Data Warehouse Consulting Partners

Athena IT Solutions teams with other consulting firms to leverage their strengths and provide broader and deeper expertise to our mutual clients. Our mutual commitment to delivering the best service to our customers is the driving force behind these alliances.

Information Strategies for Health Care

Elizabeth Pappius, Principal of Information Strategies for Healthcare, has over 25 years’ experience in innovative use of data in health care organizations, including consulting, product development and project management to support improved quality of care and efficiency.

She has expertise in information needs of all three key constituencies in health care: providers/integrated delivery systems, payers (HMOs/insurance carriers), and purchasers. She has been nationally recognized for creating physician profiling using risk adjustment methodologies, and she has developed strategically valuable analytic methodologies for network-wide reporting, analysis and benchmarking to support financial and clinical performance improvement.

Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Ms. Pappius held senior positions at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates/HealthOne, Caregroup/Provider Service Network, Partners Healthcare System, Gartner Group, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Towers Perrin and William Mercer. Her consulting clients have included the Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP), BCBS of Vermont, North Shore Medical Center, Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission, National Benefit Fund for Hospital and Health Care Employees (Local 1199, NYC), BCBS of Massachusetts, and Harvard University Health Services.

Ms. Pappius holds an M.Sc. in Epidemiology and Statistics from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

DataSense Solutions

DataSense Solutions is a Massachusetts-based IT consultancy specializing in business intelligence consulting and training. DataSense Solutions is a highly recognized Business Objects and Crystal gold partner based in the Boston area. They have extensive knowledge of both the Business Objects and Crystal Reports product lines, with more than 10 years of experience with each. Their consultants have a deep breadth of business, management and technical skills. Their clients range from small start-ups to recognizable name brands and Fortune 500 companies.

Athena IT Solutions teams with DataSense Solutions for business intelligence and data warehousing project. This partnership provides our customers with excellent business intelligence and data integration expertise enabling successful business and IT solutions.

The Amaral Group

TAG (The Amaral Group) is a Massachusetts-based IT consultancy specializing in providing design and implementation services to clients in networking, database, messaging, IT Security, wireless phones/networking, voice and Internet technologies.

Athena IT Solutions teams with TAG to expand the database (Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server) and Microsoft-based business intelligence solutions offered to our customers particularly in project implementations.

As a company, The Amaral Group, LLC is a Microsoft Certified Partner and is partnered with Oracle. Individually, TAG consultants are registered as Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSE) and Professionals (MCP) and Oracle Certified Professionals (OCP).

CONNECT: The Knowledge Network

CONNECT is a Colorado-based IT staffing company that has been involved in over 50 data warehousing projects over the last ten years. Their Knowledge Network includes over 300 consultants with data warehousing experience.

Athena IT Solutions teams with CONNECT for data warehousing and business intelligence projects outside the New England area. Rick Sherman has collaborated with CONNECT on several projects over the last ten years. These joint customer engagements have always provided a great match between customer needs and the consulting team’s skills and experience.

CONNECT's approach is to develop an in-depth understanding of the business problem to be solved, the functional and technical requirements of the system, and the desired timeframe in order to connect customers with the people, tools, and methodologies to ensure optimized performance and business results. CONNECT matches their methodology and approach to each client situation. CONNECT is tool- and methodology-independent, but adheres to a specific methodology and specific tools once they understand the client environment, including:

• Internal resources available to the project (number of resources and skill levels)
• The business problem to be solved
• The functional and technical requirements of the system and the desired timeframe.

Once they understand these client conditions, they determine the best consultants from their Knowledge Network.

CONNECT: The Knowledge Network was founded in 1992 to match the best IT professionals with the best IT jobs. Their business model is based on building a network of self-employed professionals that can be deployed for the right people on the right project. This business model has been very successful for clients and consultants. Their Knowledge Network includes over 300 consultants with data warehousing experience. They incorporate workforce effectiveness and human performance best practices into their approach and leverage their experience in organizational dynamics, culture, and integration specific to IT projects.