Gefco
"This is a business intelligence project on a vast scale. Our aim was to supply all the group's activities, business areas, and subsidiaries with very detailed metrics and a range of perspectives to enable better management and customer service. This is why we went for a standardized architecture based on Business Objects, giving us a single application with different levels of analysis for different managerial profiles. We had two imperatives: confidential data had to be absolutely secure, and we had to be able to move information fast to a very big user population."
- Olivier Joly, Business Intelligence Platform Manager, Gefco
HR Management
In 1998, Gefco asked Micropole-Univers to start work on its first BI project in HR. The HR data warehouse uses data from HR Access, while BusinessObjects supplies management information about staffing levels, salaries, absenteeism, and cross-referenced tables showing the monthly workforce analyzed by socio-professional category and/or geographical zone, and personnel movement in each business area and/or geographical zone.
In 2000, a more ambitious goal was set to improve the transport and logistics management tools across-the-board. This involved addressing the needs of all the management organizations, whether functional or in specific business areas, and could only be achieved by completely overhauling the existing information management architecture. At the time, data was supplied by several sources, notably SAP and HR Access running under Oracle, text files, or specific business packages like BMS for tracking workshop maintenance. The whole BI challenge was suddenly much bigger.
The original architecture was reinforced. Gefco introduced a global data warehouse and standardized all its technologies around Business Objects, Oracle 9i, and Hummingbird/Genio.
A Complete Corporate Deployment
The data warehouse was then extended to specific applications. Now a population of 600 users is able to receive standard information, while more specialized users could issue their own queries. Detailed analysis of workflow and distribution, washing and maintenance operations are sent to the handling solutions. For Gefco's Network business (group and full/part-load road transport), Business Objects produces, for example, dashboards for each agency on the quality and performance of the business. For the Automotive business (transport, distribution, preparation, and vehicle refurbishment), reports cover vehicle fleet tracking and personnel activity. On the financial side, Business Objects dovetails with the Hyperion Essbase applications used in the budgeting process and, through its predefined dashboards on business area margins, sales income, and profitability, a comprehensive and powerful business intelligence tool.
Benefits
Gefco has achieved benefits by changing working methods and saving time on a number of daily tasks. Today, in a matter of minutes and even seconds, users can get sophisticated dashboards with metrics reflecting a wide range of perspectives. The near-instant availability of reports leaves the staff free to focus on their core work. They now have exactly the information they need. Operational reporting enables precise tracking of activity at agency and head office level. The next step is to extend the implementation to a multi-lingual business intelligence system for all the group's subsidiaries.
Quick Facts
Challenge
- Manage the group's different activities
- Analyze the contribution of customer service to overall profitability
Solution
- An Oracle data warehouse and data marts
- BusinessObjects dashboards for the 600 users
Benefits
- Optimized performance
- Improved efficiency and responsiveness