In an earlier post, we talked about declining productivity and supported 3^rd party observations with solid data and visuals. And since we know that it’s really tough to go out on the street and recruit a senior ETL Developer, you might find it useful to remind yourself that you have a choice . . . one that doesn’t involve either falling farther behind in bringing your legacy data into play or misusing your current analysts by having them spend 80% of their time extracting data and less than 20% actually using the data to drive savvy decisions.

Take a quick scan down this core list of requirements for a senior ETL Developer recently posted this month on a recruiter job board:

• Designs, develops, modifies, configures, debugs and evaluates application programs for the team’s enterprise-level data architecture. Programs include interfaces, conversions, and enhancements.
• Analyzes existing applications and systems and formulates logic for new systems, devises logic procedures, logical database design, performs coding and tests/debugs programs.
• Assist in the definition, development, and documentation of deliverables, and specifications on a project-by-project basis as defined in the IT     Methodology, in collaboration with business analyst and other project team members.
• Consult with business analyst and architects to understand, anticipate, and meet current and future business needs.
• Prepares and obtains approval of system and development documentation.
• Recommends changes in development, maintenance and system standards and processes.
• Anticipate client concerns and questions and provide timely, professional, straight forward (non-technical) communications.
• Day-to-day tasks to insure systems are up and running.
• Respond to ad-hoc questions and intra-departmental communications.
• Supports may include bug fixes, patches, minor enhancements, and service request.
• Support technical design, development and unit test of ETL programs. Develop and manage new workflow processes.

So what can you do? Repurposing your top analysts to ramp up data transformation is not really productive in the short term. So don’t ask your IT team to do something they have little feel for and that drives down their overall productivity. Ask around. Find one or two external teams that have both the portfolio and the skills sets to review your scope of work and then jump in to deliver results (defined and meaningful data that drives good decisions) in less time, with less waste and with a lot less frustration.

Our ETL Plus* and custom application development expertise allow our analysts to mix and match data sets as needed. We can blend internal with external data sources to establish historical trends and project need and demand, which are the backbone of any feasibility study. Additionally, we can help you monitor trends, measure progress toward a quantitative goal or flag shifts in your market or business operations. Call us to start a conversation that can enhance your data management investment while keeping you ahead of your competition.