5 ways to make your Oracle Discoverer migration a REAL success

Make your Oracle Discoverer Migration a REAL HR data analytics success with MakoData!

Introduction

Where to begin with your Oracle Discoverer Migration. So, you’re staring down the barrel of having to migrate potentially hundreds or thousands of your HR and payroll Oracle Discoverer reports to a new platform?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone!

Many organisations are facing the same task over the next 6-9 months. And most of them are probably thinking that this is going to be a long and laborious project with little in the way of value other than achieving business as usual on a new tool.

But it doesn’t need to be like that, not with PeopleXD Analytics powered by MakoData. Your Oracle Discoverer migration doesn’t need to be a time-consuming or low-business-value task. The trick is to stop thinking of this as a task that must be done and instead look at the possibilities and value that selecting and moving to the right HR data analytics solution could deliver.

And there’s the key – Selecting the right analytics solution. At MakoData we have poured years of HR data, project and process expertise into building turn-key data layers that deliver on all of your PeopleXD data needs. Powered by Tableau, our solution is developed using one of the market-leading (Gartner) analytics tools and has been validated by happy customers across sectors in Ireland and the UK.

So here are 5 ways that MakoData can turn your Oracle Discoverer HR and payroll report migration into an HR data analytics success story.

1. PeopleXD Analytics powered by MakoData doesn’t just meet the migration need. We deliver a solution and associated service that is future-proofed and proven best in class

The temptation when facing into migrating potentially hundreds of critical HR and payroll reports is to just focus on directly replacing what you already have. But why put effort into doing only that? You can easily deliver more value for the same or even less effort if you choose the right solution for the right reasons. Let’s break it down.

You need to be sure that your chosen solution meets not only the existing reporting needs but instead will cater to all of your needs now and into the future. You want a single solution that will deliver on all tactical, operational and strategic HR data needs.

Identify the level of service and support on offer. If they will truly deliver what you need and continue to do so beyond the initial migration push. Excellent support is fundamental to the success of an analytics solution.

Your users typically will not be technical, they will build a reasonable proficiency in the solution you choose. But they will always need help as new requirements arise. And most data requests can’t wait days for an answer.

Think about external data integration – it may not be on your radar right now, but it’s worth asking yourself what data you’re having to manually merge in Excel. Or what data would you love to sit beside your HR data? PeopleXD Analytics will allow you to easily integrate external data sets – and again we do it with a service level to support you.

Consider how you want your HR outputs to be perceived by other parts of the business. With Oracle Discoverer you were likely sharing only listings of data – take the opportunity to think about how you would like your HR data to be presented outside of the department. Think visual! (More on that below…)

Consider the skills your users could build if you choose a modern and recognised solution. Your users will be energised and motivated if they learn a valuable skill set that is recognised and fun to use.

2. Turn your reports into powerful visuals where appropriate

Ok, so often a tabular listing is just needed, especially for payroll checking and validation purposes. But there are probably dozens of reports being produced that would be more effective if they were supplemented or replaced with a meaningful visual or chart.

Deliver your existing tabular/cross-tabular reports where they are needed. But also take the opportunity to build in some visuals.

People consume and understand data far more quickly and easily if it is represented in a visual way that highlights outliers or potential issues. There are dozens of ways this can improve HR and payroll process and decision making, including in payroll validation.

Put your data on a dashboard. Related reports or analytics that support a particular process or initiative should be put together on a dashboard or series of dashboards where users can review and consume the output in a single view.

Producing and publishing even a small number of key outputs in a visual way will quickly make HR a leader in visual analytics in your organisation.

3. Empower your users to access the data and insights they need, when they need it

Any fit-for-purpose reporting solutions need to offer the ability to easily share and distribute data outputs easily and securely. It also needs to do it on a single integrated platform. You don’t want to be trying to figure out what tool to log onto to distribute a payroll listing vs. a HR headcount trend analytic.

