Often new data governance programs take on too much, then stall or fail. In this video you’ll learn how to find and govern your most sensitive data first – creating an early win and setting yourself up for success. This talk is led by data governance experts John Radi, Global Sales Leader, Data and Analytics with Prolifics, Brian Kordelski, CRO and Data Sentinel, and Kevin Downey, Chief Technology Officer at Data Sentinel.
This discussion originally aired on Dataversity’s Data Governance Demo Day in February 2021.
Today’s massive volume of healthcare data creates challenges with data complexity, data format, data locations and data consent. Prolifics developed its Quick FHIR solution to rapidly standardize healthcare data using HL7’s FHIR standard, using IBM’s Cloud Pak for Data and Cloud Pak for Integration to extract it from different sources, remove data quality issues and securely share across the system. Click the image below to watch the full story.
Prolifics to Help Bring Hybrid Cloud Capabilities to Clients in Any Environment
ORLANDO, FLA., March 1, 2021 – Prolifics, a global digital transformation leader is proud to announce that we now can help enterprises manage their applications across multiple cloud environments with IBM Cloud Satellite. IBM Cloud Satellite, now generally available, enables clients to run IBM Cloud services on any cloud, on premises, in multicloud environments or at the edge – all delivered as a service. This flexibility will help bring cloud capabilities to where client data resides, in the environment of their choice, while focusing on consistency, user experience, and security.
With its open architecture, IBM Cloud Satellite builds on IBM’s deep industry expertise and can help enterprises across a variety of industries including telecommunications, healthcare, banking, insurance, travel and transportation, transform into digital-first organizations. The need to modernize mission-critical workloads is intensifying. According to a recent IBM Institute for Business Value report, 74% of CEOs interviewed during the COVID-19 pandemic believe cloud computing will most help their organization deliver these results over the next 2-3 years. We see a cornerstone of this transformation is in edge computing. The continued proliferation of edge devices is expected to shift the amount of data that resides at the edge compared to within central data centers. As this transition takes place, IBM Cloud Satellite is designed to bring cloud services to where clients’ data already resides — and help them bridge to where they want to go.
Prolificsis part of IBM’s ecosystem of partners fueling hybrid cloud deployments by helping clients modernize applications and manage workloads on infrastructure ranging from bare-metal to multicloud and everything in between using Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading enterprise Kubernetes platform. IBM Cloud Satellite is engineered to give clients the flexibility to bring their applications to environments where their data resides while leveraging the security of IBM Cloud.[1]
Satya Bolli, Prolifics Chairman & Managing Director, said, “Modernizing applications to enable our clients to become faster, more agile, and more creative is what we do. Deciding the right platform for the right application workloads is a critical part of the equation. We see IBM Cloud Satellite as a game changer for our clients who want an enterprise grade option to bring the convenience of a cloud experience into the control of their own data center.”
Greg Hodgkinson, Prolifics Chief Technology Officer, said, “In the Prolifics Innovation Center, we’ve crafted more than 20 of our solutions using OpenShift and the Cloud Paks as our solution platform, ensuring flexible deployment models and simplified operations across cloud infrastructure. These solutions span verticals such as healthcare and banking, and horizontals such as data science, Hyperautomation, data privacy, DevOps and testing. IBM Cloud Satellite can help us deliver this solution platform as a service across an infrastructure of our client’s choosing, enabling us to roll out our solutions with Cloud Paks quicker and more efficiently. We believe this will improve availability to users, free-up capacity in our client’s operations team, and lower long-term cost of ownership.”
Prolifics is a global digital transformation leader with expertise in cloud, data and analytics, DevOps, digital business, and quality assurance across multiple industries. We provide consulting, engineering and managed services for all our practice areas at any point you need them – giving you fast, complete solution delivery experiences that you will find nowhere else. Whether it’s initial advising and strategy; design and implementation; or ongoing analysis and guidance, Prolifics will help you take charge of your digital future. Visit prolifics.com.
