THE CRITICAL ROLE OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN E-BUSINESS

A White Paper

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 THE BUSINESS CASE FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE................................................................................................ 2
Know Your Customer................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Streamline Your Business Processes......................................................................................................................................... 3 Know Your Business................................................................................................................................................................... 3

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: THEN AND NOW ................................................................................................................ 4 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE .................................................................................. 5
Directly Accessing and Integrating Data ................................................................................................................................. 5 Transforming Data Into Valuable Information ....................................................................................................................... 6 Delivering Information to Anyone on Demand ..................................................................................................................... 6

INFORMATION BUILDERS I-BUSINESS SOLUTION ..................................................................................................... 7

Data Access and Integration ..................................................................................................................................................... 7 Information Generation ............................................................................................................................................................. 8 Information Delivery .................................................................................................................................................................. 8

WEBFOCUS OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................................... 9

WebFOCUS Reporting Server .................................................................................................................................................. 9 WebFOCUS Developer Tools ................................................................................................................................................. 11 WebFOCUS Managed Reporting and Administration Tools.............................................................................................. 11 WebFOCUS Report Broker .................................................................................................................................................... 13 WebFOCUS Management and Optimization Tools ............................................................................................................. 14 WebFOCUS Reporting Solutions for ERP ........................................................................................................................... 15

CASE STUDIES ....................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Leading Insurance Provider..................................................................................................................................................... 16 Florida International University ............................................................................................................................................. 17 Ford Motor Company ............................................................................................................................................................... 18 Microsoft Corporation.............................................................................................................................................................. 19 Los Angeles County Court System ......................................................................................................................................... 20

CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................................................... 21 LEARN MORE ABOUT WEBFOCUS I-BUSINESS SOLUTIONS............................................................................ 22

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Information is the hottest commodity in business today. Thats because succeeding in business depends on how well you know your customers, how well you understand your business processes, and how effectively you run your operations. And having that kind of far-reaching insight depends on information information that is accessed, integrated, and distributed in a meaningful fashion. How easily and consistently can you share financial results with managers? How effortless is it for customers to learn about your products? How often do your sales and support teams work in concert when a new product is released or when an old one is updated? How quickly can you take the pulse of your overall organization? Todays companies are judged not only on the quality of their products and services, but on how well they share information with customers, employees, and business partners. The more widely available information is throughout the enterprise, the more valuable it becomes. When a marketing department has accurate data about the installed base of products and services, it is better able to develop targeted promotions. When customers can easily check if an item is in stock, they are more likely to make a purchase. When senior executives have instant access to trend data, they can turn on a dime in the most profitable direction for the firm. The problem is that all the information people rely on is not in one place. Most organizations have myriad systems, each with their own data sources and presentation mechanisms. This makes maintaining complete, up-to-date information across many departments and business units extremely difficult. The more integrated an enterprise becomes, the easier it is for everyone to get the information they need so they are empowered to make their best decisions. The solution depends on technology. Information Builders has introduced the concept of ibusiness to refer to an Internet-driven organization that uses information in an intelligent fashion. i-business leverages the ubiquitous network of the Internet to deploy information consistently and accurately, both inside and outside the firm. i-business doesnt replace ebusiness. Rather, it is a critical part of an e-business strategy. i-business brings together Information Builders two important and interrelated abilities: to get at any type of data, and to analyze and present that data as usable information. These two core competencies, known in the industry as enterprise integration and business intelligence, are the foundation of i-business. This paper concentrates on the business intelligence part of i-business. A brief review of the state of business intelligence is presented, followed by an introduction to Information Builders WebFOCUS business intelligence software as the cornerstone of i-business. Product architecture, components, functions, and features are outlined in detail. Finally, case studies are provided to show how our customers across major industry segments are using i-business to realize strategic benefits quickly in an ever-changing marketplace.

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THE BUSINESS CASE FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Every day more and more people are flocking to the Internet to get information or buy things. The impact of this phenomenon on business is clear: shrinking profit margins as smart consumers comparison shop with the click of a button, increased competition some from new or unexpected areas, pressures to make processes more efficient and cost-effective, and surging customer and partner expectations. The Internets global reach and the impact of the search engine have also made people think that getting information should be easy. This is true for everyone from your employees who need information at their fingertips to do their jobs effectively, to customers who will look elsewhere if they dont easily find the information they need. The bottom line is that the company with the most streamlined operations and the most reliable, useful customer service will become a market leader. How does business intelligence figure in all this? Business intelligence technology allows organizations to transform data stored in core business systems into meaningful information, which in turn enables you to: Know your customer and let your customer know you Streamline your business processes by aligning technology with business goals Know how your business runs as a whole by getting a global, unified view of your organization

