Quadrus comes highly recommended. Working with them we have succeeded in fulfilling key project objectives: to make relevant business data available to users in a timely manner and to deploy an "easy to use" reporting tool. This project has definitely been a worthwhile investment.
- Leslie Warner
Manager,
Special Projects
United Farmers of Alberta
HOW WE DO IT - Case Studies
United Farmers of Alberta
Objective:
UFA wanted its business users to have online access to data for ad hoc reporting and analysis
Solution:
Quadrus and UFA worked together to create a central location for accessing, updating, analyzing and reporting data United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) is a member owned Alberta-based co-operative that offers a wide selection of general farm supplies, building materials, consumer goods, fuel and petroleum products. It has a network of 34 farm supply stores and over 110 petroleum outlets strategically located throughout Alberta.
UFA wanted to better leverage the information in its ERP and POS systems through online access to data for ad hoc reporting and analysis. A central goal was to enable decision-makers to generate reports on demand and without technical assistance. UFA knew that having this kind of granular data within arms' reach would enable more informed, proactive decision-making and would have immediate benefits for the co-operative.
Quadrus was engaged to perform a full-scale requirements analysis to build a new data warehousing system. First Quadrus assessed the existing systems and user requirements and then worked with UFA to determine what was necessary for its new functionality. With Quadrus' guidance, UFA chose a suite of best-of-breed analytic tools that would provide new access to the existing legacy and JD Edwards source systems and enable analytics and reporting of this data. Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000, Cognos PowerPlay™ Web and Cognos Impromptu™ were the tools selected by UFA.
Quadrus worked with UFA to build a solution that followed best practices and used an iterative/incremental approach to data warehouse development. This ensured that UFA's biggest challenges were addressed and solved first. An open, scalable infrastructure and flexible solution was built with the business' long term needs in mind. New analytic functionality allowed for the manipulation of data and provided new quantitative insights in one OLAP report source view.
Reports that once took days to fulfill via requests to the IT department could now be generated immediately by the business user—permitting more immediate and informed decision-making. UFA could now dimensionally manage product and supplier information over time. Using existing data such as product sales over time at a particular location, they could analyze the product, store and vendor profitability. As a result, UFA is making more informed and powerful business decisions than ever before.