Case Study: BI Transition Rescue During Acquisition

TL;DR
The acquiring company’s BI team assumed we were a “simple one-SKU business” — but that SKU was a personalized pharmaceutical, with complex manufacturing, scheduling, regulatory, and safety requirements.

I reviewed the limited plan, reset priorities, and delivered essential reports across scheduling, apheresis, sales, and accounting. At cut-over, I made the tough call to proceed knowing it would be bumpy, but confident patients would be served safely.

Challenge

• Parent BI team treated the transition as a light lift, assuming “one SKU = simple.”
  • Reality: a personalized blood therapy with unique data requirements tied to patient safety, compliance, and manufacturing workflows.
• The migration from Oracle, SSRS, Tableau, and SFDC into the parent’s warehouse, QlikView, and SFDC instance had barely started.
• Critical reporting for scheduling, apheresis, and commercial sales had not begun and was actively challenged as “unnecessary.”
• Accounting errors had already caused a multi-million-dollar vendor payment mistake, damaging relationships.

My Role

• Returned as a 1099 consultant funded from stakeholder budgets, after being laid off in the initial acquisition round.
• Assessed the limited work and plan to date to identify gaps and reprioritize what truly mattered.
• Advocated with the parent BI team that personalized pharma complexity meant “canned” reporting wasn’t sufficient.
• Partnered with internal stakeholders to rebuild essential reporting, ensuring regulatory and operational continuity.
• Made the go/no-go recommendation for data team at cut-over, balancing risks with patient safety and business needs.

Solution

• Gap Assessment – Reviewed the parent BI team’s plan and early work, surfacing missing deliverables critical to safety and financial continuity.
• Advocacy – Reframed the “simple SKU” narrative, showing why personalized therapies required custom reporting.
• Business Continuity First – Delivered priority reports in scheduling, apheresis, sales, and accounting.
• Corrective Action – Fixed the accounting reporting process after a multi-million-dollar vendor payment error.
• Cut-Over Decision – Recommended “Go” despite some unfinished items, confident the essentials were in place to serve patients safely.
• Stakeholder Coaching – Aligned expectations around what the new BI environment could (and couldn’t) do.
• Backlog Creation – Documented and prioritized long-term reporting and data product needs.

Impact

• Patient safety protected: ensured therapies were tracked and delivered correctly through accurate scheduling and apheresis reporting.
• Financial trust restored: corrected reporting gaps that had triggered major vendor payment errors.
• Stakeholder confidence rebuilt: local teams gained trust through quick wins and a visible backlog.
• Parent BI perception shifted: recognized the complexity of personalized pharma, leading to stronger support.
• Adoption improved: smoother onboarding through focused coaching and stakeholder champions.

Insights Unlocked

• Assumptions can derail transitions: “single SKU” looked simple, but reality was highly complex.
• Influence requires range: sometimes I translated and coached; other times I was resolute in holding the acquiring BI team accountable through data agreements. The pushback was real, but so were the stakes.
• Leadership under pressure: recommending “Go” at cut-over despite bumps proved the importance of confidence in people and process.
• Personal mission fuels resilience: having seen my grandfather suffer and die from prostate cancer, I wasn’t just rebuilding reports — I was ensuring patients got timely, safe treatments. That urgency gave me the fire to push through resistance and setbacks.

Toolbox & Technologies

• Legacy systems: Oracle Data Warehouse, SSRS, Tableau, Salesforce (SFDC).
• New environment: QlikView, new Data Warehouse, consolidated SFDC instance.
• Domains supported: Scheduling, Apheresis, Commercial Sales, Accounting.
• Skills applied: Gap assessment, stakeholder alignment, compliance advocacy, data product delivery, change management.