BI Insight

Background

In this case study we describe how a leading specialty retailer achieved a greater insight into Key performance and Sales metrics through Systech’s MicroStrategy implementation. The MicroStrategy implementation supported business users to analyze sales and inventory to identify key trends and opportunities.

To accommodate their expanding business the client sought a platform to support complex data analysis that is user friendly. Formerly they depended on time consuming and less efficient POS System.

After evaluating several Business Intelligence vendors, they chose Systech Solutions Inc. to meet their needs for identifying the key trends and making informed decisions. Systech Solutions, Inc. was assigned to design an Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) for them in this regard.

Challenges

The client required a detailed access into a variety of business data to allow the business community to analyze their data in greater depth. To offer a simplified and integrated solution for a profitable growth Systech had to address certain challenges.

• To track trends and identify opportunities. Since the data was spread across disparate systems it was a laborious process.
• To manage overwhelming amounts of data from various sources—and turning it into reliable business intelligence that enabled better business outcomes.
• To effectively design EDW for consolidated reporting both from in-house applications, JDA and PeopleSoft.
• To configure and implement a scalable tool to query the EDW and to create reports.
• To build a system that would distribute reports with in a 24 hour window every month.
• To provide a platform that could keep up with constantly evolving user requirements.

Solution

Systech Solutions fashioned a business intelligence environment that comprised of a Netezza data warehousing infrastructure, a DataStage ETL environment and a MicroStrategy reporting environment.

The Systech team successfully achieved the extraction, transformation and loading of the source data into a data mart schema through an ETL process. The team made sure that the information was accurate, consistent, and optimally organized for complex analysis. The EDW was effectively designed for consolidated reporting from in-house applications, JDA and PeopleSoft. Since the source data was stored in individual schemas, the transformation strategy included consolidation of information which was common to all source systems. A user-friendly OLAP data model was successfully created to store pre-aggregated data for fast ad-hoc query performance.

MicroStrategy reporting tool was configured to query the EDW and to create reports. The Systech team developed dashboards that included scorecards to allow any type of key performance indicators (KPIs) to be rolled up into a score for a particular application area, overall IT performance, or anywhere in-between. More than 32 to 40 reports were run apart from the templates during the course of the project.

The sales data (KPI’s) was analyzed to:

• Anticipate the sales margin
• Analyze the SKU to aggregate (or roll-up) metrics into single overall “score” for IT and the inventory data
• Visualize store and warehouse inventory
• Calculate profitability evaluation ratio that analyzes the firm’s ability to turn inventory into cash above the cost of the inventory
• Study purchase orders and transfers

Result

The MicroStrategy implementation by Systech team provided the client a greater insight into Key performance and Sales metrics.
Systech developed an easy to use BI application to support their data from the users. The data warehouse was architected to support production reporting.
Multiple areas of their business used the data to manage inventory, identify sales opportunity, recognize key performers and review products.
Systech made it possible to provide customizable user experience and provide executive summary reports, analyze sales promotion and study products sales.
Systech created a robust architecture and a flexible platform. This architecture combined right level of access with required functionality and resulted in a positive user experience.

Fast emerging and dynamic global economy have made quick and easy access to information. It has become mandatory that organizations understand and respond quickly and appropriately to unanticipated changes in operations and marketplace. Data warehouse appliances make data warehousing simple and powerful. They enable high performance data warehousing at a lower TCO. Using DW appliances businesses can build BI projects that were previously not possible. Many new data warehouse appliance vendors are now extending their products to support more complex workloads that offer additional capabilities and utilities for BI application and are changing the way that business thinks about data warehousing.

This research paper describes the nature, importance and benefits of “Data warehouse (DW) Appliances” and its use for business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing (DW). It also highlights a variety of other aspects concerning DW appliances such as the differentiators among DW appliance products, Total Cost of Ownership, things to remember while reaching a buy decision for DW appliances etc. The report also includes a note on the future of Data Warehouse Appliances in ever changing, dynamic BI industry.

Register here to request the white paper.

Systech Solutions’ CFO nominated for best CFO Awards in San Fernando Valley’s Business Journal

Ashish Parikh, Chief Financial Officer for Systech Solutions Inc. was nominated for the best CFO Award in San Fernando Valley Business Journal.