[1]Based on IBM Hyper Protect Crypto Service, the only public-cloud enabled FIPS 140-2 Level 4-certified Hardware Security Module (HSM). FIPS 140-2 Security Level 4 provides the highest level of security defined in this standard. At this security level, the physical security mechanisms provide a comprehensive envelope of protection around the cryptographic module with the intent of detecting and responding to all unauthorized attempts at physical access.
The Prolifics Innovation Center reflects our culture of curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement. It empowers both our employees and clients to explore future competencies and emerging technologies across applications and platforms. In this blog, we provide insights into the Innovation Center and hear firsthand from three Prolifians about their experiences.
What is the Prolifics Innovation Center?
The Prolifics Innovation Center is not a physical space but a virtual hub for global collaborative innovation. It was established as part of a strategic redesign of Prolifics’ business model to make innovation a core organizational competency.
Core Tenets of the Innovation Center
Design Thinking: Challenge assumptions and explore new perspectives to solve the right problems.
New Technology: Leverage cutting-edge technologies to develop innovative solutions.
Sandbox Creativity: Build, test, and experiment in a safe, value-generating environment.
Co-Creation: Collaborate with clients to create solutions that are meaningful and forward-looking.
Leadership and Approach
Greg Hodgkinson, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Prolifics, leads the Innovation Center. Greg co-founded the UK-based SOA platform company 7irene, acquired by Prolifics in 2007. A recognized thought leader, Greg has been named an “IBM Champion” for seven consecutive years and has contributed to publications on SOA software solutions and agile testing.
Greg applies an iterative, agile methodology in Innovation Center projects using a sprint → showcase → evaluate → repeat cycle, ensuring continuous improvement and value creation across all initiatives.
What Prolifians Say About the Innovation Center
Harald Smith – Solution Architect, Northeast US
Harald, a member of the Information Management practice, focuses on application modernization, data governance, and data privacy. With over 20 years of experience in data management, Harald finds the Innovation Center aligns perfectly with his expertise.
“The Innovation Center encourages communication, curiosity, and diversity of thought. There’s no right or wrong answer, just unique perspectives that help create more effective solutions.”
For Harald, innovation is a mindset rather than a function: companies without an innovation center may lack cross-fertilization of ideas, limiting their growth potential. The Innovation Center enables collaboration across disciplines, sparking new ideas and breakthroughs.
Rahul Sahay – Associate Data Architect, Hyderabad, India
Rahul’s passion for AI and machine learning drew him to Prolifics. He quickly engaged with the Innovation Center by volunteering to contribute to key projects.
“Innovation is everywhere in the Center, but its value is maximized only when integrated end-to-end. The Center allows us to identify opportunities and build solutions that add measurable value.”
Rahul highlights that working in the Innovation Center fosters hands-on experience with emerging technologies, encouraging employees to take ownership and explore creative solutions.
Why the Innovation Center Matters
The Innovation Center ensures that Prolifics remains at the forefront of technological advancements. By combining expertise, collaboration, and client co-creation, it delivers solutions that are not only innovative but also practical and scalable. Key benefits include:
Driving business value through technology-led innovation
Enhancing employee skill development and career growth
Fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing across global teams
Accelerating adoption of emerging technologies like AI/ML, cloud, and automation
Working at Prolifics: Opportunities for Growth and Learning
With over 40 years of experience supporting diverse industries, Prolifics empowers 3,000+ customers worldwide through customized, end-to-end technology solutions. As a mid-sized company with 1,500 global employees, Prolifics offers:
A collaborative, mentorship-focused environment
Career growth opportunities across emerging technologies
Exposure to cutting-edge projects in AI, cloud, data engineering, and more
The Innovation Center exemplifies how Prolifics invests in the future of technology and talent, ensuring employees and clients alike benefit from a culture of continuous learning and innovation.
AI is “artificial intelligence” not “accidental intelligence”. Every organization must embrace AI as a fundamental component in each aspect of their business but it must be done correctly from the start. Before even thinking about tools you must start with a modern and adaptive governance practice. AI only works if you trust the data feeding the engine and allows for effective decision intelligence.
