Francois Roubert, a Senior Lecturer in computer science, teamed up with Reply, a leading consulting, systems integration and digital services company, to design and deliver a bespoke training course in data modelling to data architects at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The challenge

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) approached the consultancy group Reply to have their in-house data architects trained in data modelling at very short notice. The consulting firm then turned to the computer science department at the University of Westminster's Faculty of Science and Technology for their expertise in data architecture. The brief was to design and deliver, under considerable time pressure, a comprehensive training course in data modelling, customised to the architects’ particular needs.

How did we help?

Francois Roubert, a Senior Lecturer in computer science with great expertise in data modelling and architecture and extensive experience in delivering professional training courses in IT, took the lead in designing a high-level training course. This course was devised in a very short time to meet the specific requirements of RBS’ data architects. The aim was to provide the right blend of essential technical skills and theoretical understanding of the crucial issues around data modelling.

Francois subsequently delivered the bulk of the week-long training course in collaboration with consultants at Reply. Training included a wide range of hands-on skills-driven activities, supported by comprehensive theoretical coverage.

What our client says

This course bridged the knowledge gap between infrastructure practitioners and data theorists and provided a valuable missing link for me. Relational databases are de-facto and knowledge/techniques have evolved over decades, yet it seems to me that there is general lack of awareness regarding how data should be recorded, managed and modelled. Hence I can anticipate there should be a big demand for this type of training and I would re-endorse this course to many people wishing to obtain a 360-degree understanding of data.

Tom Morris - Strategy and Architecture, RBS

The business results

The course was highly successful from three different perspectives. It provided:

  • the data architects at RBS with the practical skills they needed, directly usable in their business environments
  • a higher-level understanding of the theoretical issues involved in data modelling
  • the perfect example of a collaboration between an academic department and a consultancy organisation to help experienced professionals bridge theory and practice

The data architects at RBS who took the course reported an excellent level of satisfaction. The skills and knowledge they acquired during the training enabled them to resolve rapidly very specific problems with the complex architecture of their database systems. The feedback provided by the partners at Reply was also extremely positive.

Who was involved

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