HOW CISCO USES PABLO
Sales representatives for router manufacturer Cisco Systems have financial information at their fingertips, even when they're on the road. They use Andyne Computing's Pablo to access multidimensional data downloaded onto their Mac PowerBooks.
According to Ed Terpening, IS tools and technology manager at Cisco Systems, financial data (including transactions, sales, and revenue) resides in an Oracle relational database on a Hewlett-Packard Unix system. This data is loaded into a virtual data warehouse and then goes to the multidimensional structure on a Mac server. Pablo's multidimensional structure, called a Hypercube, contains data from the previous year (30 to 40 MB) that is updated wee
kly.
Terpening points out that, although about 30 to 40 people use Pablo now, he expects that number to eventually rise to about 100. They aren't just data analysts either. Pablo's ease of use allows comparatively nonexpert users, including regional managers and sales and marketing staff, to generate reports and comparisons as needed.
Because Cisco sales representatives compete against each other, each has only his or her own as well as aggregated data--no representative gets another one's private data. But having all that data resident, and having Pablo to slice and dice it, gives them a powerful advantage when they make sales calls.
HOW US WEST USES IRI'S EXPRESS
US West uses Express as both a source of data and a front end, according to Tom Keeney, director of financial systems development. Financial analysts in each business unit submit budgeting and other information directly, using input screens running in Express. Monthly, a flat file i
s extracted from DB2 to the Express multidimensional database running on an IBM ES/9000 mainframe. The company is in the process of migrating this to a Hewlett-Packard Unix server. Users with Express running on PCs can access this multidimensional data and generate reports as they need to.
HOW RHONE-POULENC-RORER PHARMACEUTICALS USES IRI'S EXPRESS
Howard Mark, director of systems and programming for international Rhone-Poulenc-Rorer Pharmaceuticals, uses IRI's Express to track sales and marketing information worldwide.
According to Mark, every stable source of sales and marketing data (including prescription information, factory sales, promotions, sales forecasts, and sales calls) feeds into a mainframe collection point running Express. (Soon, however, Mark expects to replace the mainframe with a Pentium server.) Nightly batch runs populate the Express multidimensional database running on a LAN server. Some 50 users access the data, currently with Express EIS as a front end
, though they may upgrade to Express for Windows.
HOW BLUE CROSS USES ESSBASE AND MICROSOFT EXCEL
Providers of health insurance have to track their own expenses as well as ours. For George Trudel, business and technology office consultant at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Rhode Island, that means getting cost-accounting information off the mainframe and into Excel spreadsheets. His solution is to use Arbor Software's Essbase as middleware between the mainframe and the spreadsheets.
The expense data lives on an IBM mainframe, with updates flowing in daily. Each month, a flat file containing the past two years of this information (around 800 MB) is extracted to Essbase. Running on an IBM OS/2 server with 32 MB of RAM and a 2-GB hard drive, Essbase populates a database with dimensions, including time, cost center, line of business, and expense type. Excel macros can then pull data in from Essbase and fill the spreadsheets in about 5 minutes. (Trudel consider
ed using Pilot Software's Lightship as a front end, but he found the spreadsheets adequate.)
Of special interest to Trudel was Essbase's support for multiple hierarchies. It can load data at the lowest level of each dimensional hierarchy. Users can then define rules for rolling up the data in different ways. Also crucial was Essbase's method of handling sparse data. The database in question has over 4 trillion possible cells but is only 0.03 percent populated.
HOW AIRTOUCH USES ESSBASE AND EXCEL
Keeping track of your own phone bill is often a frustrating and mystifying experience. Imagine doing it for customers all over the globe, all in different currencies, and you have some idea of the challenges Don Sherwood faces. Sherwood, staff director of AirTouch International, a provider of international wireless communications services (including paging and cellular phones), has to consolidate information from 90 Excel spreadsheets to construct statements for customers and for in
ternal use. After trying other solutions, he's settled on Arbor Software's Essbase.
Users have run their Excel spreadsheets for five years, and no one wanted to disrupt that part of the operation. It was important to preserve the software people were familiar with. Previous attempts to consolidate the information had included such diverse technologies as Next computers, combinations of Lotus 1-2-3 and FoxPro, and IFPS (Interactive Financial Planning System). However, the special rapport between Essbase and Excel clients makes this solution a natural fit.
"It's as simple as a drag and drop for us," said Sherwood. He selects the 90 Excel spreadsheet file icons and drops them on Essbase, running on a 486 OS/2 server. Essbase knows the structure of the Excel files. Using previously defined specifications, it can extract the required information (about 100 MB), perform calculations to transform currencies, and consolidate the information into a multidimensional database.
