the global roll out of VISION and insight in 2012.  Despite continuous efforts to optimize extracts, data loads and queries, there is steady increase in load times, decrease in overall performance & user experience and challenges in data timeliness. The performance management reports and dashboard content served for analysis are at least a day old. This is exacerbated by aged infrastructure that was initially provisioned in 2011 which now has reached its maximum potential.  Any attempt to expand further will be expensive and unsustainable as the infrastructure and its maintenance life cycle will reach end of life 2017-2018 timeframe. There is a critical need to re-think UNICEF BI-DW strategy and to build a long term sustainable platform that can enable self-service portals, improve performance, mitigate issues of data timeliness, improve user experience and enhance the organisations ability to effectively use data to support make decisions.

Scope: Provision of a study to determine the next generation BI-DW platform (inSight-UDW) for UNICEF. The scope of the engagement includes: (i) understand and review current BI-UDW in UNICEF. (ii) gather information from stakeholders on their current and future data, reporting needs. (iii) identify options per industry best practices for a long term strategic platform that can meet stakeholder needs within various UNICEF and partner operating contexts. Among the options, the study should take into consideration current system & data architecture, UNICEF VISION platform modernization to SAP HANA, potential to use SAP HANA based data warehouse and the targeted future for UNICEF Data Centres. In addition, it is suggested that SAP future evolution, their roadmap and impact to UNICEF are also considered. (iv)         comparisons for each option along with pros and cons from various dimensions. The analysis should consider, hardware, software solution(s), data architectures & models, user experience, mobility and interfaces to internal/external data systems. (v) Feasibility and cost-benefit analysis for migrating UNICEF inSight-UDW hosted on Microsoft-Oracle to a new generation BI-DW Platform.  Note that UNICEF in short term will be moving from Oracle/HP Unix platform to Oracle/SUSE Linux platform. (vi) strategy for future BI-DW in UNICEF for an enterprise reporting and performance scorecard systems.  This should consider hardware, software solution(s), data architecture, system integration aspects and tools to enhance user experience and facilitate self-service as needed. (vii) implementation path to migrate current to the recommended future BI-DW. This should include impact analysis and how the existing extracts, reports, dashboards and queries should be adjusted/modified to be compatible with the recommended future BI-DW.

Deliverables – A comprehensive document that must detail; (i) vendor’s understanding of current BI-UDW in UNICEF (ii) information gathered directly from stakeholders on their current and future data, reporting needs (iii) platform options that were considered per industry best practices that can meet stakeholder needs within various UNICEF and partner operating contexts. (iv) comparisons of the platforms considered along with pros and cons from various dimensions. (v) Recommended platform strategy and roadmap for future BI-DW in UNICEF for an enterprise reporting and performance scorecard systems.  (vi) Approach, cost-benefit and impact analysis for migrating UNICEF inSight-UDW hosted on Microsoft-Oracle to a new generation BI-DW Platform. A business case with high-level costed plan covering results, resources & risks and dependencies for implementation of the recommended strategy & roadmap.

Proposed vendor’s team qualifications – Knowledge & Experience:

1. Extensive knowledge and experience in Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence (BI) subject areas, products & tools is mandatory.
2. Knowledge of use cases of various DW-BI solutions in various IT verticals and industry best practices is mandatory.
3. Knowledge and experience with big data is desirable.
4. Experience in developing product & solution strategy, roadmaps and professional business cases.
5. Communication skills with ability to interact and speak with business stakeholders.
6. Certified in project management.

Deadline 27/11