Client – A national audiology retailer with over 450 locations nationwide

Problem

Through organic growth and acquisition our client managed over 450 audiology clinics nationwide.  As a result of the acquisitions, the clinics were using 3 different EMR (Electronic Medical Records) platforms.  This created difficulties in gathering and calculating performance metrics across the organization. Each day:

• data and reports had to be pulled from each of the 3 EMR systems,
•  then merged,
• and tabulated,

to provide the team a clear picture of what was going on at all levels of the company.

In addition, legacy approaches to calculating BI metrics left management with data accuracy concerns.

Solution

Keypress developed a modern custom business intelligence application that completed the following:

• Provided easy access to metrics across the company with a clean, modern, intuitive Business Intelligence system
• Ingested critical data from the 3 EMR systems
• Transformed that data into a unified data structure for reporting (Star Schema)
• Unified the formulas used to calculated the KPIs  (with guidance from the client)

Capabilities Demonstrated

• Business Intelligence Software Development
• Data Warehouse Design and Development (ETL – Extract, Transform, Load)
• Web App Development
• User Interface Design

Overview

The application provides:

• Accurate, up-to-yesterday, performance data across the entire company
• Business Intelligence Dashboards and Reports configurable to user role and permissions
• Advanced filtering to slice and dice data by dates, territories, regions, location, staff, etc.
• Various views and combinations of data to address the needs of different staff levels and operations meeting agendas.
• Motivational tools and goal driven custom KPIs

Software Needs Assessment

We met with our client’s team of stakeholders, including representatives from IT, Sales Operations and Finance, to identify and define the metrics they wanted to report on.  In addition to our weekly check-ins via Teams, we scheduled deeper dives with key stakeholders when needed.

We were provided read access to the data from all 3 source EMR systems and worked with the data team to clarify the “meaning” of the data.

We compared the data provided, and the metrics desired, and designed a star schema structure and ETL process  to transform the data into a reporting structure that would satisfy the client’s requirements.

Scoping

Our team reviewed the client’s needs and put together a scope for their project along with timeline and estimated costs.

Development

Our developers then began designing the application, starting with UI/UX design and simultaneously developing the ETL process for their data warehouse.

We followed an Agile development approach, meeting with the stakeholders weekly to:

• provide demonstrations of what was developed,
• gather additional requirements details (e.g. formulas, requests etc.)
• and prioritize next steps.

Special Note: Along the way, we identified that 1 of the 3 EMR systems did not capture information critical to certain metrics.  As a result, the client decided to continue with the development of the metrics, and they informed staff that that metric did not apply to locations running the problematic EMR.

Testing

Our team performed extensive testing to ensure:

1. the application’s functionality
2. the accuracy of the custom metrics and reports. 

When possible, we gathered reports from the various EMRs or legacy reporting systems to compare the results and validate the new application’s accuracy.  When discrepancies were identified, a deeper evaluation was performed to identify if the legacy reporting systems were accurate, or if the formulas had changed.

Once development and QA were complete for the required launch scope, we:

1. drafted UAT scripts for the client’s testing team and
2. scheduled meetings as needed to allow testers to provide feedback and voice concerns. 

Launch

After UAT approval, we:

1. deployed the application to a production environment and
2. assisted the client with onboarding their staff while providing user support when needed.

On Going Maintenance & Support

We provided support via email, Teams chat and phone, and continued to periodically monitor and update the production and test environments (roughly every month).  

Continued Development

We continue to enhance the application with a monthly development agreement to continue to add functionality as the client’s needs evolve.

Technologies

• (cloud) Azure Data Factory
• (cloud) Azure App Service
• (cloud) Azure Monitor (Application Insights)
• Entity Framework
• C#.Net
• React.js
• Microsoft SQL