Susan Walsh - The Classification Guru

The Classification Guru Ltd

I love improving the quality of procurement spend data, giving teams clarity so they can make better business decisions and cost savings.

Why not let me take the pain out of laborious data issues and make your life easier?

Whether it's a small or large data set, the accuracy can be improved by identifying classification errors, conflicts or gaps. I can provide a data verification service to efficiently find and correct these in a fraction of the time it would take you or a team member.

And a crucial part of having accurate data is also working with a comprehensive taxonomy, something that can be easily overlooked. I can provide a taxonomy development service to ensure you have all the vital areas covered for the greatest visibility - job done!

If you struggle with the time, resources or willingness to tackle your data, why not get in touch to see how I can make your life easier.

Founder/MD (Mistress of Data)

I love improving the quality of procurement spend data, giving teams clarity so they can make better business decisions and cost savings.

Why not let me take the pain out of laborious data issues and make your life easier?

Whether it's a small or large data set, the accuracy can be improved by identifying classification errors, conflicts or gaps.  I can provide a data verification service to efficiently find and correct these in a fraction of the time it would take you or a team member.

And a crucial part of having accurate data is also working with a comprehensive taxonomy, something that can be easily overlooked.  I can provide a taxonomy development service to ensure you have all the vital areas covered for the greatest visibility - job done!

If you struggle with the time, resources or willingness to tackle your data, why not get in touch to see how I can make your life easier.

Founder

Data Collaboration Alliance

I am a member of the Advisory Committee at the Data Collaboration Alliance, a nonprofit organization that’s dedicated to establishing CONTROL as the basis for meaningful Data Ownership and global Collaborative Intelligence. Our approach of eliminating data silos and copy-based data integration is similar to how societies already protect the value of their currency, identities, and intellectual property - and it works for data, too. My fellow advisors include the Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation and the ex-CIO of Dropbox. I'm also a contributor to the Data Collaboration Community which offers open datasets, free tools, and free training in the data-centric skills of the future. Visit: https://www.datacollaboration.org/community

Advisory Committee / Instructor

Facet Publishing

Dirty data is a problem that costs businesses thousands, if not millions, every year. In organisations large and small across the globe you will hear talk of data quality issues. What you will rarely hear about is the consequences or how to fix it.

Between the Spreadsheets: Classifying and Fixing Dirty Data draws on classification expert Susan Walsh's decade of experience in data classification to present a fool-proof method for cleaning and classifying your data. The book covers everything from the very basics of data classification to normalisation, taxonomies and presents the author's proven COAT methodology, helping ensure an organisation's data is Consistent, Organised, Accurate and Trustworthy. A series of data horror stories outlines what can go wrong in managing data, and if it does, how it can be fixed.

After reading this book, regardless of your level of experience, not only will you be able to work with your data more efficiently, but you will also understand the impact the work you do with it has, and how it affects the rest of the organisation.

Written in an engaging and highly practical manner, Between the Spreadsheets gives readers of all levels a deep understanding of the dangers of dirty data and the confidence and skills to work more efficiently and effectively with it.

Author - Between the Spreadsheets

CONSTELLIA LIMITED

Connecting Professional Services Procurement people to the Consultancy Procurement Council

Membership Manager

Simfoni

+ Lead spend analytics project delivery across Europe & Middle East
+ Project Implementation​
+ Delivery of product demos
+ Development and delivery of training for Analytics team
+ Product development support
+ Spend analytics
+ Taxonomy development​

Senior Analytics Project Lead - Europe & Middle East

Highways England

Project Support Officer

Philips

Data Verification

+	Administration of product database
+	Working with cross functional teams to resolve issues
+	Develop and deliver training for business hubs to improve processes

Data Product Researcher

Coupa Software

+	Project managing multiple projects simultaneously ensuring all were delivered within time and on budget
+	Management of a team of 14 QA staff
+	Developed and implemented training plan and best practice documents
+	Recruit and train new staff
+	Ensuring consistent quality of work  produced by team

QA Manager

Spend360

+	QA, classification and review of data
+	Excellent attention to detail
+	Managing workload to tight deadlines

Data Services -QA

Fixer of dirty data ★ Spend data classification, supplier normalisation, and taxonomies ★ DataIQ100 x 2 ★DataIQ Data Champion 2022★ Author "Between the Spreadsheets" ★ Creator of COAT ★ TEDx - say NO to NO ★ DataVenger

Are you struggling to get reliable insights from your data?  Do you have duplicates, multiple versions of the same supplier or customer, and multiple date and address formats?  And is it saved in multiple different systems?