Know Your Customer

The company that provides the best service to its customers is often the company that knows its customers best. Often this type of knowledge is contained in the data gathered on a daily basis: which customers are most profitable, which products are most often purchased, the method of payment that is preferred, the time of day or week most often shopped, the success or failure of certain direct marketing programs, even down to where a customer lives. Having this information lets you analyze your business on the fly, quickly detecting shifts in the market identifying new patterns in response to a promotion, for example. The goal is to drive closer and closer to a real-time look at customer and sales activity. On the flip side, you could also say the company that provides the best service to its customers is often the company whose customers know it best. This means creating innovative Internet applications that use legacy data in new, profitable ways. For example, you might want to set up an order-history portfolio for each of your customers, so they can see their own purchas-ing pattern or even compare it to what others have bought. You can also do things such as allowing customers to check if an item is in stock by hooking them from your Web site right into your inventory database. The possibilities are endless...but one thing is clear: To survive, companies must find new ways to leverage the Internet and make it easier for people to do business with them.

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Streamline Your Business Processes

E-business has aligned the goals of business and technology more closely than ever before. Companies are now striving to innovate, outcompete, and streamline processes using technology. Theyre making bold steps into initiatives such as e-commerce, supply chain automation, and customer relationship management. Often this requires building custom solutions or buying news ones, such as packaged applications. And that results in a technology infrastructure thats piecemeal, disconnected, and difficult to manage. These stovepipe systems sequester information from one department to another, making it difficult to achieve a panoramic view of the overall workings of the enterprise. You end up with a constantly shifting, disparate environment. Somewhere in there is usable information to help customers make decisions, managers meet quotas, engineers advance the capabilities of the company. The challenge is to simplify the process of getting it and sharing it with people both inside and outside the organization. To achieve synergy among all these systems, you must be able to directly and quickly integrate new Web applications into your existing corporate data and application mix, so that they can work together seamlessly as one.

Know Your Business

These days, people constantly crave real-time knowledge about their business. Analysts who were formerly satisfied with weekly reports get impatient if they cant get 24-hour turnaround. They look at morning data in the afternoon so they can change their strategy slightly for the next morning. This holds true for everyone in the organization. The CEO wants a global realtime view of the entire organization on demand. Sales managers are concerned with making quotas and growing the business into new regions. Engineers want to access current design specs and supplier information. Support people need to know how products are being used. Shipping clerks need to know which couriers to do business with. To implement widespread knowledge of the business, you must make it simple for people to access the information they need to help them make better decisions. User preferences are also a factor. People want to see information in a way that makes the most sense to them, whether its a spreadsheet, a bar chart, e-mail, or a Web browser. By simplifying the way people get their reports, you open up decision-making to middle-level managers and staff workers throughout an organization. This allows companies to react more quickly to market changes and business problems instead of having to wait until the situation is filtered to upper-level management and delegated back to the front lines. No matter how the information is delivered, it must be pulled together and integrated from different places departments, business units, merger partners, and external public sources and presented as consistent, accurate, and reliable information for anyone who needs it.

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BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: THEN AND NOW

The traditional definition of business intelligence is technology that allows organizations to transform data stored in core business systems into meaningful information. It lets users query and analyze databases to uncover key issues that affect their businesses, ultimately helping people make better, more informed decisions. Functions like ad hoc reporting, OLAP analysis, and data mining provide this capability from different perspectives; that is, they serve the needs of various audiences, from the nontechnical business user to the power user. With the advent of the Internet, business intelligence becomes even more critical because companies have a unified platform for easily distributing information to a wider range of decision makers inside and outside the walls of their organization employees, suppliers, partners, and customers. As companies move to implement new systems on the Web, they are gathering more and more data about customers, markets, products, and processes all which can contribute to greater insight and business acuity. And with the nearly infinite reach of the Internet, external data sources become available that can further enhance our decision-making. Add in the wealth of information youve accumulated in all your production databases and data warehouses, and youre sitting on a gold mine. It is no longer sufficient for a business intelligence tool to access limited types of data. To fulfill the needs of a globally focused organization with disparate data sources, todays business intelligence solution must be able to access, integrate, and cross-reference new data, external data, and legacy data. Cross-referencing data in external public sources can increase the value of our own internal data. For example, an insurance company could cross-reference its own data warehouse of insurance rates with the rates of competitors stored in external public sources, to locate areas and markets where they are most effective and those where they are not. This would allow it to customize its marketing programs and adjust its rates to be more competitive. There is nothing magical about the Internet. It is simply a massive public network, globally accessible and commonly shared. But it has increased the importance and ultimate value of business intelligence technology by providing a foundation for free-flowing information throughout the enterprise and beyond.

