Paycor, a provider of human resource (HR) management services, wanted to give its clients a more comprehensive view of HR operations by extending existing solutions with advanced analysis and data visualization capabilities. The company sought to integrate a full-featured BI platform into its product suite, unifying data from different product databases and providing users with innovative functionality. The goal was to provide information within its application workflows to make it easier for end users.

Pershing LLC, a leading provider of clearing and financial services outsourcing solutions, was facing a challenge. They needed to find a way to deliver targeted analytical information to tens of thousands of busy brokers without requiring them to learn a report writer or deal with cryptic database technology. The company serves more than 1,100 financial organizations and independent investment advisors, who collectively represent nearly six million individual investors. Pershing has more than $800 billion on under administration. Previously these investment professionals could only access customer information via hard copy reports or standard files containing all their data, which they had to manage and use on their own. NetExchange Pro had some rudimentary reporting capabilities, but they were geared toward accessing information one account at a time or one investment professional at a time. As a result, many of these external users were requesting custom reports from Pershing’s IT department, which was putting a drain on programming resources.

Physicians Mutual Insurance Company (PMIC) was facing a challenge with its multiple systems used to administer its policies. The company had to go through tedious processes to extract data, store it in databases, and create custom reports for policy-owner and claims administration, financial auditing, underwriting, and other business functions. The company wanted to enable business users to address their own business intelligence (BI), reporting, and information-distribution needs without having to depend heavily on IT for custom data-access and analysis activities.

Plex Systems Inc. is a developer of the Plex Manufacturing Cloud, a cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution for the manufacturing enterprise. The company's customers had to create reports in an SQL programming environment, which was not user-friendly. They needed a better way to empower users to access, analyze, and visualize ERP data. The challenge was to find a solution that could be easily integrated into the Plex Manufacturing Cloud and would allow users to create their own business intelligence environments, complete with customizable portals, dashboards, and a wide variety of reports.

Plus Relocation Services, a company that provides domestic and international relocation services, was losing business due to its reporting shortfalls. The company lost three major contracts, which represented more than $2 million in lost revenue. The prospective clients informed Plus Relocation that the company’s reporting shortfalls were the primary reason for their decisions to select other vendors. Plus Relocation’s former customer-facing information systems lacked usability and sizzle. The company needed a business intelligence solution powerful enough to revamp the company’s information systems and flexible enough to create easy-to-use dashboards for internal and external users.

PNC Bank’s National Financial Services Center, responsible for customer inquiries and transactions, was facing a challenge in providing a more responsive and comprehensive performance monitoring system for the call center. The existing mainframe reporting system was limited and the reporting data was scattered among many different applications and databases. Scheduling alone took one full day every two weeks and the resulting hardcopy reports weren’t delivered until two or three days later. The team of Adam Silber and Aaron Leaman, Performance Metrics Analysts for PNC Bank’s National Financial Services Center, were asked to set up a highly responsive performance monitoring and reporting mechanism, both for managers and Financial Services Consultants (FSCs).

PostFinance Ltd, a leading Swiss retail financial institution, was facing challenges with its existing BI platform. The platform lacked functionality and flexibility, making reporting cumbersome and leading to a low user adoption rate. The company's existing BI tools were not embraced by the user community due to their lack of flexibility and functionality. As a result, many departments supplemented these basic BI tools with Microsoft Excel, leading to a heterogeneous BI landscape that ran counter to the information strategy and target architecture, and made system maintenance more complex.

Prym Consumer USA, one of the largest manufacturers and distributor of sewing, quilting, and craft-related products in North America, needed to interface with SAP to manage thousands of daily EDI transactions from Wal-Mart, Amazon, Michaels, and Jo-Ann Stores. The company had to replace an end-of-life electronic data interchange (EDI) system that links the company’s ERP system with its automated distribution systems. The SAP/EDI links had to be seamless as Prym's large trading partners insisted on EDI communications. Prym uses 14 different EDI message types to interact with more than a dozen trading partners. The company also needed to streamline the cycle of sending invoices and automated shipment notices.