PeopleXD Analytics powered by MakoData offers flexible rollout options for dashboards and reports, meaning your users can access the data they need, when they need it.

Speed is critical here! To successfully drive the adoption of reports and or dashboards, you need to be sure that data will come back in a matter of seconds. Users will not adopt if they have to wait minutes for a report to render. MakoData reports and analytics will never take more than a few seconds to run, no matter how much data you throw at it.

You will need to think about how content and data security will work for your users. While it would be tempting to simply reproduce the data security model used in Oracle Discoverer (e.g. Pay Group, Department, Work Group etc), you need to ask yourself “does that really fit the analytics need?”. Typically it does not!

The data security in your HR / Payroll system is designed for supporting the process and capturing transactions. But it doesn’t reflect the analytics view of the world. Do you want to set up your CEO with access to all pay groups and departments in the source system so they can view a dashboard? The answer is probably no.

PeopleXD Analytics powered by MakoData offers completely flexible data security models that will support a business-driven view of the data rather than a process-driven one.

4. Deliver enhanced interactivity to provide a world-class user experience

Part of your Oracle Discoverer migration should focus on consolidation and reducing the volume of your report estate, i.e. how can you provide the same or more detail with fewer reports. A great way to achieve this is by building interactivity into your HR reports and dashboards. Allowing users to get more detail as they need it through simple clicks, hovers and drills and without the need to open and run separate reports.

PeopleXD Analytics powered by MakoData provides some fantastic interactivity features as standard, including:

Viz in Tooltip: By simply hovering on a piece of data (text or visual) a user can be presented with a pop-out that shows more detail, be that in a tabular or visual format as required.

Enhanced Filtering and Parameters: PeopleXD Analytics provides a variety of filtering options for your reports and dashboards. From simple dropdown selections for key data items, to relative time filters (e.g. show me last rolling 2 years) and right-click options for excluding/including data users will have easy ways of defining their own views of the data.

Intuitive Drill Downs: Built-in drill paths that will allow users to drill down to required levels of detail with simple clicks. This includes the ability to drill down through your org structure, drill through dates, and even create custom drills to meet specific business or process needs.

Guided Navigation: Guide your users through the data using plain English guidance instructions. For example, your net pay comparison report could include a selection of clickable plain English options. For example ‘Show me the People with a variance this month’ or ‘Show me the variance broken out by individual pay code’.

All of the above options will allow you to significantly reduce the number of individual reports that are needed. Using PeopleXD Analytics powered by MakoData you will be able to cater for all the same needs using a suite of intuitive dashboards and reports that will allow users to easily get to more detail as needed.

5. Drive pro-active analysis through automated event-driven alerts and scheduled outputs

Remove the need for your consumers to log in and check their reports. Instead, have the analysis they require drop into their email inbox on a schedule that suits. Or better still, built-in triggers can ensure they are only notified when a defined event occurs or a threshold is about to be breached.

For example, heads of an area can be notified when the absence rate for their area is about to reach a certain percentage. The notification can include the relevant details in PDF or Excel formats.

It can also include a link that directs them straight to their interactive dashboard. From there they can use the powerful interactivity features. Allow them to answer the ‘where’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ they need to take action.

Arming the business with the information they need before they know they even need it can help to elevate your HR data efforts beyond the traditional reactive reporting.

To conclude…

So, in summary, if you have a requirement to move from Oracle Discoverer for your reporting, MakoData has the solution and an approach that will deliver value well beyond the migration process.

We will deliver all of the above and more as part of your migration process. Ensuring that the time spent in migrating your reports delivers real business value and you move forward on your HR analytics journey.

You can read all about our solution here and what our customers have to say about it here.

Not only is PeopleXD Analytics the right solution for your HR and payroll reporting and analytics needs now and into the future, but we also provide a level of service that is unrivalled in the HR data analytics space. Part of that service is our Oracle Discoverer reporting migration service which you can read more about here.