Jonathan Schermer
← All work
Biopharma company2023–24Role: Integration & Reporting Lead

Spotted an overloaded system, then sold the fix

While retiring an old data warehouse, I noticed the HR system was carrying load it was never meant to. I designed a data hub to fix it and sold it to the client's leadership.

$660K
of follow-on work
34
integrations moved to SAP
6
teams led, across delivery and support
The problem

All employee data lived in the HR system, and every downstream system queried it directly on every run: badge access, org charts, performance tools and more. Each one added load, and the setup was heavily customized and undocumented.

The migration plan would have rebuilt the same pattern on new technology.

How it works

From every system calling HR to one daily load

Scroll sideways to see the full diagram →
Fig. 1A hub-and-spoke model. The HR system sends data once a day, and every downstream system reads from the hub instead.
What I did
  • Designed the hub on SAP Datasphere. It replaced a 90-field daily file and pulled 40 shared fields into one model.
  • Pitched it to client leadership as a change request, then supported the lead who delivered it.
  • Led six teams across project delivery and managed services to retire the Oracle data warehouse: 34 integrations and 36 analytics reports.
  • Built four of the integrations myself, and was the technical escalation point across the platform.
  • Did two Manager-level roles at once while I was an Associate.
Outcome

The hub went live with the final release in August 2024. Spotting the problem and selling the fix grew into $660K of follow-on work, with no extra people added to the team.

Data architectureSAP DatasphereSAP Integration SuiteSAP Analytics CloudBusiness case
Contact

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