“BizCubed with Pentaho proved to be the best solution to meet our requirements, a low cost to deliver immediate business value”. Gabriel Perez, Group General Manager Information Technology
Corporate Description
Gabriel Perez, CIO for Teys Brothers, a billion dollar a year meat processing facility located in sunny Queensland, explained that “Business Intelligence is seen by the business as an integral part of their long term business strategy”.
Solution Overview
Teys Brothers faced a number of challenges when choosing to upgrade their financial systems, including migrating data from the existing systems to the new JD Edwards platform and delivering quality reports, critical to the continued success of the business.
BizCubed using the Pentaho Suite of Business Intelligence products was able to deliver effectively on all of Teys’ requirements.
For Teys to maintain and grow market share it was crucial they maximised the margins in their existing portfolio of products. In order to achieve this, Teys needed to have access to the “real data”. Sourcing realtime information from the existing financial systems had been difficult, and a core business driver in the transition to JDE. While JDE had a reporting module available, the investment did not make for a good value proposition in addition to other limitations.
“The JD Edwards reporting options were not flexible enough to meet our reporting requirements for future developments in other areas of the business, too proprietary, and not cost effective”.
Other options investigated were Business Objects and IBM’s Cognos, and while both are capable offerings Teys concluded the risk of success penalties was too great.
“We recognised the value Business Intelligence had to offer, but wanted to limit our initial investment while our confidence grew in what could actually be delivered”.
“Given the significant capital investment required for these solutions we would have been forced to make them work, regardless of cost and how well they actually met the needs of our business”.
“With Pentaho this risk was minimised through the unique nature of the Commercial Open Source business model”.
“While Pentaho was a broader product and exceeded our immediate requirements, we understood it was the right choice when considering the future BI requirements of our business”.
Engagement Process
Gabriel was pleased with how well the two teams integrated and worked together to achieve the common goal. The teams from each organisation dedicated to delivering on the project were designed in such a way that clear lines of communication and distinct escalation points would ensure its success. The agile project methodologies employed produced a casual but effective interaction between teams.
“Individuals and teams took ownership and delivered the desired outcomes”.
Outcomes
“BizCubed with Pentaho proved to be the best solution to meet our requirements, a low cost to deliver immediate business value”.
When asked, would you recommend BizCubed and Pentaho to other organisations to assist them in reaching BI nirvana? The answer came quickly as “I already have!”
