@ Solvay … using MicroStrategy -...
Transcript of @ Solvay … using MicroStrategy -...
François Garang Solvay Information Services
Executive Committee Dashboards on iPad @ Solvay … using MicroStrategy Business meets IT 21/06/2012
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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AGENDA
"Cheops" Application context
Project Birth
Overview – the Proof Of Concept
Project Youth
Architecture / Organizations Choices : "Yes we can !"
Development Phase
Overview - what result ?
On going further steps
Lessons Learned
Q & A
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Solvay and the new “Rhodia Integration” context
3 25/06/2012
Two sectors … becoming Three : SOLVAY Chemicals, SOLVAY Plastics and Rhodia’s activities
Global leader in :
specialty polymers, vinyls, essential chemicals like soda ash, caustic soda, hydrogen peroxide,
special chemicals like fluorinated products and high-purity grades …
… and now in polyamids, sustainable development products
15,000 people in 40 countries … becoming 29,000 in 55 countries
Confirmed growing presence in Asia, Americas and Eastern Europe
Solvay in figures :
Consolidated sales in 2011 of EUR 12.7 billion
Operating profits of EUR 2.1 billion
90 % turnover on product for which Solvay is in Top Three
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Application Context
"Cheops" is Solvay's financial reporting application
Client-Server application - MS SQL Server database (# 1 TB, 700 M records)
> 350 users, > 200 consolidated companies, > 100 M updates / months, # 10.000 calculations / month
Home-made application ! 25 years financial reporting experience Cheops is 12 years old : 6 main versions released so far
A CPM (Corporate Performance Management) and a BI application together
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Cheops, a CPM Application …
Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting
Strategy Management
Profitability Modeling and Optimization
Financial Consolidation
Financial Statutory & Management reporting
Extended Management Board - 1 -
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Cheops, a CPM Application …
Totally Covered
Partially Covered
Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting
Strategy Management
Profitability Modeling and Optimization
Financial Consolidation
Financial Statutory & Management reporting
Extended Management Board - 1 -
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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… and a BI Tool together
+
Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting
Strategy Management
Profitability Modeling and Optimization
Financial Consolidation
Financial Statutory & Management reporting
BI Tool Iris
Extended Management Board - 1 -
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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A Clear and Strong request from Solvay "Group Accounting" to the IT Cheops Team :
« Add a user-friendly presentation layer to Cheops / Iris environment ! » Meaning :
simplified User Interface = hide Cheops database complexity
aimed at managers / non-financial users
available on mobile devices (tablets, smart phones)
Extended Management Board - 3 -
Project Birth
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Quick focus on BI @ Solvay
Solvay is a big SAP customer naturally developped
usage of BW in both ERP and HR domains
Bex usage mainly for ERP users (Sales, Logistics …)
BI on demand for HR from SAP Portal : all managers
For the financial scope : home made Iris within Cheops environment : standard requests execution + on demand
New organization context at Solvay
Management initiative on Global Reporting Optimization
One output will be the agreed creation of a BI CC
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Quick focus on Mobility @ Solvay
Long history of Windows Mobile support
First developped IT Service for mobile devices : Blackberry in 2007 (630)
"Light" It Service for iPhone in 2010 (200)
New service for Android to come
IT Innovation Challenge on iPads …
… and finally this Executive Committee initiative on iPad ! "… it is not a gadget, it is the future ! …"
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Project merged within a more comprehensive study lead by Solvay IT BI Team, aiming at :
answering similar requests (for example as
a complementary tool on top of SAP BW systems …)
more generally : establish a selection of tools to address
a typology of different needs arising within Solvay
Project Youth
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Project Youth
Large range of BI Tools evaluated
Proofs Of Concept run on a short list of pre-selected Tools :
SAP Business Objects' "Web Intelligence"
MicroStrategy's "MicroStrategy"
QlikTech's "QlikView"
Overall Study Report submitted to IT Entreprise Architects for decisions …
And for the Financial scope, the winner was …
= "BI Stack Player"
= "BI Pure Player"
= "BI Niche Player"
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Project Youth
Why MicroStrategy ?
