Engen have embarked on a datawarehouse project and have employed a unique approach towards its implementation. This included choosing to use business analysts who did not necessarily have an IT background, but who were skilled in business analysis, as knowledge workers. This decision meant that Engen needed a tool set that allowed these knowledge workers to build the processes using a graphical user interface to create the elements of the datawarehouse to meet the needs for executive business information.
SAS Institute Data Warehouse and Administrator were chosen for this project.
Engen, like many other companies, faces the challenges of the twentieth century: the need for access to timeous information to respond quickly to an inclement business environment. Engen has, as a result, formulated a carefully constructed approach to its business strategy based on management information (MIS) sourced from a datawarehouse. Engen has decided to create its own business scorecard which allows the company to keep track of critical business measures to monitor Engen's progress against their strategic direction.
The core business of Engen is the refining of crude oil, the marketing of their primary refined petroleum products in Africa, and the provision of convenience services through a retail network. Engen's vision is to be "the" African Oil Company, "committed to meeting the agreed needs of our customers, to increasing our business interests and profit share in Africa, adding value to both the company and our stakeholders in terms of selection of our products, services and areas of production," says the company's positioning statement.
The company has a diverse range of areas of operation which spurred the decision to create their own customised balanced scorecard, says Richard Magnin, the business analyst who managed the project and manages the datawarehouse.
Delivering business intelligence to Engen
"Our main aim is to deliver business intelligence to the business," he adds. Engen has had executive information systems and an Oracle store of company information in place as far back as 1994, and implemented a MIS system in 1996 for the marketing group. Magnin explains that they were keen to consolidate their information systems approach based on a balanced scorecard and to use this as one of the main drivers for the datawarehouse. The project was started earlier this year and 100 of the categories of the scorecard have already been implemented. Magnin says that the idea is to reach up to 450 users through the delivery of business information across the Web.
He adds: "Critical to the success of developing a datawarehouse must be full executive sponsorship of both the balanced scorecard (business information needs identification) and the datawarehouse."
Magnin points out that their approach has been radically different to other companies. He says: "Normally the IT department would run this type of project in conjunction with business." However, Magnin felt that a more effective approach would be to have the business analysts with diverse skills in charge of the project.
"The approach that we have taken is not to only include technical people in building the business interface. Rather we have insisted on having the business people building the business interface. This is because of the largest problem area of communication of needs between business specialists and IT specialists. Business people talk a certain way while technical people understand things differently, which can result in a problem of communication and ultimately affects the end product," he says. While the technologists know that a software product is able to perform certain functions, a business person would typically approach an issue from knowing what the information required can do for the business.
"In many cases a programmer will develop what he thinks the business is asking for based on what the software will support, then deliver something that isn't used," points out Magnin. "We wanted to avoid this scenario." He adds that his team includes the diverse skills necessary for the project. The datawarehouse group is made up of eight people including four business analysts. "When selecting my team I looked for people with experience in business, but who do understand the workings and benefits of technology," Magnin notes. The team does include backend developers from Engen's IS department and a data modeller.
Currently Engen uses SAP/R2 although they are in the process of moving over to SAP/R3, expected to culminate next year. "Our policy is to utilise the standard SAP reporting function to its maximum while using the warehouse for extended requirements. The datawarehouse has been set up on NT servers, one for the warehouse and the second as a data mart delivery platform," he explains.
Magnin has put together a team which includes knowledge workers who understand the business issues and work very closely with both the managers and business analysts in each business area of Engen. The balanced scorecard measures are used as the starting point for this process and detailed explanations of the measures, the sources, frequency of delivery, benchmarks, results of analysis of the information are workshopped with the business managers and analysts. Final approval is obtained from the end users of all the measures.
In the beginning of the project Engen commissioned Gavroshe Technologies to assist in the identification of an 'ideal architecture' in which to operate a datawarehouse and Ernst and Young were asked to assist with implementing a balanced scorecard working with the top four levels of management in the organisation. The purpose was to obtain the strategic items to be measured, the strategic initiatives and the measures that could be applied. They assisted in formulating targets and benchmarks for the business units.
Magnin points out that the warehouse project phase is almost complete while the data warehouse is not. "A datawarehouse is an ongoing process and this is expected to go on for many years. We expect business to identify many further measures as a result of delivery of these balanced scorecards," he adds.
Magnin explains that while the business needs were identified through the balanced scorecard process an evaluation of the datawarehouse software was conducted. During their selection phase they evaluated a range of different software, and chose SAS Institute's software. "We were looking for an integrated solution, which was the easiest route forward," he says. He points out that a datawarehouse is not only what the users see, but also entails the process of picking up data from source, massaging that information, placing this information into a store, creating the data marts which are delivered to the users - all of which is held together by the metadata. "We wanted the metadata to be available to business analysts in the business. It was important to us that we acquired software that not only delivered the information, but also showed the processes," he adds.
Engen chose SAS for both their frontend and backend solutions. "SAS Institute were clear winners on the backend. On the front end they were placed second, but two elements swayed us to use SAS Institute. Firstly, the costs were greatly reduced because we had bought the backend and thus had the engine for the front end too. Secondly the top scoring package that we were considering for the frontend did not have the functionality to allow us to deliver our balanced scorecard across the Web. The software we chose from SAS Institute is Web enabled."
Magnin says that they have achieved signoff of over 100 measures (out of the total identified measures for the business). They have also developed their own scorecard delivery screen. "In our industry, we have a number of very specialised items and areas of business. We decided that rather than try and fit into somebody else's generic approach, we would deliver the measures the way that the business wanted," he says. All their measures are delivered across the Internet, and all enable users to drill down from measures into tables, printouts or reports, with the ability to go into multidimensional cubes all using the Web.
"What was most surprising was that the most difficult part of the project was not the backend data handling. That side has gone the most smoothly. The area that I thought would be easiest to do was the front end, which turned out to be tricky. We found it difficult having to couple, Java, the Web and SAS Institute software. However SAS Institute were very supporting and even flew out one of their experts from the UK who was able to resolve that problem. Certainly the support from the local office has been top class," he says.
Magnin says that the actual setting up of the various components of the software to allow things to work as well as they are took longer than anticipated. "If we had selected a best-of-breed solution bringing all the bits and pieces together would have been a nightmare," he adds.
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