In October 2020, MDC, Advancia Technologies, and Ernst & Young formed a unique partnership to proactively enhance the data analytics operations for top government officials. In what would formally become known as the “Data Optimization” project, this initiative focuses on combining the skillsets and expertise of all companies to develop a state-of-the-art analytics platform to help accelerate the strategic decision-making process for senior leadership.
The inspiration for this partnership began in 2019 when MDC was focused on addressing ways to enhance the financial understanding and management of government agencies. Knowing that many of their clients lacked the ability to effectively collect, analyze, and report on key data findings using their current data sources and systems, MDC knew they needed a robust solution that would allow senior leaders to make effective and timely management decisions.
Combining the financial management and MHS-related knowledge of MDC and technical design and implementation expertise of EY, the two companies instituted a “Data Optimization” team to achieve that vision.
Leveraging the capabilities of Microsoft’s Suite of Azure Data, the Data Optimization team developed analytical tools that focus on key information types that could not be easily collected, analyzed or reported using legacy and current financial systems.
The platform itself has an integrated Data Quality capability that scores incoming data and provides transparency on data lineage, timeliness, and quality. Approved by the Defense Health Agency (DHA) Privacy Office to handle CUI / PHI / PII data, the platform enables the Data Optimization team to wrangle and analyze data. That data is then used to iteratively build customized visualizations and analytical tools that can be easily filtered, updated, and navigated.
Because the dashboard identifies anomalies within the data and points directly to the problem area within seconds, it has significantly reduced the processing time to identify pertinent information. The platform empowers client’s decision making by integrating, standardizing and transforming key system data to efficiently feed interactive and intuitive dashboards at the headquarters level.
Although MDC, Advancia Technologies, and EY are still in the development phase of completing the tool for live use, the initial client feedback suggests that the dashboards will provide senior leadership with the knowledge and analytical capabilities not currently available from other systems. For many organizations, having this level of analytics in house will be a complete game-changer.
To learn more about this project initiative between MDC and EY please contact Yolanda Mack, Executive Vice President, Delivery – Yolanda.mack@mdc-llc.com
