Helping Federal Courts Expediently and Accurately Fulfill Their Duties
Background
The Judiciary Data and Analysis Office (JDAO) within the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) develops and maintains business intelligence (BI) decision support systems for U.S. federal courts. The federal judiciary includes over 32,000 users working across 90 bankruptcy courts, 94 district courts, and 13 appellate courts in a geographically dispersed environment; these users rely upon accurate and timely data to perform their judicial functions.
As courts had local data autonomy and were under no obligation to use JDAO’s tools or participate in data integration initiatives, JDAO had to contend with disparate data stored across numerous data sources, often built and maintained independently.
To better meet user needs, JDAO sought to put in place improvements that would centralize data storage and management and remove data silos while democratizing data, maintaining flexibility, allowing for growth and concurrent usage, and offering the greatest interoperability among JDAO stakeholders, applications, and programs.
Understanding the Need
To maximize the value of its data, enhance operational intelligence, and increase data visibility and accessibility, JDAO needed to:
- Remove data silos and centralize data management and governance.
- Build an architecture and integrated enterprise data warehouse (IEDW) that seamlessly integrated data from multiple sources while maintaining flexibility that allowed for growth and concurrent usage and maximizing interoperability.
- Evolve from IT-centric BI to democratized data – delivering self-service capabilities to users and decision-makers.
- Actively engage stakeholders and end-users to demonstrate the value of JDAO’s tools and initiatives and obtain buy-in.
Our Solution
Since 2008, GovCIO’s (formerly Salient CRGT) 60-person team has provided JDAO with full lifecycle support for the design, development, enhancement, updating, implementation, and maintenance of data warehouses, systems, and reporting applications using ITIL and Agile approaches. We continually evolve and enhance the systems, bringing in new subject areas, establishing new functionality, and modernizing to improve efficiencies and cost.
Data Warehousing Enhancements
Our team implemented and maintains JDAO’s IEDW using Red Hat Linux and a clustered Oracle 11G database. This IEDW integrates three data warehouses operating on different hardware and software platforms – the original EDW, the Court Integrated Resource Information System (CIRIS), and the New Streamline Timely Access to Statistics (NewSTATS) – as well as DataMarts and additional data sources. To integrate the siloed data warehouses and DataMarts, our team created a conformed dimension framework based on Kimball’s methodology. We developed applications using Oracle GoldenGate and SAP BusinessObjects 4.2 and implemented a mobile component using SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI r 2/3. We support as many of 25 new product and enhancement releases per year for IEDW.
Big Data and Predictive Analysis
We designed and provided support for high availability and low latency big data analytics, including implementing role-based access and authentication in EDW Judiciary Integrated Financial Management System (JIFMS), using security groups in each environment. These groups drive the permissions for access to projects, universes, objects within the universe, reports, data, and tools, ensuring users only have access to the data they need based on their roles. We applied iterative processes to develop, test, stage, and release new modifications to result in monthly release cycles on systems such as JIFMS.
Help Desk Support
We provide Tiers 2 and 3 support, including user support, upgrades, system maintenance, and IEDW HW/SW, anticipating ~2,000 critical or high priority and ~2,000 low priority issues yearly. We answer service desk questions, analyze problems reported, conduct user acceptance testing, determine and apply the resolution, and record solutions, enhancements, and new functionality requests.
Training
GovCIO trainers provided EDW end user training and support on the BI Analytics reports and dashboards. We developed and implemented a training program for SAP BusinessObjects for AOUSC business users (advanced and standard report users) and user guides for AOUSC and Court users. We mitigated technology impacts through instructor-led trainings and communications with project stakeholders organization-wide.
Analytics Dashboard Solution Support
To provide Judiciary users with data analysis and visibility, we designed, developed, and supported analytical solutions and advanced visualization capabilities using Tableau. We develop user-focused solutions using Tableau based on needs assessments and user interviews and have helped create dashboards based on requirements that allow drill-downs from a chart and created variables to support visualizations requiring customized parameters. We considered ubiquity and began planning for mobile device dashboards. We used data stories to explain specific points based on user needs. Our team has also set up several Tableau sites on the server. Within each site, we created appropriate folders for the published Tableau workbooks that users could access via a browser based on security settings.
Database Management
Led by our dedicated database administrator (DBA), we support database management and maintain/ administer database software. We tune, patch, backup/restore, and upgrade databases, as well as perform data migrations, import/export tasks, and system testing to validate user types have access to approved data. To pick the quickest route for optimal performance, we run Oracle Statistics daily to obtain database objects updates and direct the Oracle Optimizer. We install, configure, and implement backup and recovery systems, restoring data from backup in Oracle RAC high-availability environments in two data centers.
Security Support
Using Oracle Advanced Security, which follows the NIST-standard AES algorithm, GovCIO encrypts data, ensures data consistency, and protects data against replay attacks. We conduct daily system security scans, creating POA&Ms if findings occur. For data at rest, we recommended Oracle Advanced Security Transparent Data Encryption column-level encryption.
Results
In our time supporting JDAO, GovCIO has had a significant impact on its JDAO’s ability to effectively carry out its mission. At a high level, through our team’s expertise in the fields of data warehousing, business intelligence, data integration, and data governance, we have improved efficiencies, introduced operational efficiencies, improved customer satisfaction and reduced costs. We continually evolve and enhance the systems and infrastructure we support by bringing in new subject areas, establishing new functionality, and modernizing the environment. Some of our most notable achievements under this most recent contract include:
- Upgrading JDAO’s data infrastructure upgrade (Oracle from 11g to 18c, SAP Data Services, SAP BusinessObjects, and IBM CDC), resulting in a 30% improvement in the SAP Data Services (ETL) execution times.
- Increasing efficiency and the ease of managing business documents by building a comprehensive, modernized document management system (business document management system) for the NewSTATS system.
- Optimizing the query performance by moving workload from the application query to the Oracle database to improve and monitor performance across the EDW-CM/EF Bankruptcy and District application. Consequently, we improved performance by up to 300% depending on the query being executed.
- Creating a standardized and reliable data model for integrating data from multiple sources such as EDW HR and CIRIS into a single dimensional data model. This dimensional model maximizes reuse for efficiency and allows information sharing across the enterprise.