San Fernando Valley Business Journal recognized the region’s financial professionals for their outstanding performance as company’s financial stewards. This annual event also recognized the importance of financial executives in the region who positively impact the business community.

Click to see Ashish’s profile.

Systech Solutions Inc. was twice awarded the fastest growing company in the region by San Fernando Valley Business Journal previously in 2001 and 2006.

Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Selects Talend and Smart i to Enhance Business Intelligence Capabilities

Talend today announced that the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising(FIDM), a private college dedicated to educating students for careers in fashion, graphics, interior design and entertainment industries, has chosen the

Smart i Appliance-powered by Talend Integration Suite’s Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) tool-to boost its business intelligence (BI) capabilities. The Smart i Appliance, collaboration between Talend, Key Information Systems, Systech Solutions and IBM, is a plug-and-play BI appliance based on IBM’s System I (AS/400) platform. Under the terms of the agreement, FIDM uses Talend’s transformation components-such as mapping, normalizing, sorting and aggregating-to cleanse, transform and load data into a new data warehouse.

“FIDM executives need to access up-to-date, reliable data from our systems to be able to make key business decisions,” said Roxanne Reynolds-Lair, chief information officer, FIDM. “Talend’s tool within the Smart i Appliance expedited our ETL processing, making it two to three times faster than before. This is a huge benefit for us, and it enables our team to retrieve accurate, timely reports that make a significant business impact.” FIDM’s previous ETL tool often experienced failed data transitions, proving it to be unreliable, leaving the organization’s CFO with day-old data and manual calculations. In addition, the support for the solution was lacking due to the vendor’s overseas location. When FIDM needed to expand its BI reporting functionality and make data processes more efficient, it turned to the Smart i Appliance, which includes Talend’s ETL tool running native on the IBM i. FIDM uses Talend to extract and load data as well as integrate all Talend jobs and control the overall data process flow. With Talend, FIDM’s BI reports are available much earlier, without any manual interface. In turn, updated information gathered through the system provides executives with accurate and timely reports, enabling them to make better informed business decisions.

“We are very excited to work with FIDM on its Smart i project. It truly leverages the benefits of Talend Integration Suite-an open, user-friendly solution that can make data processes more efficient for the leading fashion institution,” said Vincent Pineau, Talend’s vice president and general manager, Americas. “Organizations such as FIDM need consistent information in order to make strategic decisions. This is another example of how companies across any vertical industry can benefit from a scalable, cost-effective and enterprise-class data integration platform such as Talend.”

For implementation of the Smart i Appliance, FIDM relies on Systech Solutions, a business intelligence solutions provider and Talend partner. Systech, one of the leading U.S. professional services firms delivering customer-focused business intelligence solutions, entered a strategic partnership within the Talend

Alliance Program in early 2008. As a part of the agreement, Systech leverages Talend’s software to help develop and implement robust solutions for clients with extensive data integration needs.

Click learn more about Smart i

How Mobile Devices Change BI

The marriage of business intelligence to smartphones, mobile Internet devices (MIDs), netbooks, and other devices smaller than laptops will enable the industry to play an even greater role in how organizations handle their data. At the same time, however, mobilization of BI in general (and on small form factor devices in particular) raises key challenges and even forces a rethinking of precisely what BI is.

Mobilization to small devices changes BI in two ways: Sending large volumes of BI data to and from the field suggests that a broader range of employees are using BI, and these road warriors almost certainly have different job descriptions and responsibilities than the traditional “stationary” consumers of BI.

Although the democratization of BI benefits the enterprise, there is a contradictory reality in how this actually gets done. BI is data-intensive, but the mobile environment, even in the age of 3G and 4G networks, is based on scarce resources. Mobile networks pass data more slowly than corporate LANs. The spigot sporadically is turned off entirely. Even more significantly, smartphones, MIDs, and related devices have tiny screens. Throw in lower processing power and less memory than desktops and a world of challenges – and vendor opportunities – are born.

The importance of the trend even goes beyond the mobilization itself. Mobile devices serve as a conduit through which BI, in a general sense, more completely permeates the enterprise. “Research I conducted shows that companies both large and small are looking for ways to deliver BI and analytical functionality to more functions in their organizations and more roles in each function,” says Mike Lock, a research analyst for BI at the Aberdeen Group.

