Business Case
When OSC selected CMA to design, develop, and implement the FirstNY Data Warehouse, they had many project goals in mind.
OSC needed an effective means to access data stored in diverse databases and to provide information required by management and staff to enable informed operational, tactical, and strategic decision-making.
The data warehouse solution needed to be complete and comprehensive, and including appropriate architecture, methodology, technical and non-technical infrastructure, warehouse governance, and a formal data quality program.
The data warehouse had to provide management with the ability to access, analyze, and explore information, and develop insights and understanding of available data to achieve improved, informed, fact-based decision-making.
And it had to provide senior management with access to information — including the ability to present information in a sophisticated, graphical way — and support intuitive exploration of data.
The Solution
CMA’s responsibility included the design, development and implementation of the FIRSTNY Data Warehouse for OSC. The project was delivered over five distinct phases. This included a planning stage to define the overall software and hardware architecture to support the data extract, transformation, and loading (ETL) and a reporting/business intelligence platform followed by the delivery of four critical data sources: Vendor Payments, Cost Center History, Contracts Data, and Payroll History.
The Results
The FirstNY data warehouse was completed in January 2010. This platform now allows citizens to access information on line through the Comptroller’s Open Books portal to provide the public direct access to State budget, contract and funding information. This is central to the State Comptroller’s oversight mission of fiscal transparency and accountability. The project achieved all its goals, putting New York State on a stronger path to accessible, comprehensive data management.