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CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

The promise of business intelligence today is free-flowing information between disparate systems; between people in different business units; between computers and other devices we use to get our daily information, like e-mail, printers, fax machines, and PalmPilots; between your company and its partners, employees, customers, and future customers. How can you effectively and economically achieve this vision? By creating a flexible business intelligence solution that enables you to: Directly access and integrate all your critical data in core business systems, including legacy, relational, warehoused, public, and ERP data, without regard to location or format Transform that data into valuable information and give it to people in a way that makes sense to them Deliver quality information to any audience on demand, enabling organizations to schedule and automatically send critical information to people on a regular basis via Web browsers, printers, fax machines, PalmPilots, and e-mail Also critical to a successful business intelligence solution is scalability and flexibility, so that as usage grows, the performance of the system is not adversely affected. Plus, to ensure an environment thats finely tuned and easy to manage and use, a solution should give IT personnel and administrators comprehensive system management tools to help them build, implement, monitor, and evolve the infrastructure. Each of these requirements is described below.

Directly Accessing and Integrating Data

In todays enterprise, it is not likely that the data that supports your decision-making is located in one place. Over the years, weve built tactical mainframe systems to solve business operational problems, often back-ended by critical legacy data sources. Weve adopted ERP packages such as SAP and PeopleSoft that promised to integrate processes and solve Y2K issues. Weve created data warehouses in relational databases which provided answers to critical questions. And in some cases weve gone through mergers and acquisitions, introducing a new universe of technology to deal with. All of which results in enterprises with disparate databases on many different platforms. Companies realize that educated business decisions are not made based on a single data source. For example, a sales force wouldnt make changes solely based on sales numbers; it would factor in information from human resources, economic indicators, sales figures, and budget and finance reports. Even though accessing cross-subject information seems logical to many companies, it may not be within their immediate plans yet deciding on a business intelligence tool that can support

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future integration of other data sources is essential for growth. For example, if the sales analysis system you build today cant integrate data from your legacy HR and customer support databases tomorrow, you may never understand the correlation between increased support staff turnover, customer complaints, and the drop in sales the following quarter. Additionally, most business intelligence tools only access data stored in relational databases. This means that more than half their data sources are inaccessible (70 percent of all data still resides in legacy sources on mainframes). And it means these tools can only give you part of the picture. Even if legacy data is staged and summarized in data warehouses, it would still lack access to detail information which may be required to resolve issues or uncover discrepancies.

Transforming Data Into Valuable Information

Business intelligence tools like OLAP analysis and ad hoc reporting are appropriate for analysts who understand how to use them. However, all organizations have decision makers who may not be technical enough or have the time to understand these complex tools. In other words, they dont need to know how the engine works; they just need to push the gas pedal and go. These people need data-driven EIS systems that allow them to navigate data without being a tools expert. A comprehensive business intelligence solution must provide flexible views of the information for the many different types of users inside and outside the organization, according to skill level and need. Plus it should allow users to react real-time by making changes to the data in the core business system that reflects their decision.

Delivering Information to Anyone on Demand

The world has gone mobile. Were wireless, connected, and free. And we all expect information at our fingertips, no matter where we happen to be. Thats why a world-class business intelligence solution must provide many ways to deliver information to people. Does one audience use Excel? Another e-mail? Do they think in terms of words or documents, or do they use specialized analytical tools? Some are seekers of information, while others prefer to have it delivered to them. When it comes to building information systems, you need to select one technology that can support all of these audiences. The maintenance and integration implications of using a different technology for each audience are major cost factors.

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INFORMATION BUILDERS I-BUSINESS SOLUTION

The idea of free-flowing information sounds good on paper, but how do you achieve this vision? Information Builders has the answer: i-business. Information Builders i-business solution fulfills the promise of business intelligence today. It helps Internet-driven organizations use information more intelligently by allowing them to easily access and share all their critical corporate data over the Web. i-business is the only solution that can deliver a global real-time view of your business, the ultimate in business intelligence. There are lots of data access vendors that have limited experience with reporting and analysis. And there are plenty of business intelligence vendors who dont specialize in data access and integration. We are the only vendor that excels at both, and were working hard to make sure you have that synergy. The cornerstone of i-business is Information Builders WebFOCUS business intelligence software. WebFOCUS meets all the critical success factors of a business intelligence solution through the following main capabilities: Data Access and Integration, Information Generation, and Information Delivery. Each is explained below.

Data Access and Integration

WebFOCUS allows you to connect core business systems, enabling data to flow freely from one to another, while ensuring accuracy and timeliness of the data. To accomplish this universal data connectivity, WebFOCUS exploits Information Builders integration technology for access to more than 80 data sources, including legacy, relational, and ERP data, plus data found in all of the common sources like data warehouses and data marts. (See The Enterprise Integration Imperative white paper for a complete discussion of the role of integration in i-business.) WebFOCUS simplifies the environment for developers, providing them with direct, native access to all data sources and allowing them to view any data source as a standard relational source regardless of its actual location. With WebFOCUS built-in functionality, developers can concentrate on results instead of worrying about data access protocols and security issues. WebFOCUS also provides IT managers and administrators with the ability to view, manage, and grow their infrastructure based on measured activity. This gives IT managers insight into bottlenecks and roadblocks that may occur within their reporting environment for various business or technical reasons, and allows managers to monitor usage and protect the systems from overload and automatically react when problems occur.