Santiago Becerra, the chairman of MeLLmo Inc., says that adjustments are necessary on three fronts: The user interface (i.e., the screen and how the user interacts with it), the backend infrastructure, and the connectivity between the two. MeLLmo offers a family of applications that bring BI to Apple’s iPhone.

The three are interrelated. For instance, data must be organized at the backend and sent in a manner that is optimal for devices’ limited horsepower, storage, and small display. This involves changes to every leg of the stool. Ways must be found to trim the transmission to the salient data. Because connectivity is not guaranteed, the system must be able to store necessary data and allow field forces to work offline and accomplish goals even in the absence of connectivity. New and creative ways must be found to display data and let users interact with it.

Mobile BI systems also must integrate with traditional functions found in mobile environments. For instance, the system must be designed to alert end users of updates through a variety of multimedia tools. In addition, mobilized employees are likely to be more action oriented and be dealing with issues that require immediate attention from different members inside and outside the organization, many of whom likely will be mobilized as well. Thus, there is a nascent tie between mobile BI and mobile unified communications.

Becerra says that the emphasis on action means that operational data that now often bypasses the BI platform must be routed through it. “In addition to delivering information, organizations are going to have to expand the system and create an interface for more operational BI for the rest of the organization,” he says. “This is a blurring a little bit of the traditional line between what is considered BI and what is reporting. Most of the information in companies ironically doesn’t flow through the BI system. The distribution of those reports typically is done in simple formats like .pdfs and Excel.”

Clearly, truly mobilizing BI involves far more fundamental changes than putting a new front-end on existing platforms. However, a complete change-out of existing systems – a “rip and replace” scenario – isn’t likely for those firms with substantial platforms in place. Conversely, it is important that companies just getting serious about BI plan their infrastructures with mobility in mind.

The bottom line is that the advent of small mobile devices is an important step in the evolution of BI, and incremental changes must be made to accommodate the new approach. “We are entering a whole new world,” Becerra says.

Healthcare Providers Expect IT to Improve Patient Care-Not Just Business, CompTIA Survey Finds

Healthcare providers realize that new technologies have to be adopted to improve their business, but the medical benefits of technology also are clearly in their sights, according to CompTIA’s Healthcare IT Market: Insights and Opportunities study.

The CompTIA study finds that 59 percent of healthcare providers are somewhat to very excited about the prospect of telemedicine and 79 percent are interested in portable tablet PCs for point-of-patient care. The survey, which was fielded during September 2009, included healthcare providers and IT firms that offer IT services to healthcare providers.

According to the study, three in four (74 percent) IT firms believe their healthcare clients are eager to incorporate new technologies into their practices and two in three (67 percent) believe that better care for patients is a major factor in their healthcare clients’ decision to adopt new technologies.

“As business owners, it comes as no surprise that healthcare providers are interested in the time savings and improved efficiencies offered by advanced IT,” said Tim Herbert, vice president of research, CompTIA. “However, among the study’s more significant findings is that both the healthcare and healthcare IT industries expect emerging technologies, such as electronic medical records, to better serve patients.”

Of the healthcare providers currently using electronic medical records (EMR) 82 percent cite better patient care as a major factor in their decision to adopt the technology. The other top factor, saving time/improving efficiency, rates almost identically at 83 percent. Fifty-seven percent of the healthcare providers using EMR say that compliance with regulations is a major factor in their adoption decision, 40 percent are motivated by cost savings and 37 percent are trying to keep pace with their competition.

CompTIA’s Healthcare IT Market: Insights and Opportunities study was conducted in two phases. Part one was conducted among a sample of 200 IT firms that do business in the healthcare market. Part two was conducted among a sample of 300 healthcare providers, including doctors, dentists, office managers and other healthcare practice staff. Both studies were fielded during September 2009. The full report will be available at no cost to CompTIA members. Go to the member area of CompTIA.org or contact research@comptia.org for more details.

Companies Maximize ERP by Integrating BI, Aberdeen Report Finds

The need to trim costs in these uncertain economic times is, in part, driving the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) strategies. From managing financials and human resources to capital and inventory, ERP’s value has been tied to standardized business processes as well as information centralization.

