WESCO Standardizes on WebFOCUS, iWay Create Self-Service Support Environment
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- WebFOCUS business intelligence platform
- iWay enterprise integration
Tech Stack
- Oracle
- Teradata
- SQL Server
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
- Electronics
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Procurement
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Supply Chain Visibility
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Data Science Services
About The Customer
WESCO International, Inc. is a worldwide distributor of industrial and construction products. The company has 350 warehouses, 6,000 employees, 200,000 products, and more than 130,000 business customers worldwide. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and with annual sales of $3.7 billion, WESCO distributes industrial and construction products to manufacturers, data communications companies, and electric utilities. The company was an early adopter of data warehousing and decision support technology. However, the company’s aging information systems were due for an upgrade.
The Challenge
WESCO International Distribution, a large, geographically dispersed company with 350 warehouses, 6,000 employees, 200,000 products, and more than 130,000 business customers worldwide, faced the challenge of centralizing decision-making and rolling up information in a timely manner. The company's aging information systems were due for an upgrade as they were not user-friendly and required assistance from professional analysts to execute many of the reports. Furthermore, the complex reporting infrastructure required database administrators to follow a tedious process to prepare the data for reporting, which took a significant amount of time. The company needed a Web-based solution that could automatically roll up and distribute reports to users in any format.
The Solution
WESCO chose Information Builders’ WebFOCUS to devise a powerful yet cost-effective standard framework for enterprise-wide business intelligence, analysis, self-service reporting, and making updates to production databases. Information Builders’ Consulting used WebFOCUS and iWay enterprise integration to help WESCO create an enterprise-wide self-service reporting environment, and then duplicated dozens of Pilot Lightship reports in WebFOCUS. They leveraged an existing security architecture created in Microsoft Windows NT to permit or deny access to these new reports based on previously established access requirements. WebFOCUS is installed on a Microsoft Windows NT server and communicates directly with Oracle, Teradata, and SQL Server databases through iWay gateways. WESCO developers appreciate having a mature fourth-generation language underlying the graphical toolset.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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