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Information Generation
WebFOCUS lets you quickly build self-service, production reporting, and business analysis systems that grow your business by getting people the information they need on demand. WebFOCUS transforms data into intelligent information for delivery to an employee, partner, or customer, while meeting their individual requirements. Each group has different skill sets and levels, and each is familiar with a different type of interface. Each audience may need different types of information, varying amounts of detail and formats. WebFOCUS is the only technology that lets you support all information consumers. Designed to reach the widest possible audience, WebFOCUS delivers accurate, consistent, and timely information to all your users.

Information Delivery
WebFOCUS lets you deliver information to any user in the format that they need, which makes it immediately usable and actionable. A specific time or an event can trigger report delivery. Documents can be placed in an e-mail attachment, sent to a printer, or sent directly to a Web browser for real-time viewing and analysis. The data can be staged in a data mart or warehouse for further analysis. People can subscribe to information that is applicable to them and receive it when its convenient. In addition, you can automatically burst reports to hundreds or thousands of recipients or you can notify people when something significant occurs (for example, a big customer cancels an order, or the marketing department is over budget). WebFOCUS also provides IT managers and administrators with the ability to view, manage, and grow their infrastructure based on measured activity. This gives IT managers insight into bottlenecks and roadblocks that may occur within their reporting environment for various business or technical reasons, and allows managers to monitor usage and protect the systems from overload and automatically react when problems occur.

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WEBFOCUS OVERVIEW
Now lets take a closer look at WebFOCUS and how it works. The main components of WebFOCUS are: WebFOCUS Reporting Server for data access, data transformation (aggregation, record selection, data calculation), and dynamic generation of HTML, PDF, XLS, and XML formats WebFOCUS Developer Tools for building, testing, and deploying applications in a Windows or Web environment WebFOCUS Managed Reporting and Administration Tools that give users the ability to create their own custom reports, while enabling organizations to provide standard reports for users or workgroups WebFOCUS Report Broker, which offers a single point of control for automating the scheduling and distribution of reports to anyone within or outside the organization via Web, e-mail, Palm Pilots, or printers WebFOCUS Management and Optimization Tools, to keep your reporting environment productive and running at peak performance WebFOCUS Reporting Solutions for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages that provide custom and ad hoc reporting capabilities to users of SAP R/3, PeopleSoft, and J.D. Edwards Each of these components is discussed in detail below.

WebFOCUS Reporting Server

ISO 9002 quality-certified and based on the worlds easiest and most powerful reporting language, the WebFOCUS Reporting Server combines data access and information generation services in one core business intelligence server. Unlike any of its competitors, Reporting Server boasts dynamic real-time access to more than 80 data sources on more than 35 computing platforms even warehoused, ERP, and legacy data. Also unique is the Reporting Servers ability to be installed on any combination of six platforms: NT, Linux, UNIX, MVS, VM, and OpenVMS. Other products are limited to either NT or UNIX. Powerful Underlying 4GL WebFOCUS Reporting Server relies on the worlds most powerful data manipulation language for its reporting. Unique strengths of this language include: Ranking within groups Percentage of totals Multi-dimensional reporting Cumulative totals and percentages Each of these capabilities is lacking in standard SQL-based tools, is available in just one pass of the data, and is fully auditable. Inter-record calculations Operations on computed columns IF tests on totals

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True Three-Tier Architecture WebFOCUS Reporting Server employs a true three-tier architecture for efficient logic distribution and network performance. Data access can take place on one platform, business logic on another, and presentation logic on a third. That means all queries can be dynamically partitioned, and it guarantees that the complex number-crunching and aggregation will take place on the back-end database server, not the Web server or desktop. The same three-tier architecture enables the Reporting Server to offer maximum scalability and usability, and to support multiple security implementations. The server engine can reside on a Web server, database server, or separate application server, although three-tier efficiencies are best served when it is placed closest to the data. Unmatched Data Access Is Built In WebFOCUS utilizes Information Builders award-winning EDA enterprise integration middleware technology to gain access to so many data sources. You can use database gateways to select host databases, specify fields, and perform sorts, joins, calculations, and aggregations. You can also access, join, and aggregate data from multiple computer platforms throughout your enterprise. Flexible, Rich Information Generation See the diagram below for a typical information generation scenario.
Reporting Server Web Server