The Classification Guru can help.

If you’re in procurement, do you find it hard to see how much you are really spending with one supplier, and on what?  Have you got free text descriptions which mean you have multiple versions of the same item, often misspelt and not against the correct GL or categorisation? How can you make the best negotiations with your suppliers, the biggest cost savings, or manage your supplier list if you don’t have the correct information?

Or if you work in sales or marketing, is your CRM full of junk data, poorly formatted and even missing information, and maybe saved in multiple different systems?  Your team could be wasting time contacting redundant leads, or worse you could be sending out expensive print out to the same address twice, or addresses that don’t even exist.

We bring clarity and accuracy to data and help teams work more effectively and efficiently, finding cost savings through spend and time management, supporting better, more informed business decisions, delivering a strong ROI and delivering back to your organisation faster and more cost-effectively than using large consultancies or spend analytics providers.

While most people dread having to classify or cleanse data, my team and I love it! We are hugely passionate about providing clients with accurate and meaningful data, and because I have been doing this for a decade, I can do this much faster and more accurately than people who might look at their data infrequently.

We can help prevent costly mistakes from happening.

There are many solutions available to automate data classification, but these are never 100% accurate. I've developed a method that my team use to efficiently and accurately classify, cleanse and verify data to minimise the errors in the same amount of time.

When working with large volumes of data it's hard to spot these errors even if you know what you're looking for and especially in Excel, let alone if you don't. With my team and I’s knowledge, experience and tools we can do this for you, freeing up your internal resources.

Fix your dirty data now - www.theclassificationguru.com

Cottle.IT Ltd

➤ Gathering the business requirements to understand the need for data migration and analyse the implication of data migration across multiple functional projects.
➤ Defining the procedures and deliverables for data profiling, data quality assessment and enrichment processes and monitoring these activities.
➤ Providing expertise in business and system data reconciliation strategies and execution across multiple test phases.
➤ Performing data cleaning, preparation, reporting, and data analysis. Developing quality reports to develop the confidence of customers in the migration process.
➤ Creating business strategies and preparing business plans, schedules and budgets. Monitor all the aspects of the business.

Director / Data Migration and Analytics Consultant

Turner & Townsend

Management and Ownership of D365 Data Engineering activities. Includes Data Migration and Analytics solutions. Looking after onsite and cloud based solutions for ETL from legacy ERP solutions and for ongoing HR data management

Data Engineering Lead

✅ The project migrates data from existing project management systems to new global Microsoft Dynamics 365 using multiple SSIS packages. Designed and adopted a new process to prepare and present data to Dynamics 365 to improve performance and accuracy. 

➤ Designed and developed a repeatable data sourcing process for high-quality data migration from legacy systems into D365.
➤ Redeveloped cleansing process for Businesses to ensure their data is clean and up to date before migration.
➤ Performed over 1500 data loads of multiple data types into D365 during go-live processes for UK and ANZME.
➤ Designed and developed quality reports to enable data comparison between source systems and 365 to give businesses confidence in their data.
➤ Developed a new process for creating new Legal Entities in D365 to enable early data migration testing.
➤ Continuing development of ETL pipelines for subsequent data migrations into D365.

Data Migration Consultant [Contracted through Cottle.it]

Murphy

Architect and development lead for data analytics solution to run in Azure Synapse Analytics replacing a complex point to point solution. Created template solution for Spark Notebooks to enable simple ETL of data from D365, transforming it using a medallion architecture and presenting the data in Power BI. Reporting solution required handling of several nuances with the data and making sure it would still load in significantly less time than the existing solution and yet be more accurate.

Data Engineering and Analytics Consultant

Freelance Consultant

✅ As part of learning for Power Platform, develop a proof of concept app to record tasting notes for varieties of coffee.  

➤ Created Power App to record the name of coffee, photo of package and star rating and comments for each variety.
 Successfully created the Power App, implemented it on the mobile platform, and is used as the vendor introduces new varieties.

 Coffee Tasting Power App (Contracted through Cottle. it)

✅ The project migrates data from legal systems to new global Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations   Implementation using multiple SSIS packages.

➤ Ensured upload of high-quality data to Dynamics 365 by performing detailed analysis. Developed de-duplication processes for master data.
➤ Developed Excel Add-Ins to validate European and UK VAT and telephone numbers.
➤ Enabled rectification by proposing solutions to the identified issues.
  ➤  Established the routine process for data migration by creating SSIS packages which were not previously present.

