Information Builders > Case Studies > The Council of Europe Automates Reporting with WebFOCUS

The Council of Europe Automates Reporting with WebFOCUS

Company Size

1,000+

Region

Europe

Country

France

Product

WebFOCUS

Tech Stack

Business Intelligence

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Use Cases

Process Control & Optimization

Services

Data Science Services

About The Customer

The Council of Europe, founded in 1949, is the continent’s oldest political organization. It groups together 46 countries. Since November 1990, the accession of 21 countries of central and eastern Europe has given the Council of Europe a genuine pan-European dimension, so that it is now the organization that represents Greater Europe. The Council of Europe manages a total budget of over 260 million euros annually (based on 2006 figures).

The Challenge

The Council of Europe, an organization that represents Greater Europe and manages a total budget of over 260 million euros annually, was facing challenges with its IT infrastructure. The Council was generating and managing a lot of information that could not be rationalized quickly enough to be used to aid business decisions effectively. The Council decided to look more closely at its IT infrastructure as well as the way in which it is managed and used by employees with a view to rationalizing and improving it. A large scale upgrade of its financial information system ensued. An RFI was launched at this time to find a BI vendor that provided an end to end solution that was easy to use on all levels of the organization and was able to be implemented within the tight deadlines imposed by the wider financial information system’s upgrade that was underway at the time.

The Solution

The Council of Europe chose WebFOCUS from Information Builders to support its budget management requirements. Over 200 employees now have access to the solution and continue to consecrate more time to value-added activities as WebFOCUS automates and rationalizes the reporting process. The RFI was launched in March 2005, the Information Builders WebFOCUS solution was purchased in July 2005 and the solution went live in October 2005, on schedule. The project was piloted entirely in-house at the Council of Europe which in itself is a testament to the solution’s adaptability and ease of implementation. As part of the project, Information Builders worked hand in hand with the Council of Europe to supply across-the-board training and support for employees involved in the development and use of WebFOCUS.

Operational Impact

The Council of Europe now has an organization-wide financial IT systems upgrade that brings together the vast amounts of information generated into a centralized BI platform.
Over 200 employees now have access to the solution and continue to consecrate more time to value-added activities as WebFOCUS automates and rationalizes the reporting process.
The production and development systems now operate on the same hardware, keeping costs to a minimum while maximizing investment.

Quantitative Benefit

Before the implementation of WebFOCUS, the reporting process to generate a set of specific reports submitted to the Secretary General (monthly budgetary situation), consumed on average more than one-half-day of every month. Now, the same set of reports can be provided in a little over 10 minutes.