7 Critical Factors for a Successful BI Project *New White Paper Business Intelligence (BI) has been the one area in the IT industry that has seen continued investment when other areas have been less fortunate. Part of this is due to the fact that as organizations become more competitive, information and the speed with which it is acted upon by “empowered” users becomes a key component of success. Part of this can also be attributed to successful implementations across a broad range of industries. This white paper summarizes 7 critical factors that can help deliver a successful BI project—whether at a departmental level or across the enterprise. It consolidates the experiences of APOS’ consultants spread over many years and is meant to guide CIO’s and other IT leaders interested in the strategic operations of their organizations implement a successful BI project. To receive your own copy of this new APOS white paper, simply request a download here. Case Study - Stoncor Group *Cool Customer

“When we migrated from Seagate 7.5 to Crystal Enterprise 8.5, we lost the functionality to enforce row-level security for our sales reports. Fortunately, we found the solution we needed in the APOS View Time Security tool.” said  Hilla Bonneh, Database Administrator for StonCor Group, based in Maple Shade, New Jersey, USA

APOS Tools Used:

View Time Security (with Crystal Enterprise™ 8.5)

Background:

A group of Sales and Manufacturing companies,  StonCor brings such world-leading lines as Stonhard, Carboline, Fibergrate and Plasite across the USA, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia and South Africa. StonCor sustains its global leading position through innovations in polymers and other advanced coating technologies.

Business Issues:

• Share sales reports effectively while restricting sensitive information

Like all forward thinking companies, StonCor uses sales information to understand how the business is performing. Sales information provides a pulse and a trend. It is equally important that sales information be easily accessed, yet restricted. The needs of top-level management, territorial management and individual sales associates are all different. It was imperative therefore that the IT group supports the information needs of these constituents effectively, without resorting to extensive, time-consuming, and expensive programming activities. “We have a large number of Crystal users who need to access daily, weekly, and monthly sales activity and order acknowledgements; information vital to the business. It was important that we let these users login and see only the reports they are entitled to see. It was also important that we let them run specific reports,” said Ms. Bonneh.

Solution:

• Implement row-level security use the APOS View Time Security add-in product

Hilla Bonneh knew that the solution lay in row-level security. She knew that StonCor could create a minimal number of reports, restricting their use based on security access privileges. The APOS VTS add-in product provided the exact solution: the capability to filter Crystal report content for a logged in user so that they can view, run, or schedule a report instance WITHOUT writing complex software programs. “We were able to provide our users the information they need without burdening an already stretched IT group,” said Ms. Bonneh.

Results:

• Reduced IT administration effort and time

• Reduced processing time

• Improved access to information

This is what Hilla Bonneh said: “By being able to maintain a single object, maintenance is a lot easier—only one object to make changes to and schedule. It reduces the processing time, allowing other reports to run as well. We eliminated the need to print the reports for each sales person and mail it to them, which not only saves money, but also give our sales force better access to the information they need.” Clearly, this defines a very effective solution.

To read the full StonCor Group Case Study or view others, visit here.

Business Objects Annual User Conference *User Event of the Year

Toronto Crystal/Business Objects Users Group *Meet and Share with Other Users

APOS is pleased to sponsor the Toronto Crystal/Business Objects Users Group. Now with separate sessions in the same meeting for both Crystal and Business Objects users, this users group allows you to learn from other users and share experiences. We'd love to see you at the next meeting . . .

Tuesday

October 19, 2004

Toronto Board of Trade              *Directions

830 Dixon Road, Toronto, Ontario

On-Line Solutions Presentations *Web Demos

Find out more about the Enterprise Reporting and Business Intelligence solutions from Business Objects by attending one of the online presentation times shown below, or contact us to arrange a presentation specifically for you and your company associates . . .

Tuesday

Sept 14, 2004

3:00 PM EST

Tuesday

Sept 28, 2004

12:00 noon EST