1. Data Discovery
Change Committee

2. Data Discovery Overview
Problem Statement
Data Availability - Reports are distributed at scheduled times (weekly, monthly etc.) via
No current ability to self serve.
Reporting Change Timescales – New requirements (e.g. adding a new data item) time consuming.
Reconciliation - Differences in report data definitions are driving an increased number of queries to investigate.
Additional Effort – Data dumps drive further work from customers to transform data into a usable format.
Data Discovery
Data Discovery Capability – Empower customers to self serve, providing access to improved visualisations that deliver dynamic dashboards (Appendix 1).
Benefits will be realised by both Xoserve and Customers.
Self Serve – Ability for users to retrieve data they require.
Availability – Ability to run reports when needed rather than receive data at scheduled times.
Security - Access provided through a secured web portal, reducing the need to transfer via .
Capability – The need to raise change requests will reduce as the available data expands.

3. Data Delivery Mechanisms
The diagram below outlines key components to support delivery of data.
Data Transfers
What: Method used to make data available to customers of reports.
How: , Information Exchange Network (IXN), DVD, Huddle, Data Discovery Portal, API’s
Advantages / Benefits: Flexible methods available to transfer data, method being used should be driven by the sensitivity of the content.
Disadvantages / Risks: Distribution methods carry varying levels of risk depending on content. Not all methods have the same level of security.
Data Discovery
What: Solution to provide improved reporting through visualisations and dashboards. Also empowers users to self serve reporting.
How: Tools such as Tableau, Qlik, MicroStrategy, Power BI, Birst
Advantages / Benefits: Supports user self service and vastly improved ways of accessing data through visualisations. This includes dynamic dashboards that allow users to drill down to the information required.
Disadvantages / Risks: The capability is currently being established to allow rollout to external users.
What: Solution to provide both regular portfolio and adhoc reporting to customers.
How: Business Objects, IBM COGNOS, Microstrategy
Advantages / Benefits: Established toolset that supports a quick turnaround of delivery subject to data being available in SAP BW.
Disadvantages / Risks: Reports created for specific customers needs, limited drill down capability can drive the need for continuous changes. Limited self serve capability.
What: Used by Suppliers to gain direct access to address and supplier information for a meter point. An application needs to be built by suppliers to interface with API’s.
How: API’s (Data Transfer)
Advantages / Benefits: Real time access to live data held by XOServe.
Disadvantages / Risks: Limited capability, will only be able to access data made available through API’s. This is not a replacement for a report but rather to support real time data services.
XOServe
Reporting
API’s

4. Data Discovery Next Steps
Data Discovery capability current being rolled out externally.
Proposal to use the WAR Band change as pioneer reporting suite for this capability.
To support the rollout we would be looking to provision access and provide training for users.
Questions:
Current plan is to deliver WAR band reporting through the Data Discovery capability, would you also like data delivered through the existing data transfer capability?
Can you provide a contact to support Xoserve in rolling out the capability? This will include support for co-ordinating user access and training.

5. Data Discovery Appendix 1 - Capability
Since the go-live of UK Link the CDSP have been using a cloud based data discovery and Business Intelligence (BI) technology to monitor and analyse internal data. It is proposed that this capability is now rolled out to their customers to complement and enhance current Business Intelligence (BI) / analytical insight provisions.
The opportunity to leverage this CDSP capability provides customers a new and more visual way to receive and interpret the data services we are able to provide. The data can be visualised in the form of charts, graphs and dashboards to easily identify key metrics, trends and outliers and then to drill down into the points of interest to focus on the key information. All data and visualisations will be secure, ensuring that users can only see information that they / they organisation has the right to see. Access to the data can be provision through an interactive dashboard (with options to download relevant data securely) or simply ed to users if preferred (PDF).
By offering this externalised flexible and scalable BI/MI solution our complete customer base would gain a much broader ability to obtain not only the market data they are looking for but to also be made aware of other information that may be of significance to them as an organisation. Making this data more readily available to the customers would accelerate their ability to react to changes in the market and increase their own agility to report on data that the CDSP hold on their behalf through self-service configuration upon the secure dashboards made available to them.
Self Service Capability
Externalised single source of truth
More up to date to react quicker
Expose small set of tables to address 80-90% of the requirements
Customers answer their own questions without the need for CRs
Less maintenance with no need for resource intensive packaging of reports, password protecting and sending out
Visualisations highlight the KPIs, trends and outliers
Focus on the data that matters, quicker
The information needed to make the right decisions