Queensway Carleton Hospital (QCH) was struggling to comply with Canada’s performance-based funding model. The staff needed self-service analytic dashboards that could correlate information from diverse sources. The hospital was under increased financial pressure due to Canada’s performance-based funding system. This payment model rewards physicians, hospitals, and medical groups for meeting quality and efficiency measures, while penalizing poor outcomes, medical errors, and runaway costs. Complying with these funding requirements involves analyzing hospital processes, reviewing patient outcomes, identifying areas for improvement, and predicting patient trends. The hospital needs to be able to easily access, combine, and analyze a broad array of data to determine how much funding it will receive. To meet these and other information management requirements, QCH used to have four full-time employees focused solely on creating and managing reports. Yet even with that sustained effort, it was difficult to obtain accurate clinical data that revealed what was happening in the emergency room and other cornerstone programs, such as childbirth, geriatrics, mental health, rehabilitation, and medical and surgical services.

Changes in government funding required Quinte Health Care (QHC) to cut $10 million from its operating budget. The company needed better business intelligence tools for easier access to information and analytics, so decision-makers could understand where money could be saved. The new funding approach, known as Health System Funding Reform (HSFR), comprises the health-based allocation model (HBAM) and Quality-Based Procedures (QBP). This strategy provides the government with an evidence-based method for distributing funds. Every year, healthcare takes a larger portion of the tax base and the government wants to mitigate the huge variation in care and outcomes across Canada’s hospitals. There is also a shift in fund allocation, from hospitals to community health centers and home care, as it becomes increasingly clear that people recover more quickly if they can be released from hospitals sooner and moved to another setting.

RBC Royal Bank, Canada’s largest bank, needed to provide real-time loan status information to its asset-based lending (ABL) customers. The major difference between asset-based lending and traditional commercial lending is control. The asset-based lending group at RBC focuses its due diligence on understanding the makeup and status of the borrower’s collateral so the bank can maximize the borrower’s margin availability based on the underlying value of its current assets, accounts receivable, and inventory. This involves a daily or weekly analysis, the results of which must be available to lending managers and customers at all times. Several major software vendors provide ABL solutions that perform these calculations. However, while the ABL application RBC uses has a Web-based reporting interface for this purpose, IT professionals at the bank were reluctant to use it because of concerns about security. In order to use the vendor’s solution, critical customer data – which RBC always keeps behind its firewall – would have to be copied to the vendor’s servers, opening up the possibility for substantial confidentiality risks.

RDC inMotiv, a leading IT and business services provider for the mobility service industry in the Benelux region of northern Europe, needed to streamline the exchange of information among all the relevant players in the automotive supply chain. This entailed managing massive amounts of data from 25,000 Dutch automotive companies with 100,000 employees and more than 12 million vehicles. The organization needed to find a better way to access data from a wide variety of sources, analyze it, and mine specific information about vehicle owners and potential customers. The recent changes in the automotive market, such as the increase in internet car sales and shrinking profit margins, drove a critical need for real-time customer intelligence. Market leaders succeed by gathering as much insight as they can about their existing and potential clients, establishing long-term relationships, and carefully tracking every transaction.

Renown Health, a healthcare leader in northern Nevada, faced a challenge in accessing statistical and financial information to understand the factors impacting productivity and the bottom line. Administrators, department managers, and other leaders needed this information to enforce accountability, control staff positions, comply with state regulations, and negotiate with physicians and provider groups. The organization also faced difficulties in using SAP BusinessObjects for financial reporting, which led to the need for a more efficient solution.

Ricoh Leasing, a company that leases products such as medical equipment, industrial machine tools, and vehicles, and provides collection, loan, and financial services for these leases, was facing challenges with its data warehouse system. The system was slow, required a lot of paper, data was not being used effectively or practically and security was questionable. The field staff, who deal with many different kinds of customers, had developed their own systems for handling customer information. The data warehouse system, as it was originally designed and implemented, did not catch on with the field. The original business intelligence tool was attractive for power users, but not for most people in the field, who were used to their own different systems and did not have the time to learn a new tool that did not exactly suit their needs. To make it more accessible, the Information Systems Division switched from a client/server-based to a Web-based system. This, however, made the cost prohibitive, because licensing was based on the number of users, and with Web-based access the number of users was now potentially the whole company. The Web-based system also raised security concerns.