CGI Browser Legacy Data Relational Data ERP Data

In this case, WebFOCUS Reporting Server has been placed on a mainframe to take advantage of its processing power and access to its DB2 data. A CGI or ISAPI program placed on the Web server communicates with the Reporting Server, providing flexibility not inherent in other products that must be installed on the Web server. WebFOCUS Reporting Server automatically transforms any report to HTML, XML, XLS, or PDF format for display on any standard browser. It can generate reports, charts, and data visualization bars which combine data and charts on a single screen. The Reporting Server is able to support self-service, EIS and analytical applications and templates, and enterprise-level production reporting. WebFOCUS Reporting Server generates rich content that can include automatic hyperlinks, conditional navigation, and color-coded objects whose colors are based on values. Conditional navigation is an important, unique feature: WebFOCUS can generate different links to different reports or locations based on the value of the data in a column. For example, in the case of a list

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of baseball player names, you could click on a batters name and get his batting average and home runs, whereas if you clicked on a pitchers name you would get his wins, losses, and ERA. The server supports On-Demand Paging for long reports which delivers the first HTML page to your browser and stores the rest on the Web server allowing you to navigate through the report with a search facility.

WebFOCUS Developer Tools

WebFOCUS supplies different tools for different types of applications and developer styles. Whether you need to build reporting or transactional Web, and/or client/server applications from a desktop at corporate headquarters or at your laptop on the road, you can find a tool for the job. WebFOCUS Browser Developer is an easy-to-use 100% Java environment for building reporting systems. It provides an easy, quick-start environment for developers (with or without extensive database expertise) to design, build, and manage standard reports over the Internet or an intranet from a Web browser. They also let a user publish formatted, finished HTML reports and deliver word processing and spreadsheet files for use by mobile computing users. In addition, each workbench can automat-ically create an HTML page that allows the user to enter his own selection criteria and request a dynamic report from live data. WebFOCUS Desktop Developer provides a tightly Web-integrated Windows toolset for building full-featured reporting applications. Developers and power users can use it to build not only client/server decision support systems but also self-service and analytical applications for the Web. They can: Build complex reports and charts Exploit desktop wizards and tools for application deployment in a fraction of the time it would take other tools Prepare complete runtime applications for distribution to colleagues or to end user groups Develop disconnected at home, commuting, at a customer site then with the click of a button upload the application to the Web Employ just one package to develop applications, use them, and run ad hoc reports WebFOCUS Application Developers Studio lets developers build enterprise-class business applications that combine transaction processing, decision support, and batch processing. It requires no prior knowledge of HTML, Java, or complex 3GLs. Through its object-based Windows development workbench, highly reusable components can be created for distributed Web or client/server environments. The Studios drag-and-drop partitioning editor permits developers to move locally developed application components to servers anywhere in the enterprise.

WebFOCUS Managed Reporting and Administration Tools

WebFOCUS Managed Reporting streamlines the reporting environment, creating efficiencies for end users and administrators. It provides all levels of users with flexible tools to create the reports they need on their own and on the fly, while giving organizations the control to manage reporting efficiently throughout their systems.
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One Administrator facility manages all aspects of the reporting environment including security giving users everything they need to produce consistent, accurate, and easy-to-grasp standardized reports, custom reports, and graphs on the Web.

For maximum user satisfaction, WebFOCUS offers a choice of two front-ends which share an identical interface for user consistency: Managed Reporter gives all levels of users the power to run standard reports, ad hoc reports, and OLAP-enabled reports on any Web browser In addition to providing these features, Desktop Managed Reporter gives power users the ability to download and analyze reports on the desktop with enhanced tools such as Report Painter, with drag-and-drop WYSIWYG development

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End users can build sophisticated reports immediately, regardless of technical skill. Among other things, they can filter selection criteria, create complex calculations, define new fields, perform row and column-totals, change field formats, easily create matrix reports, apply fonts and colors to reports, create headings and footings, and add stoplighting. An easy-to-use and intuitive OLAP interface enables them to produce multiple views of the data. Peer graphics add visual representation of data in the form of vertical and horizontal bar graphs that highlight relationships among data. On-demand paging gives them the ability to download the first page of the report to the browser and store the rest of the report on the Web server. A search facility that includes character string searches lets them navigate the report. Deferred receipt enables end users to submit for processing reports that may take a long time to run, and retrieve the results later. The administrator runs the entire system efficiently from one integrated console designed to meet users diverse technological requirements Java, HTML, or desktop. An administrator can: Manage groups, user IDs, security, and database access, including joins of up to 16 files Create, manage, and deploy dynamic reports and charts that include EIS and OLAP functionality Generate user input prompts that dynamically create reports based on their responses Enable end users to build their own reports by making templates reporting objects available for their use

WebFOCUS Report Broker

WebFOCUS offers a powerful and comprehensive solution for disseminating reports to large numbers of people across and beyond an enterprise. WebFOCUS Report Broker, a scheduling and distribution engine for reports generated with WebFOCUS Reporting Server, gives companies a single point of control for fully automating the Fax E-Mail scheduling and distribuInformation Delivery tion of reports to anyone within or outside the Printer organization. Reports can be customized and distributed to meet the www.com diverse departmental and (Push Technology) management needs of a Web Site business, its partners, and customers. Handheld
Devices

