We have the privilege of working with some of the most well known organizations in the world and we don’t take this lightly. Our clients engage us in a number of ways—we help them solve their business intelligence problems using software from IBM that provides them analytics-driven results.
Customers leverage TechD’s expertise in IBM Cognos and Business Intelligence solutions for demanding applications in a wide array of industries including Higher Education, Healthcare, Aerospace, Retail and others. That includes IBM software solutions designed to help everyone in an organization make the decisions that achieve better business outcomes—for now and in the future.
The Business Analytics team of a large pharmaceutical sales and marketing organization used several business-analytic tools with no one standard. Their data resided in many different formats and locations, causing inefficiencies. To improve Information Delivery Architecture, the organization sought to organize structured data into a single data mart for reporting and analytics. Making IBM Cognos the universal business-analytic tool among divisions; TechD provided a data-delivery solution to improve reporting, replace externally managed reports, and combine multiple sets of data. Thanks to reduced dependency on external vendors for data manipulation, computation and report development; they have achieved an overall cost reduction as well.
The company used several business-analytic tools within the overall organization. At the time, there was no one standard software product across those organizations owned by the corporate parent. The push was to make IBM Cognos the universal business-analytic tool among divisions. With data in different formats and locations, the team experienced major process inefficiencies on a daily basis. In order to improve architecture, the organization sought to organize their structured data into a single data mart to be used for both their reporting and analytics.
TechD provided a data-delivery solution to serve as the foundation for reporting improvements, act as a replacement for externally managed and delivered reports, and provide the ability to combine multiple sets of data. A data mart and data cubes allow Business Analytics to access a single source of truth for all structured data reporting needs. The team can easily and consistently combine structured data from disparate sources for improved analytics and insight. This provides a means to support or replace externally hosted reporting solutions and provide a structured foundation for the consideration of unstructured or big data.
TechD and IBM Cognos have provided a consistent data format and structure for analysis. When coupled with common and repeatable processes, this allows the organization to apply standard tools for receiving, loading, maintaining, and accessing data. As a result of the enhanced data delivery solution, the client has enjoyed greatly improved efficiencies in both the processing and analysis of their data. An added benefit comes from the potential for cost reduction—thanks to the reduced dependency on external vendors for data manipulation, computation and report development.
The nation’s first hospital devoted to pediatric medicine used separate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) products for patient and financial data with no common warehouse. Their requirements included a high-performance analytic and reporting platform, predictive analytics, and data exploration across multiple data forms. In addition, they would require infrastructure and implementation support, as well as integration with existing business intelligence. TechD and IBM Pure Data integrated functions and created one warehouse for patient and financial data, allowing access to unstructured data through standard tools. This has increased processing speed and eliminated the need for multiple tables, reducing the speed for data migration of aggregate tables from hours to seconds.
The hospital used two Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) products: Oracle for patients and Lawson for financials. There was no common warehouse for both sets of data. The hospital requires various-use cases in key areas. These include hospital readmission predictions, clinical classifications/prescribing errors/denials management, and natural-language processing. Their Clinical Data Warehouse (CDW) requires a nightly day-end process. Business goals included high-performance reporting; self-service, near-real-time, and predictive analytics; data discovery and exploration across structured, unstructured, and big data; infrastructure/implementation support; and integration with existing business intelligence.
TechD provided the answer—in the form of the IBM Pure Data System for Analytics. This open platform for analytic development allows users to leverage many technologies, and migrate to others as needed. Improvements over other SAS predictive model deployments include significantly reduced cost of ownership, various performance improvements, and greatly improved efficiency. With the improvements that TechD has implemented, users can scale-up their analytic strategies without an increase in cost or headcount.
When TechD deployed IBM Pure Data, we integrated important data functions across the organization. As a result of the upgrades TechD put in-place, the hospital now has a single data warehouse for both patients and financials. Administrators and personnel enjoy access to archived and unstructured data through standard reporting tools. Results include faster processing and the elimination of multiple standard tables. Now, data migration tables are produced much faster. In fact, TechD helped reduce the average speed for nightly end-of-day reporting from five hours to 45 seconds—a major victory.
The nation’s largest private cancer-treatment center used IBM Business Intelligence tools across the organization. Their financial IT department recognized they were not utilizing these to full potential. With so many recent changes, budgeting tools were outdated and no longer supported. TechD ran a system-wide upgrade to Cognos TM1—assigning a full-time, on-site consultant to oversee migration. This enabled custom task creation, automated processes to replace manual inputs, and faster interface for thousands of licensed users. As a result; the updated systems have eliminated redundant processes, streamlined reporting and budgeting, and provided easier access for end-users. The organization now utilizes approximately 70% of the system’s functionality, up from 30% previously.
The nation’s largest private cancer center used IBM Business Intelligence tools across the organization, employing DataStates for ETL and DB2 for warehousing. Financial IT personnel still used an older version of Cognos and recognized they were not utilizing it to full potential. With rapid changes in technology, their custom budgeting tools relied on outdated language and were no longer supported. As new features are added rapidly, their existing systems and data format made it difficult to keep up.