Schneider Electric, a leading provider of solutions that deliver business value to customers by enabling them to do more with less energy, was facing a challenge. The company's rapid growth demanded that its ability to maximize operational efficiencies aided by a dynamic BI platform was critical. It was increasingly clear that it needed to replace its enterprise reporting solutions. The company needed a business intelligence (BI) environment that could support the reporting needs of all types of users without sacrificing flexibility or ease of use. The company wanted to create reporting dashboards that could immediately generate custom reports through a self-service environment. They also wanted to use Active Reports and report-scheduling software to update and share information and create WebFOCUS alerts to manage by exception and automate key business processes.

Scotiabank, a premier financial institution in North America, was facing challenges with its outdated sales information infrastructure. The existing system was causing delays in the delivery and validation of key information needed to support critical growth strategies. The bank's retail banking executives needed to automate a complex sales reporting process for their branch operations. The manual sales reporting process was dependent on officer input, leading to inconsistencies in reported results across the bank's 1,024 branches. The interpretation of complex business rules in the manual system resulted in inconsistency of reported results. The bank wanted to replace this manual system with an automated one that captures sales opportunities and then reports the data back to sales officers in the form of coaching and sales results reports.

Shikun & Binui Group, a leading infrastructure and real estate group in Israel, was facing the challenge of establishing a single source of truth for financial and operational reporting and analytics that enforces consistency among autonomous business entities. The group includes seven main business activities that are involved in the financing and construction of large-scale projects, infrastructure, residential neighborhoods, commercial structures, and public buildings, both in Israel and abroad. The group's first BI project was centered on corporate-level financial and operational reporting and analytics. In addition to implementing a BI system to support consolidated financial reporting, the group envisioned a BI environment that would permit managers to monitor operational activity by day, week, month, and quarter.

SMACL Assurances, a mutual insurance association of local authorities, was faced with the challenge of complying with Solvency II regulations. These regulations required the company to maintain high-quality business data to reduce the risk of insolvency. The company was also dealing with redundant, erroneous, and duplicate data within its information systems, which could negatively impact policies, claims, marketing opportunities, customer support, and other essential business processes. The senior managers at SMACL Assurances launched a data governance initiative to improve the accuracy of key data sources. They aimed to go beyond mere compliance with Solvency II and improve the overall customer experience through timely, accurate, and relevant information exchanges.

The California Department of Health Services (DHS) was facing a challenge in making it easier for program managers to stay on budget by accelerating access to critical financial data. The department was using a variety of software applications to help managers stay on budget. However, the speed at which users could get the information they needed and react was not satisfactory. The department was using the California State Accounting and Reporting System (CALSTARS) – a mainframe accounting system developed in the early 1980s. CALSTARS is a powerful and comprehensive system, but its limited reporting functionality made it difficult for budget managers to obtain specific information when they needed it most. The department wanted to enhance its support services to keep up with the growth of the state.

The Michigan State Police Department (MSPD) was facing a challenge in accessing vital criminal, incident, and activity data from a variety of disparate sources. The department wanted to make it easier and more consistent for commanders and other headquarters staff to access this information. The data was inconsistently retrieved and analyzed across the department, with some users relying on Crystal Reports, others on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The department wanted to promote uniformity in what information was accessed and how it was viewed and compared.

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) is tasked with providing public assistance programs, services, and resources to Oklahoma’s most needy and vulnerable residents. With an annual operating budget of $700 million and $1.4 billion in annual distributions to citizens, OKDHS has massive reporting requirements. On one hand, it must generate reports that verify compliance with federal regulations and program requirements. On the other, it must manage caseloads for thousands of employees supporting tens of thousands of residents. The agency needed a reporting system that would help them to make strategic decisions by supplying compliance information in response to federally mandated regulations, and help caseworkers and supervisors to efficiently manage a dynamic case load.

The Oklahoma State System of Higher Education needed a better way to present metrics about student activities in conjunction with a national initiative called Complete College America (CCA). The agency had collected a wealth of data from public and private colleges in the State of Oklahoma. It previously analyzed the data using SQL procedures and Excel spreadsheets, but the output was restricted to rigid printouts and standard reports. To meet federal, state, and institutional demands for measuring progress, they needed a better way to share this insight with a broad base of constituents, from state legislators to college chancellors.

