Stratum Radio Series on Last Mile Configuration of InforEAM by Michael Snyder (2 of 3)

In this week's Stratum Radio, this is number 2 in our 3-part series on The Last Mile Configuration and End User Adoption of InforEAM.

In this episode, we address “Back-End Configuration for One Off Corporate Rules“. Everyone who has ever deployed systems understands the need to properly configure the system to reflect today's corporate rules. Additionally, the system needs to be updated to be in compliance with new corporate rules. The real magic happens when these One Off requirements does not impact the vital user experience. Listen to the “How” on this episode of Stratum Radio!

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

00:07                                   Alright, welcome to Stratum radio. My name is Scott MacKenzie and we're continuing our series on last mile configuration of in-force EAM system and end user adoption. Very important. Last, uh, the last episode that we did was front end configuration. Now we're going to venture on into back in configuration of one off corporate business roles because you know they're one off a corporate business rule. So let's get going. This is featuring a gentleman by the name of Mike Snyder. He's with Stratum Consulting. He's a wealth

00:39                                    knowledge, incredible insight. You can't go wrong. Reach out to a stratum consulting that's stratumcp.com and find out more because they're great, great people. Okay, we're going into the episode of backend configuration of one off corporate business rules. Now you know as well as I do if you've ever been a part of an implementation, there's always unique business rules that have to be captured within the system. Michael Schneider does an excellent job at explaining why that's important and how, you know, once again, it gets down to user adoption. If you don't get the user adoption, if you're not putting able to pull that information out of the system, then you know, it's just a, it's not a good, it's not a good situation to be in. So let's get going with the interview. Let's go get going with the, uh, the backend configuration, uh, podcast. So here is Michael Snyder.

01:28                                   Enjoy. All right, welcome back to Stratum radio. And you know as well as I do because you're listening to Stratum radio right now and you're listening to series that is specifically dedicated to the last mile configuration that supports end user adoption. Big title, very important. And once again, we have a gentleman by the name of Michael Snyder with Stratum Consulting and he's going to lay down some truth bombs here specifically to that topic. So let's last our last interview. We talked about that front end configuration, that creating that user experience, that usability and the importance of that and doing it and, and just grinding it out. And, and removing the, the, the inefficiencies and getting that system. So that me, let's say I'm an end user, I want to use that system. I want to, and I gain that information that it makes my job easier. And that's what we were talking about in the last episode. This episode, we're going to be talking a little bit about backend configurations for one off corporate business rules. Now, right off the bat, define that.

02:38                                    So, okay, so what is, what are the backend business rules? So when you're, um, putting information into the system, you may have some, a different data that needs to be validated based on what, how your business does a process. And whether I hit it with a mobile application or I hit it with the based application or a client server version of the application, I want to make sure that those business rules are enforced exactly the same way. So when I fill in a specific, uh, type, I want to make sure what the status is to go along with that type are I are identical so that they match so that the, uh, the data doesn't, uh, um, violate any of the business rules that we've implemented for our system. I know that sounds a little,

03:27                                    no, no, I, I you got to have business rules. I mean, you can't just have a wild West in your system. I mean it's like, yeah, I completed, got this status. It does. That doesn't work. That makes no sense. And once again, back to the original conversation we had about the usability, the front end, right, well it got to have it, these rules consistently applied throughout your system. How does a company insure these, these backend configuration of business rules are successful and apply and how do you manage that?

04:08                                    So, um, in four has, within its EAM product has the ability to put, um, essentially database triggers on the data in the system. So when you insert data, you update data or you delete data, it's going in force that um, the, the data is, is, is, is correct and proper and um, and, and meets the standards that your organization has asked you to, to implement. Um, you, you can't rely on the front end of you will do that because there's multiple front ends that are hitting the system. You can have data loads, you can have other sorts of things. But enforcing them in the back end through, uh, through the SQL database that sits there is, is very important. And, and what you get for one for an industry may be slightly different than what you have for a specific organization that's trying to implement their tier.

05:03                                    So their, uh, their relationship between their organizations and their divisions in their, and their, um, uh, crews that go out and do the actual work. If you don't have those rules built into the database so that the data's is, is, um, is correct and proper, you're going gonna Mmm. You're going to be violating some of the tenants of how you want to collect that data because you want your reports and your analysis and your and your statistics to be correct. If you, if you're allowing it to be, like you said, the wild wild West, then you know, you know, bad data in you get garbage reports out.

05:42                                    And, and I gotta be truthful. You listeners out there, I've got to be truthful with you. Uh, I've experienced the necessity to clean data and you don't want to do that. You wanted to find this up front. Trust me when you go through that, because if you've ever been a part of the cleaning of data, uh, you know that there are better things to do with your time except for, but you got clean the data if you're going to be doing it. And this is what Michael's saying is that let's get it upfront. Let's do it right upfront. Create those business news. Now, Michael, we talked about, you know, that user experience, what team comprises of this, you know, ability to be able to sort of that back in configuration, business rule approach. What does that look like? It's not me.

