US-Based Large Pharmaceutical Company's Experience with DataTerrain Business Intelligence Automation
The successful execution of the project, and the smooth transition to the new system, can be attributed to DataTerrain's systematic approach to the process, the speed and accuracy of the upgrade, and effective interaction with the internal IT team and business users of the reports.
PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The latest in Business Intelligence Automation and over a decade of expertise were critical factors in meeting an enormous pharmaceutical industry challenge. Beginning with the end in mind, DataTerrain swiftly executed several thousand BI reports conversion to Oracle's Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
Many businesses and IT departments of various organizations face the same crucial decision-making situation: whether to keep the system internal to the company or outsource to cloud platforms. This question pertains not just to the BI (Business Intelligence) practices of the company but also relates to all the IT departments of the organization. For the customer in concern, the business data was highly sensitive, and hence, the management decided to continue with an On-Premises Business Intelligence environment.
The customer has offices across the globe, and more than 5000 users actively engage the Business Intelligence systems daily. DataTerrain comprehended the innate need for multi-language support in reporting and analysis. Before the project commenced, a thorough discussion with the customer's internal Information Technology (IT) team was held to understand, analyze, and document the unique and vital needs of the project. It is essential to have a complete and deep understanding of the various distinctive requirements of the customer at the planning stages of the project to ensure its smooth execution and successful completion.
To begin with, DataTerrain formed a highly experienced and expert team with internal IT leaders and users to formulate a list of critical time zones, and based on that list, prioritized them to identify the reports currently being used. The approach was, to begin with, the consumers of the reports to identify their specific or local requirements. This included the changes they advised from the current system of reporting and the additional features/functionalities they preferred. As global localization was a vital factor of this engagement, DataTerrain used the NLS features in this project extensively.
The customer's IT team identified around 2000 reports and dashboards as the significant reports that were being used. The next logical step in the project was the consolidation of reports for efficient management. DataTerrain extensively used an automation tool to upgrade the reports from Crystal reporting to OBIEE 11g/12c. Apart from manual testing cycles, a variety of automation tools were employed for testing to compare results from PDF or Excel formats. The automation at various levels in this upgrade saved huge costs and time. The time saved was used to develop many standardizations and best practices to ensure the robustness of the reporting system for the future.
Careful planning and execution ensured the successful completion of the project in 12 months, achieved as per the original plan, aided by the great collaboration of the customer's internal IT team. The project included meetings carried out across different time zones and effective change management processes. The DataTerrain team worked diligently in the various phases of the project: planning, customer requirement gathering, standardization of process, execution, and finally, ensuring on-time completion of deliverables.
DataTerrain detailed documentation of the project for the ease of understanding the process and future reference. Specific care was taken to ensure that users of different countries could follow the independent process and management of the reporting system. The user manual and maintenance document was provided to the customer to enable easy editing of reports. The detailed documentation provided for every report (an important deliverable of the project) alleviated many bottlenecks experienced due to the varied time zones and languages. The extensive documentation of the project served the users of the system, who found it to address many of their requirements and was widely appreciated.
The successful execution of the project, and the smooth transition to the new system, can be attributed to DataTerrain's systematic approach to the process, the speed and accuracy of the upgrade, and effective interaction with the internal IT team and business users of the reports. This particular upgrade involved two different vendors (SAP Crystal report to Oracle OBIEE). Their distinct features had to be handled, and the issues that were raised due to their differences had to be resolved. DataTerrain's deep understanding of both systems (and extensive research) helped them overcome the different challenges in the process and led to the successful completion of the project to the total satisfaction of the customer.
The up-gradation project brought in more flexibility, scalability, and enhanced speed of report generation. The Data Visualization capability of OBIEE (Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition) offers users a vibrant and modern visualization tool that makes comprehending business data more accessible and more effective. The system harnesses the enhanced capability of technology to provide users with new business insights. It enables them to make faster, more informed business decisions with visual analytics and precise enterprise analytics. The accuracy and robustness of the system make it ideal for an organization that supports a vast number of users.
DataTerrain is available to meet your organization's Business Intelligence challenges of all sizes at [email protected].
SOURCE DataTerrain Inc
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