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  • New Customer Activation Process for Snow Analytics

New Customer Activation Process for Snow Analytics

2018-10-23

Introduction

Note

The document refers to Snow Analytics, which is the former name of Risk Monitor, but the contents still apply.

Snow Analytics is a platform for displaying business intelligence (BI) dashboards that help organizations extend the existing reporting capabilities of their Snow Software solution. This enhanced reporting allows organizations to:

  • Make effective, data-driven decisions

  • See the potential impact of these decisions even before they are implemented

The platform enables Snow to progress from providing simple management of data and reporting to offering self-service BI, delivering actionable insight to the organizations' key decision makers.

Focus of this document

This document describes the new customer activation process, during which Snow guides the customer from their purchase through to being able to use their subscription on their own. This process consists of five steps:

  1. Snow Software: schedules the meetings that take place in steps 2 and 5 below

  2. Snow & customer: customer pre-onboarding (meeting 1 of 2)

  3. Snow: sets up data transfer process

  4. Snow: enables security and provide customer access to the Analytics platform

  5. Snow & customer: customer report walk-through (meeting 2 of 2)

It is useful to view the steps above as belonging to three distinct phases: Preparation (steps 1 & 2) / Implementation (3 & 4) / Onboarding (5):

Analytics_GandR_Intro-diagram.png

Preparation

Analytics_GandR_phase-1_PREPARATION-diagram.png

Step 1 of 5: Snow schedules the pre-onboarding and report walk-through sessions

In this first step, the Snow Client Account Manager sets up meeting invitations with the new customer for the following two sessions: the Pre-onboarding session (step 2 below) and the Report walk-through session (step 5 below).

Step 2 of 5: Snow and customer meet for pre-onboarding

Here the new customer[1] meets with Snow[2] to learn how the onboarding process works:

  • The customer gives Snow the following information: 

    • The email address(es) of their Analytics platform user(s)

    • Their Snow Update Service (SUS) refresh details

  • Snow then provides an overview of the Implementation phase steps, which includes inserting the following data into the process:

    • The two license keys of the customer's Snow installation:

      • Snow License Manager

      • Snow Inventory

    • The customer's Analytics platform user email address(es)

The objective here is that both the customer and Snow leave this meeting with clear expectations of the next steps.

Implementation

Analytics_GandR_phase-2_IMPLEMENTATION-diagram.png

Step 3 of 5: Snow sets up data transfer process

At this point, Snow works to set up the data transfer process:

  • The customer's SLM and Inventory license keys are used in executing a specific Snow Analytics command in the Snow Update Service (SUS). 

    • This step synchronizes with Snow's Data Intelligence Service database.

  • This initiates Snow Analytics, including enabling outbound data transfer from the customer's SLM server.

Step 4 of 5: Snow enables security and provides customer access to Analytics platform

At the same time that step 3 is happening, Snow:

  • Incorporates into the setup the customer Analytics user email address(es), onto which are placed the appropriate access, security group assignment, and license key mappings  

  • Tests the customer's reports to ensure that data is fully migrated and the security model is updated

  • Sends the customer the link to their up and running Snow Analytics subscription

Implementation phase duration and details

Note

The Implementation phase—steps 4 and 5—can take up to three business days for Snow to complete. This time interval takes into account the customer's SUS refresh details[3]. Customers should contact their Snow representative if they have more detailed technical questions about this phase.

Onboarding

Analytics_GandR_phase-3_ONBOARDING-diagram_FINAL.png

Step 5 of 5: Snow and customer meet for report walk-through

In this meeting, Snow:

  • Walks the customer through their Analytics reports[4]

Naturally, this session includes Snow presenting the key concepts behind the different reports—why the data looks the way it does, and especially, what the specific customer can expect to do once they have identified particular risks.

Note

It is important for customers to understand that Snow Analytics is a reporting engine. As such, the subscriptions that customers purchase, such as Governance & Risk, do not include management or administration tools.

The data viewed in Snow Analytics comes from the customer source; if that source's data changes, then the affected Analytics report data changes.

Summary and next steps

In summary, here is the complete view of the Snow Analytics new customer activation process:

Analytics_GandR_Final-diagram_FINAL.png

Notice that once the customer is onboarded, Snow Software sets up recurring catch-up sessions to gather and centrally store customer feedback. Of course, Snow also keeps track of customer comments coming in from the built-in automatic feedback collection function. All of this provides a feedback loop for continuous improvement of the Snow Analytics platform and its subscription reports.



[1] Represented by the customer contact person(s)

[2] Represented by the Snow Client Account Manager and also a representative from the Snow Analytics team

[3] This includes the fact that any changes in the data coming into Snow Analytics are the result of the SLM Data Update Job having run.

[4] Snow Analytics includes a built-in automatic feedback collection function for customer users to provide real-world feedback on the reports. If there is any such feedback available by the time of this meeting, those comments are also covered here.

In this section: