Elena has been a Data Administrator on the Data Reporting and Services (DRS) Team for 10 years. Officially,
she is a "Data Administrator"; in reality, she plays the roles of a project manager, a business
analyst, a programmer, a reporting consultant, and a customer support specialist. She is deeply involved
and dedicated in all facets and aspects of all development and production work in DRS, from start to finish,
from top to bottom. Elena is competent, talented, and responsive to her customers and coworkers, and it
shows through consistently in her work.
Elena has truly exemplified the characteristics of a senior member of the IS&T staff in the SAP
Payroll Project which has successfully implemented to bring SAP Payroll data into the Data Warehouse.
The business requirements and reporting needs for SAP Payroll are complicated and complex at best,
conflicting and confusing at times, yet through her perseverance, data administration expertise, business
analyst knowledge, and project management approach, Elena has provided a sound, solid, and stable
solution to all these challenges.
Elena is the mastermind behind the overall design of the SAP Payroll data models in the Data Warehouse.
She has skillfully brought from SAP all the intricate and complex pieces of payroll data (which include
deductions, salary distributions, payments, gross to net reconciliations, financial postings, and
DACCA), fit them together seamlessly in the Data Warehouse, while ensuring that all the other existing
pieces of data (e.g. HR, Financial, Student) would still work independently as well as together with
the new Payroll data. Most importantly, the new Payroll data models in the Data Warehouse meet all
the business requirements and reporting needs of the MIT Community.
Elena has engaged all members of the DRS team in the SAP Payroll Project at different levels and
in all aspects, from design, analysis, implementation to support, by providing a strong leadership
and generous knowledge sharing. Outside of DRS, she has worked persistently to engage other groups
in the MIT community, including the SAP HR Payroll Project Team, HR, CAO, and the Provost Office,
to communicate directly with DRS to understand and clarify the complex business and technical issues
and iron out conflicting reporting needs. Through this, Elena has also strengthened the working relationships
between DRS and the SAP HR Payroll Project Team, as well as HR and CAO. Elena has shown by example
how a willingness to collaborate and a desire to help teammates and customers can make the impossible
feasible, and the difficult easier.
Through her work in the SAP Payroll Project specifically, Elena has clearly demonstrated strong leadership
and her willingness to take initiative and be held accountable. She is instrumental in the success
of the MIT Community wide SAP HR Payroll Project.
Additionally, DRS has taken on the initiative of building a Business Intelligence prototype for CSAIL,
Broad and CAO which will have an impact to the MIT community. Elena is one of the technical developers
in the MIT project team which comprised of members from CSAIL, Broad, CAO, and IS&T. In no time,
Elena has stood out as the liaison between the outside consultants (from Hyperion, Ranzal, and Palladium)
who were brought in to guide MIT in the project and the MIT project team. With her thorough understanding
of the financial and HR payroll data as well as her expertise in data modeling and administration,
Elena has foreseen and communicated precisely to the consultants and the MIT project team, the technical
challenges they would be facing building the prototype on the system chosen, given the scope and context
of the business requirements. Together with other members on the MIT project team, Elena has been
working diligently and creatively to resolve the difficult issues within a tight timeline and limited
guidance from the consultants. In the process, Elena has also helped shaped the direction and strategy
of the MIT BI Project. Throughout the project, Elena reflects well on MIT and on the competency built
in IS&T.
When an issue arises which threatens to compromise the integrity, accuracy, and completeness of the
data in the Data Warehouse, Elena is almost always the first to work on resolving the issue. Whether
the issue is a technical problem in the Data Warehouse or a data problem in the system of record,
Elena moves quickly to work with all parties involved, within and outside of DRS, to identify the
problem, work out a solution, implement it, and ensure that the same issue will not recur. Throughout
the process, she is also open to discussion for a better resolution, and to share her knowledge of
the design and implementation of the data model with her co-workers, while keeping the customers informed
of the issue and the resolution. With her desire to help her colleagues and teammates, Elena has successfully
trained several new members of the DRS team. She is an invaluable resource to her co-workers on the
DRS team.
The hours Elena has spent on the various different projects, from requirements gathering, design
and analysis, implementation, to user support, that expand the quantity, depth, and quality of the
data in the Data Warehouse are far too many to count. She often goes beyond and above the call of
duty to meet deadlines and to serve her customers, all with competence and enthusiasm! Her always-willing-to-do-what-it-takes-to-get-the-job-done
attitude inspires her teammates to work more efficiently and more creatively. People within and outside
of DRS who have worked with Elena have all been impressed by the talent, energy, dedication and enthusiasm
she has always brought to her work.
Elena is a key member of the DRS team that is responsible for creating and running a data warehouse
that serves the MIT community. Her contributions to the success of the MIT Data Warehouse are immeasurable
and wide ranging. Indeed, she is an invaluable and indispensable member of the DRS team and IS&T!
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