Best Tool tested for financial field to be integrated on top of
Cheops / Iris !
Meta-data configuration : to hide the Cheops database
structure complexity
The "Mobile« offer : still not perfect however improving
quite fast and more advanced than its competitors
Market Leader / Features richness / visualization quality
/ Competitive commercial offer
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Proof Of Concept Overview
DEMO
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Architecture Choices : "Yes we can !"
Context @ Solvay : weather trend is … Cloudy !
Decision to move to Gmail
Significant Salesforce customer
Increased hosting on the Cloud
As a consequence :
Cheops environment moves to the Cloud
MicroStrategy Plateform moves to the Cloud as well
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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"Yes we can !"
Ambitious choices ! Fortunately, Cheops has supporters …
… all around the world !
Extended Management Board - 1 -
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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First Project identification
Context @ Solvay
New Solvay Organization New Reporting Structure definition
"Reporting Factory" creation for the Finance scope within
Shared Services entity
First Reporing achievement identified :
Executive Committee dashboards on iPad using MicroStrategy !
and planned : June 2011 closing !
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Who are our mobile users here ?
Senior Management
Management Dashboards &
Reports
Mobile Employees
Sales, Services, …
Customers of our
Customers
Customer Services
Apps
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Project development
Source data preparation according to new financial reporting specifications
MicroStrategy platform installation on the Cloud
Help requested from MicroStrategy consulting services : on-going for :
system implementation
data modelization
reports / documents / application creation
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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The Executive Dashboards Dream Team
Eddy (MSTR) Bertrand (MSTR) Jakub (MSTR) Katarzina (MSTR) Olivier (Solvay) Marcin (MSTR) Mateusz (MSTR) Kamil (MSTR) Not to forget Yves, Patrick, Sandro and Mario (all MSTR)!
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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What was the result - Overview
DEMO
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Before …
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… After !
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Before …
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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… After !
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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What’s going on, what’s coming next ?
Management Report current application to be converted to its web version
to be adapted for Business Units
merge Solvay and Rhodia Dashboards applications
Management Reports to Management Dashboards no more reports : real dashboards !
wider usage of MicroStrategy’s visualization capabilities
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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iPad expected advantages …
Foreseen advantages were mainly related to the delivered application : “MicroStrategy dashboards on the iPad”
a huge PDF report of more than 100 pages (not always printed in both sides !)
replaced by a single iPad application …
… with an overall 30 screens …
… in 16 MIcroStrategy documents
information availability on the device :
as soon as published following the monthly closing, thanks to “subscription”
configuration in MicroStrategy, which automates the refresh
from inside and outside Solvay (hosted on the cloud !)
reachable even when no connection available, thanks to the local cache
user-friendliness and new visualizations opportunities
easy navigation within the application (in comparaison with printed pdf)
application esthetic
wide range of efficient visualizations … even if not much used yet
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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… and iPad less expected advantages !
Un-foreseen advantages were mainly related to an immediate demand for a much wider usage of the iPad from the top management !
Management Report additional requests :
have the pdf version ”on board” the iPads
have “refreshed” for information not related to closing
be able to put comments on Dashboards
Other Documents management requests :
be able to access all Executive Committee notes from the iPad
be able to annotate PDF documents on the iPad : using the keyboard or the
touch screen (finger …)
Extended usage of the iPad requests, making it a “all day companion” !
banking applications
stock exchange applications
news applications
© 2010, SOLVAY S.A.
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Lessons learned
Positive attitude is to start something ! In our case : basic BI, more reporting than dashboarding light mobile deployment
Tool selection is still quite important
Mobile devices management not to be forgotten !
If you can have more time than what we have for this project, do not hesitate : Take it !