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the third largest Native American tribe in the country, was facing challenges with timely and informed decision-making due to rapid business growth and expansive government services. During a previous data migration from a SunGard IFAS system to a J.D. Edwards financial system, a lot of important information had been intentionally left behind. As support for the legacy platform underlying the SunGard system became harder to come by, the IT department had to find a stable alternative to keep the data accessible for the foreseeable future. The initial objective with its new BI solution was to facilitate better reporting for the finance team.

ThyssenKrupp, a large steel producer, needed to formalize procurement processes, define purchasing-related objectives across multiple operating units, and accurately measure progress towards strategic goals. The company wanted to standardize and optimize processes as well as create formal structures for purchasing-related reporting across the entire group to enhance the techniques and metrics already in place. The company aimed to provide individual units with some leeway and flexibility within an overall strategic framework. The challenge was to ensure adherence to standardized procedures across the individual units to ensure synergies and optimize the use of suppliers and other resources.

Topco Associates, a grocery cooperative, was facing challenges in reducing product costs and increasing private label penetration to compete with larger national competitors. The company had a diverse back-end infrastructure with numerous departmental database applications and about two dozen off-line data marts serving specific needs. This made accessing basic data difficult. The grocery industry operates on extremely slim margins, averaging 1.5 percent to 2 percent, so operational expenses are always scrutinized and IT dollars must be spent carefully. While some consultants advised Topco to implement a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, the Topco team was leery of embarking on such a project.

US TRANSCOM was operating with two legacy systems that were not integrated. The transport and treatment of wounded and sick soldiers was often met with errors and delays. Missteps during Operation Desert Storm highlighted the need for improved coordination of medical care for injured soldiers. In some cases, soldiers wounded in that conflict were directed to the wrong hospital or ended up in facilities that didn’t provide the correct specialties and treatments. The patient-movement process needed to be much more efficient, which led to the implementation of TRAC2ES.

United Automobile Insurance Company, a non-standard auto insurer based in Miami, Florida, was facing challenges with its previous reporting environment. The system lacked timely, detailed, and accurate information, putting the business users at a competitive disadvantage. For instance, an ad hoc report request for territory zip code data could take four to six weeks to complete. This delay was costly, and the lack of structure in the reports might not yield accurate data on the first attempt. The majority of research at United Auto was performed using legacy reporting systems, such as SQL and Guidewire reporting. The team needed a single view of the business along with a system that could deliver accurate reports, including an audit trail. This system would grow with the business and deliver information quickly.

United Stationers, the largest U.S. wholesaler of business products, faced a challenge of providing their traveling sales associates with access to customer and product sales data on the mainframe while eliminating high printing and distribution costs. The sales associates were in different locations, far from the distribution center where they could get access to information about the customer they would meet the next day. The company was going through a significant amount of paper as thousands of pages of mainframe reports were printed out of the Customer Analysis Reporting System (CARS) and distributed to field staff – two to three weeks after the end of each month. The recipients of this bounty then tried to extract the data they needed that month, data that would have been far more useful if they had received it two weeks earlier.

The University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) was facing challenges in gathering information from disparate relational databases and their Banner ERP system. They were using Microsoft Access queries to collect data, which was then loaded into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for analysis. This process was time-consuming and did not scale well. Each new project or field of inquiry required a new set of queries and spreadsheets. The university wanted to improve the distribution and availability of data within the institution. They were looking for a solution that could consolidate their data for clean, aggregated reporting and provide metrics about enrollment, academics, programs registration, and other domains.

The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) provides public transportation services throughout six counties in the Wasatch Front of Utah. It operates fixed route buses, express buses, ski buses, three light rail lines (TRAX), a streetcar line (the S-Line), and a commuter rail train (the FrontRunner) from Ogden through Salt Lake City to Provo. The agency collects and analyzes a tremendous amount of data to keep trains on schedule, assess gaps in coverage, pinpoint the causes of delays, and improve transit operations for the city. However, business users formerly had to access data from multiple disparate sources, then analyze it manually in Excel – or wait for the IT department to create custom reports. This process was time-consuming and inefficient.