06:33                                    So it's the, um, it's the, uh, the project manager and the, and the analyst that's working with the viewer. Um, your business business specialists, the people who understand your business, you know, the, the folks that are going to actually be using the reports and the information that you have. You know, this is not necessarily the end user. These are the, uh, the, um, the decision makers within your organization. Those guys who need to be able to, uh, to, uh, um, show improvement in how they're managing their assets, making sure that the assets are being monitored, monitor on an appropriate basis, that they're being inspected correctly. That we're getting images or pictures of what's happening so that we can, uh, answer the regulatory requirements that come to you with your, say a pharmaceutical or a government agency or somebody like that or, or managing wastewater. If you don't get those, if you don't get the data in there correctly, then when you, when you report out to your regulators, you're going to have,

07:35                                    there's, there's, um, I would imagine a part of the ability to be able to ensure data integrity, data cleanliness. Uh, do you, do you also configure the system with these business rules to be able to auto-populate when applicable?

07:54                                    Oh, without a doubt. That's where the front end, uh, configurations that we talked about before. So those same business rules that you're putting in the backend, what we're going to simplify them a little bit and put them in the front end as well so that, uh, we're getting an immediate feedback when you're violating a business rule rather than waking to the back end. What's going to happen is you're going to get that feedback when you save the record because it's hidden the database. But when we deal with the front end, what we're going to do is as soon as you tap out of that field, we're going to run that same business rule validated and give an immediate response back to the user. So the same business rule, it just exists to different places within the system and they've got a,

08:33                                    yeah, so when I, uh, so when I draw the data from the database, right, and I'm, I'm, I'm pulling information that's relevant to my decision making process, whatever that interface looks like, how am I as an end user are assured that that data reflects it. Accurate information. How, how do, how do you do that?

09:01                                    Well, you've got to have done the work upfront to make sure that when that data got put in there, it was validated before it actually actually hits your system. If you don't validate it before it hits your system, then you're going to end up having, having garbage. And by being able to create additional fields on the screens, by being able to create additional columns in the database, by being able to create additional tables to be able to store some ancillary information and having actually a good sound data model, then you're going to be able to run reports that are good sales and realistic and inform EAM gives you that ability to be able to build extra columns into tables, build extra fields on the screens, be able to build those additional tables that you need. Um, all the things that you need to be able to create a, a, a correct and proper database. Third normal form if you want to get geeky.

10:00                                    Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like, I can understand database, but third normal form, well that went right over my bald head. But, but here's the funny thing. [inaudible] same discipline that you'll applied to define the business rules at the beginning of this implementation and through the implementation can be applied. Uh, when you're, you're looking at new business rules and that has to be applied because it's not a S business is not meant to be static. So I would imagine, correct me if I'm wrong, Michael, that there will be a necessity to sort of apply the same logic throughout you

10:45                                    the tenure. One of the things that, uh, that, um, stratum does is when we build these business rules, we build them in a very consistent way and we store them in a library. So if you're going to enforce this same similar pattern of a rule in one place in the application, you can use that same pattern over again when you apply a rule elsewhere within the application. So we build, we build on that capability. And when we, when we deliver the products to the customers, some of them, you know, will actually take the code that we built and extend it out themselves with a little bit of support, a little bit of training from, from stratum so that they can save them some of those consults.

11:25                                   Because listeners out there just recognize if you compromise that, that discipline, then all of a sudden, then you begin to impact in a negative way the database and the data in general and the integrity of the system. So it's imperative that, you know, once again, we're gonna, we're gonna wrap this up, reach out to the, the Michael Snyder of the world at stratum to ensure that that doesn't get compromised. It's not a big deal. I mean, come on. It's just, it's, it's professionalism in a system that you've got to be able to be able to pull that information out. So, okay, the first one, the first series that we did that, uh, that configuration, that front end configuration, we've talked about, the backend configuration, the data, and now we're going to, in the third of this series, quick and easy, easy integrations for saving time and data entry. Big. I like the flow. So stay tuned. We're going to be back with another in this particular series of creating that last mile configuration, which is important for end user adoption, which is really important. So stay tuned.

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Scott MacKenzie

About the author, Scott

I am Scott MacKenzie, husband, father, and passionate industry educator. From humble beginnings as a lathing contractor and certified journeyman/lineman to an Undergraduate and Master’s Degree in Business Administration, I have applied every aspect of my education and training to lead and influence. I believe in serving and adding value wherever I am called.

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