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Report Broker elevates efficiencies in several ways: It eliminates the need to distribute reports manually, resulting in streamlined paperwork and enhanced employee productivity Its thin-client architecture means low-cost implementation and maintenance Automatic updates of reports allow for optimal server performance by minimizing the number of times the server is queried Off-peak automated processing can be scheduled for nights and weekends, thereby freeing up valuable processing time and making more efficient use of network resources Administrators have total control over the timing and frequency of report generation and distribution. Support is provided for both one-time and recurring reports, which can be executed daily, weekly, monthly, or at any other time interval, and which can be event-driven, for example, triggered by a threshold dollar amount. A subscription function lets recipients bypass the scheduling feature and subscribe to reports on their own. Procedures such as data migration and database updates can be scheduled to run either before or after report generation. WebFOCUS can burst reports according to any number of sort variables, such as name, branch office, sales region, department, or management level. This enables an administrator to run a single report and burst the results into multiple sections, with each section then sent on to a different Web server or e-mail address. This results in considerable savings in administrative and processing time. An Address Book facility within Report Broker is used to specify recipients and select the method of distribution: As reports published to any Web server, with optional notification by e-mail Via e-mail as attached files To network printers To a recipients report folder within the WebFOCUS Managed Reporting environment A detailed audit trail helps Report Broker administrators keep track of all report activity.

WebFOCUS Management and Optimization Tools

Monitoring usage helps optimize Web application performance. Resource Analyzer is a powerful tool specially designed to reveal usage patterns throughout WebFOCUS applications and any database that WebFOCUS can access. With its easy-to-use interface, this tool lets administrators produce a variety of reports providing both detailed and summary information on user data access activity. An accurate picture of how and when data is being used helps them optimize performance for end users, while at the same time keeping vital enterprise systems and data stores up and running. Unlike other third-party software products that merely scan what you supply them, Resource Analyzer performs its analysis on WebFOCUS applications and databases as they are being used without disrupting productivity or user work routines. Administrators dont have to know where problems exist, because Resource Analyzer finds them for them.

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Tightly coupled with WebFOCUS, Resource Analyzer provides complete monitoring of every end users data access requests. Every report request and ad hoc query that arrives at the server is tracked and logged. Every conceivable statistic about the query is also logged who issued the query, what time of day, how long it ran, how many rows were returned, joins and record selection specified, etc. Once the information is collected, 150 reports and graphs allow the administrator to view this information from every angle and easily answer critical database administration questions. Areas covered include: Benchmarks captures and measures the use of key resources Dormant data identifies dormant data and improves throughput Database summary levels recommends summary levels based on access Resource utilization query volume vs. resource utilization Denormalization suggests appropriate data reformatting A preemptive Resource Governor lets administrators know what data is being utilized and by whom. It also allows administrators to establish unique rules for who can make requests and when they can make them. That means you can fine-tune your data warehouse or application to best suit organizational requirements or capacity. Resource Governor estimates the cost of a query before it runs, allowing expensive and runaway queries to be stopped before they start. To help administrators provide steady performance, WebFOCUS Reporting Server has loadbalancing capabilities built in. As users requests come into the Web server, they can be allocated between multiple servers, either sequentially or in random selection order. Any system that will be deployed to thousands of users or more will require this type of load balancing.

WebFOCUS Reporting Solutions for ERP

While Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages provide a wide range of competitive advantages, they can also pose significant challenges: Creating meaningful reports from data in the packaged applications without costly and timeconsuming custom programming Interfacing mixed packages, legacy, and other client/server systems together to synchronize data Creating consolidated reports from packaged application data and data from other sources, including legacy application data WebFOCUS helps users meet these challenges and maximize the benefits of todays leading ERP packages. WebFOCUS Reporting Solutions are designed and vendor-certified for use with packages such as SAP R/3, J.D. Edwards, and PeopleSoft. They are robust, value-added software solutions whose complementary capabilities and options simplify and enhance ERP operation. WebFOCUS Reporting Solutions for ERP provide flexible, easy-to-use reporting tools that allow thousands of users to dynamically access large quantities of data from more than 80 sources and transform it into complex, custom, and parameterized reports. In addition to meeting the most sophisticated reporting needs, they can also increase reporting productivity and reduce report generation time by as much as 50 percent.
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CASE STUDIES
These case studies show how individual Information Builders customers from a variety of industries have implemented an i-business solution to achieve strategic benefits. Some of them asked us to omit their company name from these real-life scenarios, and we have done so. Because i-business delivered such significant competitive advantages to them, however, their stories were included due to their relevance to the reader.