The problem: ERP collects a mountain of data that often goes unanalyzed. To get the most from ERP, a new study from Aberdeen Group suggests integrating business intelligence into ERP deployments. As the report notes, “ERP investments can be increased dramatically through analysis of the consolidated data captured within and around the ERP system.”

Aberdeen’s study of 990 people looked at how companies achieved best-in-class performance by combining ERP and BI efforts. David Hatch and Cindy Jutras, co-authors of the Aberdeen study, used five key performance criteria to identify Best-in-Class companies value derived from combining ERP and BI. Such companies enjoyed:

• Operating costs reduced by 17 percent
• Administrative costs dropped by18 percent
• Staff reduction (12 full-time employee positions were eliminated or employees were deployed elsewhere)
• Closing monthly financials in less time (reduced to 3.7 days)

In contrast, for example, Industry Average companies cut operating costs by just 7 percent; Laggards actually saw their operating costs increase by 2 percent.

The analysts note how “Over the past three years, Aberdeen has watched as the need to reduce costs bubbled to the top as the primary business driver behind ERP strategies. Together with growth and customer service, these three [drivers] have dominated the pressures driving ERP implementation strategies.” ERP, they point out, “is often viewed as a necessary infrastructure.”

To bring “order to the potential chaos, perhaps the most significant of the extensions to ERP is business intelligence (BI). Think of it as a layer on top of or embedded within ERP and other applications which wind up being giant repositories of data.”

Hatch and Jutras warn enterprises not to think of BI and ERP as separate initiatives. In fact, ERP and BI projects have similar goals: “The top requirement of a BI deployment … coincides with the need to extract additional value from the relevant business data which is inherent to an ERP implementation. Improving the speed of access to this data is the key to transparency, visibility, and informed decision-making.”

What were the secrets of Best-in-Class companies in achieving their exceptional results? The report notes that to reduce costs and provide transparency through speed of access to business data, best-in-class companies “provide visibility across functions and departments pervasively across the enterprise, standardize business processes, and streamline and accelerate business processes.” Best-in-Class enterprises:

• Provide decision-makers the ability to drill down from summary data to transactions that form the fiscal and operational audit trail; 67 percent of Best-in-Class companies provide drill-down into fiscal and operational audit trails versus just 38% for Laggards
• Offer real-time visibility of all processes from quote to cash
• Use ROI estimates to justify ERP projects; ROI is designed to measure business value and measurement doesn’t stop after they have been achieved.
• Integrate business intelligence with other enterprise applications
• Provide self-service BI capabilities to stakeholders (so users are able to work with BI systems with a minimum of IT help)

“Companies that implement ERP solutions have two basic options when it comes to integrating BI capabilities”, states Hatch. “Our research has found that top performing companies are embedding BI within ERP solutions rather than deploying BI applications as separate implementations that ’sit on top’ of ERP systems.” Additional behaviors contribute to how Best-in-Class enterprises distinguish themselves. For example, they were more likely to standardize implementation of ERP across a potentially distributed enterprise (68 percent versus just 46 percent for Laggards). Best-in-Class companies have learned to maximize their use of ERP by using features familiar to them from their BI systems; they are more likely to use their ERP system to notify users in real time of exceptions occur (53 percent compared to just 33 percent of Average companies).

Based on its study, Aberdeen says its analysis of “Best-in-Class companies shows that a combination of capabilities are necessary to derive the most value from integrating and deploying BI within an ERP environment.”

The behavior of Best-in-Class companies is clearly paying off. Such companies “are achieving 100 percent (or greater) ROI faster than their peers, reaching this milestone on average within the first six months as opposed to timeframes that start at a year and go well beyond two years for Average and Laggard companies.”

The study advises all companies to take “an integrated approach to ERP and BI. Whether BI tools are currently embedded within your ERP solution, tightly integrated, bolted on after-the-fact, or non-existent, don’t treat ERP and BI as separate projects. Take the approach of using BI as a means to extract enhanced value from data within ERP (as well as other enterprise applications).”

Hatch and Jutras point out that “ERP can transform data into information but BI tools are required to complete the transformation from information to intelligence.”