You must then have a strategy in place to embed AI into your applications and processes. Making AI part of the design of new applications or modernization of existing ones allows for the analysis of data much quicker and seamless for the end user. Some key areas to focus on are:
Enhanced Customer Experience
Process/Task Automation
IT Operations
Self Integrating Apps
Predictive Maintenance
Behavioral Analytics
Security & Risk Management
Virtual Assistants
Fraud Detection/Prevention
Prolifics has a core set of capabilities and offerings that will help at every step of your data and analytics journey. We start with a set of workshops designed to frame out the business needs and to chart your journey to success. Additionally, we have frameworks which set a critical foundation in place which is necessary to achieve successful business results along the way.
Matt Garst leads sales for Digital Automation and Cloud Solutions for Prolifics. Matt has over 20 years of experience in sales in the information technology industry. Most recently, he was responsible for the IBM software business within the US Army and Missile Defense Agency. Prior to his role at IBM, he was the Vice President of Worldwide Sales for Enterprise Information Management, where he led a sales team focused on software and professional services. Matt began his career as a soldier in the U.S. Army where he served six years in the Infantry.
Do you have consumer data anywhere in your organization? Of course you do. Then this installment of Prolifics’ Geek Out series is crucial for you. Yep – it’s all about data privacy.
Data privacy is not slowing down or going away. More governments at all levels are proposing and adopting privacy regulations. You’re going to have to deal with it – the only question is when.
And dealing with it means technology – this is not a manual process you can throw a few employees at. You’ll need to find, itemize, tag, delete, update and otherwise manage consumer information wherever it exists in your company – quickly and efficiently. Fines and penalties await those who don’t.
The data experts from Prolifics and Data Sentinel are here to “geek out” on the new technologies behind data privacy and data governance. This tech will not only help you toward privacy compliance, but will lead to better decision-making, improved efficiencies, and increased revenue and growth.
After you watch the video, read more about Data Sentinel’s Sensitive Data Audit … and connect with us at solutions@prolifics.com to discover the data privacy solution that’s best for your business.
Prolifics’ Analytic Platform Optimization solution is unique to the industry and will show you how to better balance, and even maximize, the productivity of your existing servers. And we can guarantee it’s a lot less expensive than adding more servers.
The Budget Alarm Bells Go Off – Loud
It’s the first sign – you’re overbudget on your spending for servers. It could be the front-end or the back-end platforms, at this point it doesn’t seem to matter. You turn to your staff and ask:
“Why in the heck are we spending so much money on licenses? And now it looks like we’re going to have to get more servers and our licenses are going to go up even more? Why is this happening?”
The result is generally blank stares or mumbling about the need based on all the work being done. There may be a project assigned to look at the over-budget platform. But that won’t necessarily solve anything because it’s usually not a one-platform problem.
It’s a Platform Ecosystem Problem
Michael Gonzales, PhD (“Dr. G”) is Prolifics’ Chief Data Scientist and the force behind Analytic Platform Optimization.
“Clients ask us, ‘Why are we spending so much?’” says Dr. G. “And when we get in discussions with them, we make the case for the multiple platforms. Because you’re not going to solve your problem just looking at one of the platforms by itself. If you look at it in isolation, you’re not looking at the total picture. And at Prolifics, we look at the total picture. The problem is that the scale of the total picture is huge. So that’s why almost nobody does it. But we use data science so that we can simplify the whole process and come up with legitimate, actionable results that we can help you implement.”
The Total Picture is All About Balance
The real issue is that the front-end and back-end platforms are essentially out of balance – one is over-used and one is under-used.
Example:
A client had a mid-tier BusinessObjects server farm and Teradata for the back-end.
BusinessObjects developers pushed data requests back and forth using SQL, manipulating data on the front-end without knowing what Teradata could handle.
Teradata staff only monitored SQL requests and didn’t know about upstream manipulations.
“What happens or what’s totally missed, in most of these organizations, is a clear view of all the code that’s been written to move the data,” says Dr. G. “We take a global view, so we’re not interested in the network speeds or necessarily concerned about specific queries. What we’re concerned with is the global view – the balance of all the code being written. Where is the ‘heavy lifting’ being done, and where should it be done?”
How Does Prolifics’ Analytic Platform Optimization Work?
