Business Objects Customers: Consip RGS

Consip RGS

"Business intelligence and data warehouse contribute to making the Ministry for the Economy and Finance a source with the capability to produce certified and reliable information on economic data."

Stefano Ferrari
Data Warehouse Manager
RGS - Consip

The General Accounting Office (RGS) is the department of the Italian Ministry for the Economy and Finance which supports Parliament and the Government in policies, processes and budgeting.

Consip performs many activities to support the General Accounting Office: managing the state budget - creation, adjustment and accounting processes - is now completely computerized. Changes to financial law are entirely supported by computer systems which implement variations in real time. Payments effected by the Central Public Administration are exclusively online. Checking compliance of the financial coverage with requirements imposed by legal regulations is entirely supported by a computerized workflow system. Innovative and automated instruments have been introduced for the management of State revenues, accounting operations with the European Union, and to monitor the use of structural funds assigned to Italy.

Challenge

The RGS data warehouse

The growing IT requirements and the increased complexity of government activity have made it essential to rationalize the information available. In this context business intelligence was introduced and the RGS data warehouse was born, structured as several data marts dedicated to the individual RGS Inspectorates.

Stefano Ferrari pointed out "Business intelligence can bring various types of knowledge together in one common whole: the data warehouse makes it possible for the offices to benefit from it, and they have an interest in managing the data in a shared form - while still respecting confidentiality and control."

Solution

Business intelligence as an ongoing process

One of the first fundamental operations was standardization of terminology. Stefano Ferrari recalls "At first there were many vertical applications run by individual inspectorates, so it was necessary to create a common language so that two offices were not using different words to express the same concept."

A further step was internal function accreditation. "It was an issue of showing that the results from our system were as accurate as possible: now the reliability and quality of the data extracted from the common system is clear to everyone. Previously, everyone was worried about losing their own power, but it is now evident to them that the role of each department is enhanced, not diminished." The inspectors now have much more standardized and transparent information than they had before.

There has also been significant training activity: every year over 100 staff participate in Business Objects courses to learn how to analyze the information more and more easily and flexibly without having to make calls to the relevant office. Currently there are over 1,000 users, and almost 700 predefined reports extracted from the 53 domains.

"Users like the product, and the results are an excellent incentive to use it." Our attention to quality of data has proved its worth: we have won in terms of credibility, winning over the users' inevitable initial reticence."

Advantages

Migration to BusinessObjects XI

An architectural assessment was made at the beginning of 2006. Consip and Business Objects participated in this jointly, and it resulted in the identification of optimum architecture and products in a scenario of constant growth in use and increasingly sophisticated analyses. Migration started in June 2006 and was completed by the end of the year.

Livio Perugini, coordinator of the business intelligence competency centre observes: "BusinessObjects XI's new approach to security is very impressive: the management of profiles has a more flexible and comprehensive logic basis. Although Supervisor is faster, BusinessObjects XI needs more effort and attention: the transition has been made from a user-based security system to an object-based system." The different approach has required additional work but has produced significant improvements. "Regeneration of profiles has helped to uncover anomalous situations which have now been optimized. We have standardized around six large groups of users: Supervisor, Designer, Consip Client, MEF Client, WebbI Consip and WebbI MEF."

There are many recognized advantages of BusinessObjects XI, starting with the much more attractive user interface. But it is not just the graphics. Livio Perugini points out "BusinessObjects XI presents managerial improvements in both installation and maintenance. It also considerably reduces the gap between use of Web Intelligence and that of the Client version, which can also permit complex analysis via the web. Finally, BusinessObjects XI includes a series of very useful modules which were optional add-ons: I am referring to the Scheduler and the Encyclopaedia, and the performance management features (planning, budgeting and forecasting)." Crystal Reports is used for particularly sophisticated reports.

Customer Spotlight

Consip RGS

Challenge

Solution

Advantages

Quick Facts