LEADING INSURANCE PROVIDER

Application: Analytical application Industry: Insurance Challenge: This large insurance company wanted to target local markets with marketing initiatives that spoke directly to them. To do that, they needed to turn the extensive data in their systems into precisely targeted information that agents could access anytime, on the road or in the office. Solution: As part of their restructuring with SAP, this company used Information Builders i-business solution to streamline its information distribution processes and get critical information to its sales agents in the field, as well as to strategists in the corporate offices. To make that possible, they took advantage of their intranet and made sales and other financial information accessible from any authorized desktop using a Web browser. Product Used: WebFOCUS Reporting Solution for SAP R/3 Business Results: Information Builders i-business technology helped the company make its new, complex environment more meaningful, gaining maximum value from a critical business reengineering investment. The sales force now receives and analyzes data up to 50 percent sooner in the weekly sales cycle. And the company can focus more attention on serving their customers and growing the business, providing information for key strategic decision makers when they need it and where they need it.

16 The Critical Role of Business Intelligence in E-Business

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY (WWW.FIU.EDU/OIR)

Application: Legacy-Web integration Industry: Education Challenge: At Florida International University in Miami, the administrative system for human resources, students, financial aid, and development is maintained by the Information Resource Management (IRM) organization. The system comprises over 700 assorted mainframe files with different structures, continually modified over the years. Casual users at the university were frustrated by trying to work with mainframe technology and procedures. Ad hoc queries against this data werent even possible for most people because they lacked detailed knowledge of each file and its relationships. Restrictions and limitations on maximum CPU usage, VSAM file access, and storage space frustrated interactive timeshare users. Two full-time IRM programmers did nothing but produce reports. Turnaround sometimes stretched into weeks and was made worse by Year 2000 problems, which became higher priority than fulfilling new report requests. A Web solution seemed logical, both to resolve the frustrations of those who were trying to use the existing system and those who were waiting for their FOCUS reports to be produced. But how to put a Web system in place quickly and economically? Solution: Four in-house programmers were able to convert the timeshared MVS systems to a Web self-service application in just three days. FOCUS reports were easily integrated to WebFOCUS. IRM deployed Web pages with real report data from the mainframe in less than one hour. With WebFOCUS, mainframe reports were published in HTML format and users could access and read them via a Web page instead of struggling with 3270 terminals. Products Used: WebFOCUS, Mainframe FOCUS Business Results: WebFOCUS did much more than reduce the workload of the IRM staff. Publishing daily reports on the Web saved over $18,000 in paper printing costs, plus an estimated $1,000 a day in timesharing savings for external users. In addition, two person-hours were saved each day because WebFOCUS automatically places one summary report on the Web; previously it was run and posted manually. The built-in Y2K features of WebFOCUS also provided a number of Year 2000 solutions for the university. And in the future, it can serve as a transitional bridge to new, integrated systems such as Oracle, SAP R/3, Baan, or PeopleSoft when the university elects to move away from the present legacy system.

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FORD MOTOR COMPANY

Application: Production reporting Industry: Manufacturing Challenge: Fords dealer warranty spending was tracked by one of the companys most important production reports, the 126 Report. Although full of important information, the paper report was cumbersome and difficult to read. As a result, Ford could not be sure that any individual dealer would digest the information and be able to use it to resolve warranty trend problems that might arise. The need was to produce the information in a visual form that could show dealers exactly where problems lay and suggest how they might fix them. They needed a system that could gather data from disparate data sources, merge and transform that data into information, then present the data visually over the Internet. They wanted dealers to keep drilling down through graphics and graphs to get the information they needed, rather than having to back up to previous pages. Solution: Keeping a full 80 percent of its existing legacy systems intact, Ford was able to transform the 126 Report into a graphical Web application that could be accessed by dealers throughout North America. The development effort took just eight months to construct and test. The resulting application runs on the Internet, providing dynamic, graphical information that instantly identifies warranty anomalies via color-coding and helps dealers isolate specific problems by drilling down through successive graphs and graphics until they reach relevant detail. Products Used: WebFOCUS Business Results: The new reporting application is keeping down dealers warranty spending and therefore improving overall product quality. At the same time, it has provided computer programming efficiencies and is reducing maintenance and training costs borne by corporate headquarters Warranty Systems Design group. The fact that the conversion from client/server to Web leveraged existing information assets and was built so quickly has meant a rapid return on investment. A surprise benefit of the new system has been its ability to move people up Fords information food chain. Mechanics at some dealerships, who previously had no access to the statistics in the 126 Report, now understand them instantly and perfectly because they get them in graphical form. For example, if they see that the warranty trend for brake repairs is edging above a certain level, they know they need to focus on the work being done by the brake repair team to bring that number down before it becomes a financial problem for the dealer.

