Information Builders > Case Studies > WebFOCUS Helps NSK Keep Business Reporting in Motion

WebFOCUS Helps NSK Keep Business Reporting in Motion

Company Size

1,000+

Region

Asia

Country

Japan

Product

WebFOCUS
List Creator

Tech Stack

Business Intelligence
Data Reporting
Data Analysis

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Industries

Automotive

Applicable Functions

Business Operation
Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Predictive Maintenance
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

Data Science Services
System Integration

About The Customer

NSK, also known as Nippon Seikō Kabushiki Kaisha, is Japan’s largest manufacturer of bearings. The company produced Japan’s first domestic-made ball bearings in 1916 and began exporting them abroad shortly after. NSK has diversified into automotive products, precision machinery, and mechatronic products. With its motto of “motion and control,” NSK prides itself on its ability to create products that promote safety, environmental conservation, and connect people across borders. The company has more than 24,000 employees and an annual revenue of 67.1 billion Yen.

The Challenge

NSK, Japan’s largest bearing manufacturer, was in the process of migrating its mission-critical system to an open environment. During this transition, the company was looking to contain costs and better leverage IT skills by eliminating disparate reporting tools across the business. NSK decided to consolidate and centralize its various disparate reporting tools with a single business intelligence (BI) standard that could be used throughout the company. The company needed a solution that could support a broad user community comprising end users, power users, and IT staff. Additionally, the environment had to offer rapid implementation, ease of use, global support, and fixed licensing costs.

The Solution

NSK chose the WebFOCUS BI platform from Information Builders. The platform met all the criteria NSK was looking for, including functionality, user-friendliness, and a solid global reputation. WebFOCUS’ processor-based licensing model allowed the company to expand the number of users in the future without a sharp increase in related expenses. The first application built with WebFOCUS was a sophisticated sales management reporting system called RAS, which delivers inventory information as well as available-to-promise (ATP) analysis. As RAS was being developed, a new need emerged for an enhanced spreadsheet application suitable for global deployment, which could work in conjunction with the reporting environment. NSK chose List Creator, a spreadsheet generation application designed and developed by Fujitsu Ltd.

Operational Impact

NSK has unified its reporting environment to help contain costs and dramatically improve development productivity.
The implementation of WebFOCUS has reduced development man-hours to one-tenth the time of using conventional tools and Java, or when each solution was used independently.
The implementation of WebFOCUS has helped NSK achieve all its goals – reduced overhead, improved simplicity and usability, and increased efficiency.

Quantitative Benefit