Sherwood's multidimens
ional database has six dimensions. Certain specific views are defined to automatically generate the needed reports.
Currently the system's sole user, Sherwood expects use to expand to five or more. The capability of the Essbase multidimensional database makes that expansion both attractive and feasible.
HOW SEARS USES ESSBASE AND LOTUS 1-2-3
Sears. Many stores. Many products. Many customers. Lots of data. How does it track actual sales versus projected sales? Irena Kleinaitis, retail reporting systems manager, consolidates mainframe and spreadsheet data with Arbor Software's Essbase multidimensional database server to generate a gross-profit matrix analysis.
Actual sales and inventory data reside on an IBM mainframe. Projections live in many Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets. Once a month, the mainframe data is passed as a flat file to Essbase, running on a 60-MHz Pentium PC with 256 MB of RAM and an 8-GB hard drive (though Kleinaitis points out that only 128 MB and 2 GB are
needed). Data transfer, formerly a 39-hour marathon with a DB2-based product, now takes just 30 minutes. That improvement, and outstanding query performance, are welcome to the 40 users of the system, many of whom employ Lotus 1-2-3 as the front-end client to Essbase.
HOW NORTH MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER USES FOREST & TREES
Hospitals generate mountains of data on patients, so it's no surprise that administrators would turn to a multidimensional tool to help analyze it all. Ron Heim, vice president of information services and CIO of North Memorial Medical Center in Minneapolis, uses Trinzic's Forest & Trees to sift all that data for the information managers need. Heim's customers for this information are the president and the top two levels of management at the hospital. They require information daily about how many patients are using which of the hospital's locations for what services.
The patient information currently resides in a Sybase relational dat
abase running on Sun SparcStation 20s. (Laboratory results are on a separate IBM AS/400 and can be accessed via SQL calls that are transparent to the user.) Data is added to the patient database constantly, amounting to up to 10,000 patient records per day. Forest & Trees accesses the information every 30 minutes to provide snapshots of the system throughout the day. In addition, an overnight batch run sifts through over a million patient records so that Forest & Trees can generate daily reports to upper management.
The response time to the system is good, and Heim expects the current 20 users to swell to almost 60. The value of the system is that it provides timely views of how the hospital is serving the needs of its patients.
HOW PHILLIPS PETROLEUM USES SMARTSTREAM ANALYZER
Plastics, the party guest advised Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. That advice has worked for the $1.8 billion plastics division of Phillips Petroleum. Keeping track of all the
operational data involves plenty of computer power and the multidimensional capabilities of Dun & Bradstreet Software's SmartStream Analyzer.
According to Mark Evans, plastics IT (information technology) manager, the impetus behind the move to multidimensional analysis came from a senior executive who didn't like receiving filtered data. Using SmartStream Analyzer, managers can slice and dice raw data themselves.
Operational data includes product sales, inventory, manufacturing reports, and logistics (e.g., locations of rail cars). Data from a variety of mainframe legacy systems feeds a central repository implemented in DB2 on another mainframe. SmartStream Analyzer interrogates DB2 nightly and extracts data to a Sybase relational database on an IBM RS/6000. From there, the data is available for querying by over 30 top managers from their networked PCs.
The fact that managers can see operational data on many different levels can have unexpected consequences, says Evans. "A senior manager
can call up lower-level management and say, `Why has this rail car been sitting in Chicago for 120 days?'" Having used the system to great success in the plastics division, Phillips is considering it for the entire corporation.
HOW HERTZ USES COMMANDER OLAP SERVER
How can Hertz maintain a competitive edge against hundreds of competitors in thousands of locations worldwide? By consolidating and automatically monitoring competitive price data from multiple sources using multidimensional technology, according to Peter Ondi (director of global marketing planning information) and Bill Carroll (division vice president of marketing planning).
Data about competitors' prices flows in constantly from multiple sources, including travel agency databases and private providers. Hertz's mainframes provide its own internal data. On a daily basis, this multiple-source data is transformed into ASCII flat files and then filtered and merged with existing data into a mul
tidimensional model.
A proprietary system of logic, rules, and criteria operates on the multidimensional model to automatically monitor prices and bring observations and trends of sometimes critical importance to the organization's attention. The model uses Arbor Software's Essbase running on a server. Comshare's Commander OLAP Server, running on Windows PCs, obtains multidimensional data from the model for analysis as a front end.
Carroll recalls that not too long ago, most of the data acquisition was done by phone and analysis was done by hand. Automated multidimensional analysis is both a dream come true and a business necessity. "To provide value to the customer, Hertz must be competitive on price," says Carroll. "This tool gives us a tremendous advantage with competitors in this market."
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