Data Migration Consultant (contracted through Cottle. it)

QUANTIQ

✅ Fully responsible for Data Migration of customers’ data from the legacy systems to Microsoft Dynamics 365.

➤ Delivered Data Migration Strategy workshops and related training to customers to enable them to determine best approaches to Data Migration for their large and complex data.
➤ Led development of process improvements to the Dynamics Data Migration workshops and ensured enhanced delivery and understanding related to the processes.

Data Migration Consultant

Anaqua

✅ Responsible for leading the migration process of customer’s data from legacy intellectual Property Management applications to company’s product ANAQUA® and spearheaded migration for 11 customers. 

➤ Undertook a one-year assignment in Japan wherein responsibilities included onboarding, coaching, and mentoring of new Data Migration team members in the Asia Pacific.
➤ Led and implemented Data Migration projects for several large Japanese customers.
➤ Standardised of the setup of servers and documentation of migration tools and processes and then ensured alignment of the same with the Asia Pacific specific requirements.

Senior Technical Consultant – Data Migration Expert

Kimberly-Clark

✅ Responsible for handling responsibilities associated with the ownership, governance, maintenance and data quality for Vendor, Customer and Product Master along with ownership and governance of European SAP Business Warehouse.

➤ Led the EMEA initiative for high-quality master data by building a Data Quality tool.
      ➤ Enabled data analysis and display status on the dashboard using SQL, ETL and Silverlight UI. 
      ➤ Created 300+ Regular Expressions for checking phone number accuracy and formatting. 
      ➤ Enabled cleansing of several hundred thousand numbers for EMEA. Created Excel Add-in for checking and reformatting of strings using Regular Expressions and the later used them with data cleansing initiatives.
➤ Worked on the generation of Winshuttle scripts to upload data into SAP to save more than 1000 man-days annually, thereby enabling reduction in FTE as well as driving initiatives to deep clean some areas of master data.
➤ Developed the Daily Sales report, which highlighted the month-end forecasts in comparison to the historical numbers.
➤ Developed Silverlight based Product and Customer Hierarchy Viewers and the same got used by hundreds of people across the Enterprise.

Master Data and Reporting Consultant

Analyst Programmer

Mark Johnston Racing

✅ Responsible for reviewing the data management methods used by MJR on invitation by a colleague from Kimberly-Clark. 

➤ Reviewed the methods used, including Excel, Word, Access, PostGre SQL, file cards, all keyed and managed differently and to assess the effectiveness of the same. 
➤ Specified and developed a new application (ASP.NET) to rationalise the methods and carried out several phases to the point where it became critical to the business. Redeveloped the same in 2014 in MVC with new servers.
➤ Built a WPF based application for exercise planning which introduced drag and drop techniques with a touch screen and replaced manual whiteboard and tape processes, thereby saving time and improving reliability.

IT Consultant

Hunting Aviation/Flight Precision

Senior Systems Engineer & then Flight Inspector

✅ Project Management ✅ Data Migration Projects ✅ Data Handling, Analysis & Cleansing ✅ Data Governance 

➤ A versatile, goal-oriented, accomplished data migration specialist with over two decades of experience in project management, data management and migration, operations management, business intelligence, and process simplification across the Asia Pacific and EMEA regions.  
➤ With complete knowledge of the project life cycle, I provide leadership from driving the data migration projects within the SQL Server, SSIS  and SSRS domains providing cutting-edge solutions to the client. 
➤ I possess expertise in understanding the user requirements for analysing the data migration requirements and understanding the impact of migration on other projects and activities. I create a project plan for the migration process, including mapping risks and potential impacts.
➤ I possess experience in identifying, defining, collating, documenting and communicating the data migration requirements. In addition, with my organisation skills, I prepare data migration plans, including migration risk, milestones, and quality. 
➤ I have completed different contracts on various platforms and am looking for opportunities to handle more complex projects. As the owner of Cottle.IT Ltd, I have assured client satisfaction by developing operational strategies that produce the efficiencies yielding the client's sound output. The presentation of data reports after project completion has increased the client’s confidence, leading to more clients. I have worked with clients such as Turner & Townsend, Medway Voluntary Action and have developed the ‘Coffee Tasting Power App’ for recording tasting notes of various coffee types. 
➤ As a business professional and subject matter expert, I am eager to handle more complex projects and provide quality solutions to clients.

📩  Graham@Cottle.it

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Susan Walsh - The Classification Guru

Graham Cottle

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