18 The Critical Role of Business Intelligence in E-Business

MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Application: ERP integration Industry: Computer technology Challenge: Microsoft needed a more efficient way to manage company-wide expense reporting from SAP. Previous systems were either too general or too detailed and users often had to build their own systems to get the information they needed. As a result, there was a lot of replication of data and effort with a huge cost in people-time and systems overhead. Microsoft was looking for a flexible, Web-based reporting environment, a Digital Nervous System suitable for unsophisticated end users like group assistants and executive administrators who needed to investigate expenses for their individual cost and profit centers but didnt need to be bogged down by useless information. Any system developed should not adversely impact the ERP servers. The application had to provide powerful, direct access to SAP on the back-end while still showcasing Microsofts own technologies on the front-end. Solution: Microsoft employees can use Microsoft Excel and Internet Explorer products as their front-end for worldwide financial reporting from SAP R/3. An intermediate data mart uses data accessed from a variety of sources, including SAP R/3 and SQL Server. Users can drill down to as much detail as they want and focus on the business issues without waiting for data to be moved around or being distracted by how it works technically. Nothing is loaded onto their PC its all accessed over the Internet via a URL. Queries are routed through a WebFOCUS server, which, transparent to the end user, determines whether the data needed to resolve the query can be found in the SQL Server data mart or in SAP. Reports can be scheduled or burst through e-mail or run real-time. Queries are monitored and controlled to protect the server. Products Used: WebFOCUS Reporting Solution for SAP R/3, WebFOCUS Resource Governor Business Results: Microsoft was able to save head count by eliminating redundancy and providing immediate access to information. Employees who can access more information are now more productive and managers can more closely monitor profit and cost center expenses and their budgets. Finance users around the world are no longer at odds with IT over the burden placed on transaction systems by excessive expense querying. Education and training costs are nil, security is tight, programming time has been reduced, and the existing infrastructure investment has been leveraged.

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LOS ANGELES COUNTY COURT SYSTEM (WWW.WEBCOURT.CO.LA.CA.US)

Application: Self-service Industry: County government/Law Challenge: Located in southern California, the L.A. County Court is a four-tier system, including 24 municipal court judicial districts, 13 superior court districts, and 59 separate court facilities. The courts had to meet a statewide objective for Broader Access to the Justice System (Judicial Council Long-Range Strategic Plan 1998-99) and to make justice information accessible through common, well-understood technology (Goal IIIB. 3, Leading Justice Into the Future). Difficulties included: People had to travel far to obtain information from courthouses Servicing public inquiries in the form of telephone calls, in-person visits, and written correspondence was difficult and time-consuming Budgets for serving the public were tight Administrative staff were overworked with low-productivity tasks Solution: WEBCOURT is an automated civil and small claims self-service case management system that provides the general public, attorneys, and information brokers with access to case histories, information about plaintiffs and defendants, and court calendar information all via a centralized Web page. It contains more than 2 million live court case records and is used by 18 of the 24 small claims courts in Los Angeles County. WEBCOURT was a finalist nominated for a Computerworld Smithsonian Award program for innovation in computer technology. Products Used: WebFOCUS Reporting Server, WebFOCUS Desktop Developer Business Results: In addition to fulfilling a state government-imposed obligation, the WEBCOURT application saves the court the time and money it once spent administering and maintaining hard-copy public access to mainframe computer records. The new Web interface is easy to use and requires no training. Technical advantages include its easy deployment to the public, the fact that it can be centrally managed, and that it leveraged existing court management systems. An inexpensive solution for such wide-scale deployment, WebCourt provides far greater access to information than was previously possible.

20 The Critical Role of Business Intelligence in E-Business

CONCLUSION
In a business world dominated by the Internet, quality business intelligence could not be more important. Succeeding in business depends on how well you know your customers, how well you understand your business processes, and how effectively you run your operations. Without good information and a global view, you will be unable to master any of these three things. And unless you can directly access and integrate your data...transform that data into meaningful information...and then deliver that information the right way to the right people, on demand... you wont have sufficiently good business intelligence to achieve that mastery. Information Builders WebFOCUS i-business software solution provides all three aspects of the intelligence youll need for a successful business intelligence platform. WebFOCUS provides universal data connectivity. It transforms data into information that meets the individual requirements and skill levels of employees, partners, and customers. And it delivers that information intelligently and flexibly, matching the method of delivery to the needs and preferences of the individual. This white paper has laid out the need for i-business, the reasons behind the need, and a viable and available i-business solution: WebFOCUS business intelligence software. Last but certainly not least, it has provided compelling examples of organizations who are growing their businesses today with the help of Information Builders i-business solutions.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT WEBFOCUS I-BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

Visit Information Builders Web site at www.informationbuilders.com for more information about our i-business products and services. Your local Information Builders branch can also provide more information and assistance on how you can quickly get into i-business. If you prefer, you can also call us toll-free in the U.S. and Canada at (800) 969-INFO.

22 The Critical Role of Business Intelligence in E-Business

Information Builders
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