Dr. G explains:
“You can’t read all the lines of code to see where the ‘heavy lifting’ is – it’s impossible because of sheer scale and knowledge needed for different platforms. Instead, our process works because it uses data science and text mining to consume thousands of programs and analyze the word usage in the language (SQL or any language). I’ve developed a dictionary for very specific words that I know characteristically are ‘resource pigs.’ These words demonstrate a lack of proper planning – they just consume a ton of resources on one platform versus the optimal use of both platforms.”
Key Benefits:
Identifies exact programs causing imbalance
Pinpoints under-utilized platforms
Optimizes server performance across the ecosystem
Then What?
Prolifics doesn’t just identify issues – we provide a complete optimization plan:
Agile sprint plans to fix the worst offenders first
Dedicated expert developers for implementation
Continuous monitoring and process closure
Put that pen down – don’t sign another server license until you talk to us.
We provide consulting, engineering, and managed services at any point you need them – giving you fast, complete solution delivery experiences that you will find nowhere else.
Whether it’s advising and strategy, design and implementation, or ongoing analysis and guidance, Prolifics will help you take charge of your digital future.
Digital + data + data science = vision to value, faster. That’s the message shared in this presentation hosted by DCO Canada and presented by Chief Data Scientist Michael Gonzales. The conversation starts with this quote from an article published through the Harvard Business Journal* – The worst mistake a company can make is to hire data scientists, give them access to data, and turn them loose expecting them to come up with something brilliant. – In fact, the role of a data science team is to bring business value, business impact. That can’t happen without business involvement. Dr. Gonzales shares valuable insight into marrying your digital and data to receive maximum results.
*Harvard Business Journal Publication – Are You Setting Up Your Data Scientists to Fail?
An Analytic Ecosystem Inventory (AEI) helps organizations document and quantify their current analytics landscape. It collects metrics about analytic applications, supporting technologies, and data sources — offering a clear view of how analytics is implemented and consumed across the business.
Unlike general assessments that capture opinions from analytic users, the AEI focuses on quantitative insights. It measures the technologies, applications, and user communities that shape your organization’s analytic maturity.
What the Analytic Ecosystem Inventory Includes
The AEI framework typically covers four major components:
Antecedents: Documentation related to analytics, corporate objectives, and standards.
Applications: Analytic applications, their user base, and life stage.
Technologies: Tools and platforms supporting analytic operations.
Data: Information about data sources, size, type, and frequency of use.
To ensure consistency, it’s best to use a structured instrument — such as a spreadsheet — for gathering data. This enables accurate, repeatable collection even when multiple teams are involved.
1.Understanding Antecedents
Antecedents are formal documents used to evaluate the maturity of analytics in an organization. For example, a business strategy that references analytics demonstrates that the enterprise recognizes data as a competitive advantage.
Below are key artifacts assessment teams should review when determining analytic maturity:
Business strategy documents referencing analytics (can be redacted if necessary)
Analytic strategy documentation
Organization charts for analytics and data governance teams
Analytic development and implementation standards
Example of a requirements document for the analytic environment
Example of a test plan for an implemented analytic application
Example of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with user communities
Education curriculum or training offered by the analytics team
Course evaluation forms used post-training
Gathering these documents requires minimal resources. Teams can request documents during the kickoff session, follow up with examples via email, and confirm titles shared by internal stakeholders.
2.Technical, Data, and Application Examination
An Excel-based AEI spreadsheet helps structure and standardize information collection. It should include columns for:
Technology licenses
Data sources and size
Supported user communities
Applications built on each technology
Table 1: Architecture Inventory (not shown)
This format provides clarity when evaluating relationships among applications, technologies, and users.
3. Techniques for Analyzing the AEI
The AEI involves two primary areas of assessment:
Formal antecedent documentation
The inventory of analytic applications, supporting technology, and data
To gain accurate insights, teams should not analyze these areas in isolation. Instead, compare findings across information sources—such as surveys, interviews, and inventory data—to validate consistency.
For instance:
If SMEs mention specific analytics technology standards, those should appear in the technology inventory.
