QAD - Business Intelligence Platform

MWUG – Presentation by Capital Safety

Mike Booke – Global VP of ITAndy McDonald – Solutions Analyst

Insight

Topsight

Detailed, consistent data &

Shared process models

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dsig

htForesight

Measures

QAD Business Intelligence

QAD Enterprise Applications

- Inquiries & Standard Reports

- Operational Metrics - Reporting Framework- Browses & Collections

Operational

Tactical

StrategicExecutives

CEO, CIO, CFO

Dept. ManagersFinance, Sales,...

OperationsProd. Mgr, PlannersWarehouse, Staff

BI’s Role

Database Modelling

Meta Data Repository

Scheduler

Documentation

Operators

Re-Format Data

Business Users

Financials Sales CRM HR Other

Developers

BI Solution

• Reporting current state• BI platform goals and objectives• Managing cultural change• Implementation lessons and success• Summary

Agenda

• Dashboard only offers canned reports– Reports are focused on individual customer data– Several different legacy technologies (PHP, MySQL,

Fusion Charts, SSRS, WebSpeed)– Dynamic reports / queries are not supported

• Data not consolidated among 12 separate QAD databases

• Manual consolidation takes days each month

Reporting Current State

• Consistent global reporting platform• Improved dashboard with

– Graphical action-oriented reporting– Drill down for non-expert users

• Power user ability to easily generate queries without IT intervention

• Ability to consolidate from QAD internal and external sources– Attach Excel spreadsheets as data sources

• Budget by different regions, and product lines• Also Rep number security

BI Platform Goals and Objectives

• Prior dashboard effort failed due to:– Involve the global business

• Currency was an issue, all were base currency only– Lack of confidence in the reports– No Change Management focus

Managing Cultural Change

“Technology is easy, it’s the people that are hard.”… Mike Booke

• Current change initiatives– Global Steering Committee of key global stakeholders– Major milestone review for all global regions– Roll-out by region (Europe, Pac Rim, Americas)– Data cleansed and reports validated by regional

stakeholders

Managing Cultural Change (cont.)

“Technology is easy, it’s the people that are hard.”… Mike Booke

View of 2 reps

• Plan on regular workload preventing stakeholder participation

• Dashboards / reports are difficult to visualize– Use graphical examples– Consider drill down and management views– Scope creep will be inversely proportional to current

reports available• Don’t launch a dashboard on the first day of the

fiscal year

Implementation Lessons

• QAD data mappings minimized the biggest risk in BI projects– Data mapping is accurate and minimizes cleansing– Module (cube) design consistent with QAD data fields

• QAD Data Warehouse Designer facilitated dashboard objectives– Graphical action-oriented information– Ease of use drill down

Implementation Success

• Salespeople and executive management have easy access to more information than ever before– Daily consolidated sales vs. monthly– Graphical action oriented sales and product

dashboards– Trend graphics and data– Product heat maps for cross-sales opportunities

Business Success

• Regional Currency customization– UK - British Pounds – base currency– Rest of Europe – Euros – base currency– Corporate currency is USD– Solution is regional currency of Euros

• Monthly exchange rate

Executive Dashboard

Executive Dashboard

Executive Dashboard Level 2

Executive Dashboard (cont.)

Product Sales Heat-Map

Open Quotes Grid with Drill-Down

• Manage cultural change– Include key management stakeholders in:

• Requirements, • Dashboard design, and • Implementation

– Utilize user stakeholders in data validation

Summary

“Technology is easy, it’s the people that are hard.”… Mike Booke

• QAD BI Platform minimizes risk over non-QAD tools– Data mapping is accurate and minimizes cleansing– Module (cube) design consistent with QAD data fields

ensures report data integrity– Easy to use Designer facilitates stakeholder adoption

Summary (cont.)

• Rolled-out first region in 5 weeks compared to >18 months for SAP / Business Objects at former company

• Salespeople and management have easy access to more information than ever before

Summary (cont.)

Ensuring Adoption

• Drive change from the top down• Define meaning of Business Intelligence• Focus on the right metrics• Keep it simple and grow• Get it out to the users early