Seagate Software maximises data warehouse potential for the ITC

Consumer and commercial risk management information solutions provider, the Information Trust Corporation (ITC), has confirmed the successful implementation of Seagate Software`s Crystal Reports to meet its need for a data mining tool and management report writer.

Jenny Henderson, business information systems project leader at the ITC, says the organisation`s role in the market has undergone a metamorphosis and that services required by customers have turned the company into far more than a conventional credit bureau.

"The task team`s first order of business was to look at the needs of the business and establish minimum requirements the selected product must satisfy. Maximising the potential of a data warehouse requires an extraction and analysis tool which is not only effective, but enables everyone to easily find and access the information they require," she says. Prerequisites were:

• considering the sensitivity of the information would be handling, the product had to be secure;

• training as well as local service and support was essential;

• it had to offer an acceptable ratio of cost versus functionality;

• it should support ITC`s existing computing platforms;

• it was expected to provide scalability for addressing future needs; and

• it had to either already provide online analytical processing (OLAP) functionality or be part of an evolution in that direction.

Henderson adds that the organisation was looking for an application that would enable senior management to analyse data in the easiest manner possible and produce monthly electronic reports.

"In the past all our data resided on a mainframe and month-end reports were produced on paper. It was very difficult for management to extract the kind of useful information they needed using a simple spreadsheet," she says, adding that Crystal Reports has brought the IT department closer to the business.

Additional benefits include the ITC staff`s ability to analyse client databases as well as their own, thereby enabling a more comprehensive picture to be drawn as to the state of their accounts. Month-end management information is also produced in a day as opposed to the three to four day waiting period ITC staff had to endure.

Vivek Thomas, regional manager for the Middle East and Africa at Seagate Software says: "Organisations such as the ITC have long been looking at Business Intelligence solutions to turn raw data into quantifiable business information. Their implementation of Seagate Software`s Crystal Reports proves there is a real need within the local business community to get the right information to the right people, in a timeous fashion."

Future plans include the expansion of the data warehouse to take additional advantage of the product. "Seagate Crystal Reports is easy to use and it would be foolish of us not to grow the application now that we have seen the benefits," she says.

ITC also plans to `sell` the application to more users, particularly management, who could take advantage of Seagate OLAP business tools for trend analyses.

Implementation was straightforward once training was completed. "We had to make sure users understand the concept of report writing first, in addition to the technology before they went on course.

"If they did not have a grasp of the application as it is used in a business context we would never have achieved any measure of success with Seagate Crystal Reports," Henderson concludes.