ECO3-legacy-reporting-environment-analysis

Purpose of This Repository

This repository documents the initial discovery, analysis, and understanding of the legacy reporting and data environment at ECO3.

Before attempting any fixes, automation, or future-state architecture design, it was critical to first understand the reality of the existing ecosystem its scale, dependencies, risks, and business usage.

This repository focuses on understanding before action.

All descriptions are conceptual and use dummy representations to respect confidentiality.

Role Context

I joined ECO3 as a Business Data Analyst in June 2025.

At the time of joining:

There was no formal onboarding
No documentation of the reporting or data environment
No clear ownership of reports or databases
Knowledge existed only in fragmented, informal forms

To make any meaningful improvement, I investigated and mapped the entire landscape.

Legacy Environment – Scale & Complexity

Through my own analysis, I identified a highly fragmented ecosystem consisting of:

XXX reports
XXX Microsoft Access databases
XXX Excel delta and transformation files
Core data sources from SAP BW

This environment had evolved organically over many years without architectural oversight or governance.

Typical Data Flow Patterns

A common end-to-end data flow looked like:

SAP → SAP BW → Excel → Microsoft Access Databases → Excel reports

Each additional hop increased:

Fragility
Latency
Debugging complexity
Risk of silent data errors

Key Problems Identified

1. No Documentation or Ownership

No central explanation of how reports were built
No clear owners for databases or files
High dependency on individual knowledge

2. Long and Fragile Dependency Chains

One Access or Excel file often fed multiple downstream reports
A small upstream change could break multiple business-critical outputs

3. Inconsistent Business Logic

Same KPIs calculated differently across reports
No single source of truth for definitions
Difficulty reconciling numbers across teams

4. Technology Fragility

Heavy reliance on Excel macros
Complex, Access queries
Manual steps embedded in critical processes
High risk of human error

5. High Change Risk

Product mapping changes
Upcoming organizational carve-outs
Structural SAP BW changes

Even small modifications required careful reconciliation to avoid breaking reporting.

Understanding Real Business Usage

Not all reports were equally important.

Through direct discussions and later structured surveys, I focused on identifying:

Reports actively used by decision-makers
Stakeholder-facing outputs
Reports supporting financial, pricing, and operational decisions

This distinction between critical vs legacy-unused reports was essential for prioritization.

Why Analysis Came Before Fixing

It was intentionally decided not to immediately “fix” things.

Without understanding:

Data lineage
Business usage
Technical dependencies
Risk exposure

Any quick changes could have caused downstream failures.

This phase created a shared mental model of the environment and formed the foundation for:

Stabilization work
Report rebuilding
Automation initiatives
BDM 2.0 future architecture

Outputs of This Phase

By completing this analysis phase, I achieved the following:

Mapped major end-to-end data flows
Identified high-risk dependency chains
Understood business-critical reporting
Established a factual baseline for decision-making
Enabled informed prioritization and transformation planning

All subsequent work at ECO3 builds directly on this understanding.

How This Repository Fits in the Bigger Journey

This repository represents Phase 1 of a broader transformation:

Phase 1: ECO3-legacy-reporting-environment-analysis (this repo)
Phase 2: ECO3-operational-BI-ownership
Phase 3: Pricing-Software-Service--Sales-analytics
Phase 4: ECO3-data-engineering-BDM-2-future-architecture

Each phase is documented separately to keep clarity and focus.

Suggested Diagrams to Add (Optional – Later)

Legacy Architecture Diagram
SAP → SAP BW → Excel → Access → Excel → Power BI
Dependency Risk Diagram
One database feeding multiple reports
Risk vs Criticality Matrix
Business importance vs technical fragility

These diagrams help explain complexity without exposing data.

Confidentiality Notice

All explanations in this repository use dummy data and simplified representations.

No proprietary ECO3 systems, logic, schemas, or data are disclosed.

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