If SMEs claim there’s no formal training but the organization offers a structured curriculum, that discrepancy needs investigation.
Figure 1 – Overlapping Information Channels highlights how these data sources intersect.
4. Analyzing Antecedents
To evaluate antecedent documents effectively, teams can:
Review each document and provide observations.
Use a Likert Scale to rate maturity factors.
This structured approach enhances repeatability and transparency, compared to subjective review methods. (Refer to Table 2 – Assessing Antecedents for sample evaluation criteria.)
Table 2 – Assessing Antecedents
5. Analyzing the Inventory
The AEI offers valuable insights based on quantitative patterns. Analysts can use these patterns to answer key questions such as:
Support for Standards – How consistent are the technologies supporting analytics? Are multiple versions in use?
Application Maturity – Are applications mostly new, expanding, mature, or legacy?
User Communities – Do these applications support broad user groups or niche teams?
Departmental Concentration – Are analytic applications centralized or spread across departments?
Data Latency – Is the data consumed in batches, real time, or on demand?
These findings help organizations identify gaps, improve efficiency, and enhance governance across their analytics landscape.
Conclusion
Conducting an Analytic Ecosystem Inventory provides organizations with a comprehensive snapshot of their analytic maturity. By documenting antecedents, technologies, applications, and data sources, teams can uncover improvement opportunities, align analytics with business goals, and support future scalability.
About the Author
Michael L. Gonzales, Ph.D., is an IT industry veteran with over 30 years of experience as a Chief Architect and Senior Solutions Strategist. He specializes in leveraging business analytics for competitive advantage in global enterprises.
His research and presentations have been featured at leading international conferences such as:
Decision Sciences Institute
Americas Conference on Information Systems
Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science
Dr. Gonzales holds a Ph.D. in Information and Decision Science from the University of Texas. He currently serves as Managing Partner at dss42, LLC, and Senior Data Scientist at Prolifics.
Companies that know how to leverage their analytic and IT resources gain a business analytic-enabled competitive advantage (Porter, 1980; Sambamurthy, 2000), which is the basis of our research. For the purpose of this guide, the term analytics represents a comprehensive view that encompasses the 5 analytic areas listed below and related topics.
The challenge, when creating an analytic-enabled business strategy, is to identify which activities to focus on. To that end, our research identifies factors of analytic-centric initiatives that significantly contribute to the overall maturity and success of a program (Gonzales, 2012). Building on this research, coupled with extensive practical application of maturity assessments for leading companies our Comprehensive Analytic Maturity Assessment (CAMA) creates an index that measures the analytic-enabled competitive maturity of an organization.
The Value of a Repeatable Analytic Maturity Assessment
While it’s important that companies invest in an unbiased measurement of their analytic maturity, it is only a fraction of the value. One key success factor is the ability to periodically conduct the same assessment to measure and monitor the progress of your analytic program(s). If you can demonstrate significant maturity increases, the results will support your argument for additional budget and resources.
Conducting the same assessment periodically means that you must retain the instruments used and methodology applied. Some assessment services will simply not comply.
Dr. Michael Gonzales, Chief Data Scientist with Prolifics, doesn’t recommend that you invest in any assessment that contains black-box processes. “Frankly, if you do not have an assessment that provides visibility to all aspects of how the maturity level is derived, then it’s not worth the price,” Gonzales explains. “Real value from these initiatives is derived when you can internalize the assessment instruments and processes to enable your organization to periodically conduct the assessment.”
The following video describes 4 of the instruments this author recommends.
Five Analytic Areas for CAMA
Data Science (DS) – an inter-disciplinary field to unify statistics, machine learning, deep learning, big data, and data analysis.
Machine Learning (ML) – the application of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience. A sub-set of Artificial Intelligence.
Business Intelligence (BI) – techniques and technologies used for data analysis of business information including the provision of historical and current views of operations.
Big Data – a field focused on the analysis of data sets too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data processing.
Spatial Analysis – the application of statistical analysis and related techniques to data with a geographical dimension.
More questions about your company can gain and maintain a competitive advantage using advanced analytics? Our experts are here to help.
