FBNQuest, a premier Merchant Bank & Asset Manager in sub-Saharan Africa, recognized the necessity of enhancing its customer data accuracy and validity. To achieve this, they needed to implement a Data Governance system, aiming to establish an enterprise-wide data standard and improve decision-making and business operations.
The Customer Master Data Manager (C-MDM) was developed as a Master Data Management solution to manage customer data end-to-end. It was designed to provide a 360-degree view of customer data, facilitating informed decision-making. This project was crucial in transitioning FBNQuest from basic data reporting to advanced enterprise-level analytics.
My role was pivotal in ensuring that the C-MDM system not only met the immediate needs of FBNQuest but also laid a foundation for future data governance and management initiatives. My comprehensive approach in requirement gathering, documentation, stakeholder communication, and strategic alignment significantly contributed to the project's overall success
Gathering Requirements:
Stakeholder Analysis: I conducted thorough stakeholder analysis to understand the needs and expectations of various departments, ensuring that the solution aligns with the organization's objectives.
Elicitation Techniques: Utilizing interviews, surveys, and workshops, I gathered detailed requirements from end-users, IT staff, and management, ensuring all perspectives were considered in the solution design.
Understanding Business Rules:
Data Governance Policies: I delved into the existing data management practices to identify gaps and areas of improvement.
Rule Definition: I collaborated with data governance experts and IT specialists to define clear business rules that would guide the implementation, such as data entry standards, access control policies, and data quality metrics.
Creating Documentation Artifacts:
Business Requirements Document (BRD): I developed a comprehensive BRD, detailing the functional and non-functional requirements, business rules, and expected outcomes.
User Stories and Use Cases: I translated complex technical and business requirements into user-friendly stories and use cases, facilitating a common understanding among stakeholders and the development team.
Facilitating Communication and Collaboration:
Interdepartmental Liaison: I acted as a bridge between technical teams and business units, ensuring seamless communication and understanding of project objectives and deliverables.
Feedback Integration: Regularly incorporating feedback into the project scope, I ensured that the evolving needs of the business were continually addressed.
Risk Management and Quality Assurance:
Risk Assessment: I identified potential risks in the project lifecycle and proposed mitigation strategies to ensure project success.
Quality Checks: I established quality assurance processes, such as peer reviews of documentation and regular testing of system functionalities.
Training and User Support:
Training Material Development: I created comprehensive training materials for users to familiarize them with the new system.
User Support: Post-implementation, I provided ongoing support to users, addressing any issues and ensuring smooth adoption of the system.
Project Review and Post-Implementation Analysis:
Performance Tracking: I monitored the system’s performance against the set objectives, gathering data on usage patterns, user feedback, and system efficiency.
Lessons Learned: I conducted a post-implementation review to document lessons learned and provided recommendations for future projects.
The agile sprint framework guided the implementation, focusing on incremental feature delivery for various user roles. We navigated challenges such as implementing robust security measures, including two-factor authentication, integrating mobile payment options, and ensuring an intuitive user interface.
Product Capabilities
The C-MDM featured:
Data Enrichment: Identifying and understanding customer relationships in the value chain, to provide insightful data on customer exposure.
Data Integration: C-MDM provides defined users access to log in and update/ correct customer data in real-time whether or not it was previously captured. Customer Data Capturing through the use of OEM Data Integrators and our proprietary tools and or a robust and intuitive user interface.
Industry Standardization: C-MDM would help FBNQuest enforce industry standardizations at the point of data entry by providing only the accepted values of specific fields, based on the rules of set standards, as input options.
Highly Customizable: With C-MDM, FBNQuest will have a very flexible solution that can be customized to address Ir specific organization's data issues. Ir business rules around different data elements can be easily accommodated and infused with the DQI engine to ensure the appropriate variables are taken into consideration when measuring Ir data quality index.
Security and Access Level: To monitor changes done on the data. It has two levels of access, one for a "Maker" and another for a "Checker". Additional user privileges and access rules can be configured as fit FBNQuest requirements. All activities are monitored and recorded within C-MDM for audit purposes. The system will authenticate users with a username and password before granting them access to the portal. The system also will implement role-based authorization which must be done as per user roles definition and provide audit trail for each transaction.
The C-MDM project at FBNQuest stands as an example of how strategic business analysis and data governance can transform an organization's data management capabilities, leading to enhanced decision-making and operational efficiency.