Case Study II - HiTech Datawarehouse

The Organization:

Our client is a service contract renewal firm which specializes in service contracts for high-tech companies.
The organization uses a customized CRM package to track service contract renewal process. The CRM system data is stored in separate databases. The old reporting system consisted of MS Access reports and Excel spreadsheets. The report generation process required each user to run a sequence of steps which included exporting the data, manually cutting and pasting it into Excel and then performing additional steps to validate and present it. This worked during the company’s inception stage but had become a bottleneck as the company grew.

The Approach

Our client approached Business Objects and Caarma to propose a solution. Caarma assisted the client in product evaluation and developing an information strategy. We helped the client identify specific pain points and recommended the creation of a data mart. The data mart enabled enterprise reporting and ad hoc queries.
The organization chose to implement the Business Objects platform consisting of Data Integrator for the data integration process and Business Objects XI for the report distribution tasks. Crystal Reports XI and Web Intelligence were chosen to be the reporting and ad hoc query tools.

The Solution

Caarma analyzed the customer’s requirements and built a unified data mart. The ETL process was done using Business Objects Data Integrator, which extracted data from 38 source databases and transformed and loaded the data into one target database. This allowed the customer to have the customizations as well as the unified data structure across multiple databases. The structure of the data mart was based on a dimensional model. A Universe was created which now allows the users to access on an ad hoc basis and masks the complexity of the underlying queries and database from the end users.
The Crystal Reports authoring tool was used to create complex reports, which provided users with summary and drill down views. Access to information was enabled through the security architecture of Business Objects XI. Real time security was enabled using Business Views and the Central Management Console. Business Object XI was also integrated with Active Directory and the company portal, allowing users single sign on access to all their information needs.
The entire project was executed in a span of four months with a team size of four people.

The Benefits

• Report creation times are reduced from a few hours per report to instantaneous report access. This allows the users to focus on their primary job function. As a result, employee productivity and
  satisfaction has improved significantly.
• The data is now accurate with the all reports being generated against one data structure. The
  confidence in the numbers increased and the company is now able to share data with its customers through a self service portal.
• The company is now able to report information which was not possible previously. The availability of homogenized data as well as the capability of advanced reporting tools has resulted in reports which summarize enterprise wide data in meaningful graphs and dashboards accompanied by detailed drill down data.
• An integrated security structure provides access based on security permissions and provides specific access. This allows the organization to maintain SLA’s to its customers as well as retain competitive edge.