TechD oversaw a system-wide upgrade to IBM Cognos TM1 and assigned a full-time, on-site consultant to oversee data migration. They updated to the latest version available, provided troubleshooting, and created a software development kit to aid in deployment. TechD showed hospital how to use the system, explained dashboard features and reporting tools, and explained how to best utilize reporting features. TechD provided a full-time, on-site consultant to assist in the data migration. This enabled custom task creation, automated a number of processes, replaced time-consuming manual inputs, and provided a faster user interface.
IBM Cognos TM1 has now streamlined financial processes—including billing, payroll, budgeting, and forecasting. Reporting tools—including Cognos/SPSS—allow analysts to detect potential fraud. Greater integration and database connectivity make real-time reporting easier for thousands of users—including the heads of several departments. As a result—the current system has eliminated redundant processes, streamlined reporting and budgeting, and provided easier access for end-users. The organization now utilizes approximately 70% of the system’s functionality, up from 30% previously.
The client is a cancer treatment and research institution composed of two related facilities: a hospital providing patient care for cancer and related diseases and an institute focused on scientific research. As the world’s largest and oldest dedicated cancer hospital—it has long been a leader in cancer surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. They were the first to develop services dedicated specifically to psychiatric aspects of cancer, cancer-related pain, and genetic counseling. It currently ranks as the nation’s number one cancer hospital.
A public-research university in Philadelphia chose IBM Cognos as their enterprise business intelligence solution across institutional advancement, finance, human resources, and student records. They faced a hard deadline to decommission their legacy reporting tools. Meeting this deadline would provide cost savings on licensing, maintenance and support for outdated tools. TechD implemented Cognos reporting and dashboards—allowing IT personnel to streamline their reporting processes. They analyzed the reporting process, finding redundant reports run at inappropriate times. University IT can now better utilize computing cycles. Licenses and usage models have also been improved, thanks to common platform for all reporting and the importation of legacy data into Cognos.
A Philadelphia University chose IBM Cognos to replace their legacy reporting tools across several divisions. These tools were used by institutional advancement, finance, HR, and student records. They faced a deadline to decommission the older tools that would provide significant cost savings on licensing, maintenance, and support. The university wanted to schedule reports after their nightly database refresh. Previously, the university had no way to join these reports together–or to anticipate and predict their reporting needs.
TechD analyzed the university’s process, finding redundant reports run at inappropriate times. They implemented Cognos reporting and dashboards–allowing IT personnel to streamline their reporting processes. TechD then joined these processes to a unified enterprise scheduler to kick-off reporting after nightly refresh. In addition, TechD analyzed the university’s license and usage models–as well as the performance of the Cognos environment. In the process, they were able to identify a number of unneeded users–as well as non-users of licenses.
Thanks to TechD and Cognos, the university can now better utilize its computing cycles. Licenses and usage models have also been improved, due to a common platform for all reporting and the importation of legacy data. The improvement is substantial. An audit that took place over six months has allowed TechD to optimize the university’s system usage, show appropriate license usage, and eliminate redundant reports. In addition, customized training for over 100 team members has reduced the university’s long-term training costs.
One of the nation’s largest communications suppliers to military and commercial end-users used outdated Cognos Business Intelligence and Enterprise Planning. Project planners experienced delays running complex reports. Financial analysts could not access detailed data. TechD installed current IBM Cognos TM1 and oversaw data migration. A workspace dashboard provides reporting insight. Real-time analysis enhances planning, budgeting, and forecasting. C-level executives and other non-technical users quickly adapted to the system’s “drag-and-drop” interface and now enjoy faster reporting and detailed analysis. The company now has an integrated, high-speed data warehouse that has reduced speed of report-generation from hours to minutes.
The organization used an outdated version of Cognos Business Intelligence—along with Cognos Enterprise Planning. These older solutions were inefficient—not suited to the organization’s size and workload. Project planners experienced significant delays running complex reports. Financial analysts did not have enough detailed data available. Even with a small number of users, tasks that should take seconds often took close to an hour. The tools also had cumbersome maintenance requirements.
TechD provided the answer—in the form of IBM Cognos TM1. They installed the software and oversaw migration of existing data. In the process, TechD examined business needs and asked two questions: “What are you doing now?” and “What do you want to do?” Taking current processes as a starting point, we determined planners and analysts wanted to see all data together. Previously, important data were separated by long report-generation times. A workspace dashboard and full data integration now enable personnel to do more in less time, providing enhanced insight as they drill-down into reporting. On the business-intelligence side, the system serves as a checkpoint in planning, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. It is also used for the run-down of all open projects—thanks to real-time reporting. On the financial side, analysts can now input required changes almost instantly.
Cognos TM1 “fit like a glove” for this application. When TechD deployed it, we added functionality and increased speed. As the organization moves from batch planning and forecasting into real-time, reports are now almost instantaneous. TechD also increased the number of users and included a Microsoft Excel interface. This increased comfort for financial users—including the CFO, who has seen inefficient reporting systems come and go and is skeptical about new solutions. This executive—and other non-technical users—quickly became acquainted with the system’s “drag-and-drop” input and now enjoy faster reporting and detailed analysis.
