Comarch Business Intelligence

Business intelligence
& data warehouses

A company’s knowledge is one of its most valuable assets. Competent management of the
knowledge ensures that it becomes a key factor of success on the way towards gaining
a competitive advantage. What contemporary managers need is access to information,
a clear understanding of reality and quick reaction. These needs are realised by IT solutions
based on data warehouse technology. Their substantive use within a realised business is
represented by business intelligence.
Data warehouses are IT systems that consist of many components. They collect data from
other (source) IT systems, organise, integrate and arrange these data in order to present them
to end users in a legible and logical manner as reports, analyses and summaries.

Actually, every company needs a data warehouse because:

:: Decision-makers need consistent information from many different sources;
:: Source IT systems functioning within a company do not
generate legible reports for making decisions;
:: Data analysis slows down the operation of source systems.
2 ::
Data warehouse-based business intelligence systems select and review the most impor-
tant company information, which are the basis for making business decisions. The mission of
the system is to provide understandable and legible information for every enterprise manage-
ment level.
Solution description

Comarch Business Intelligence is a modern IT solution based on data warehouse technology.

Its principal role is to provide organised and understandable information to support decision
making for various enterprise management levels. The architecture of the solution consists of
three groups of components. These are:
:: Multidimensional review areas,
:: Reporting system,
:: Integration modules.

The generated reports are based on any data sources and create a solution that can be
called an Enterprise’s Analytical Platform. Comarch Business Intelligence is an efficient and
reliable company knowledge management tool.

Controlling Sales Finances Other :: 3

Data sources Reporting System

Multidimensional
ERP Data Reports
Review WWW
systems warehouses Log
Areas
Flat
Other Excel Other
files

Integration
Modules

Components of Comarch Business Intelligence

 Multidimensional analytical areas
Multidimensional analytical areas (data marts) are organised sets of data concerning issues
of the realised business, such as: Sales, Finances, Controlling and Logistics. The individual
review areas are closely connected with data from relevant source systems. Every area
consists of many reviewed measures (e.g. income, expense, profit margin) and dimensions
(e.g. time, product, contracting party), which is the basis for building reports. Construction of
the Comarch Business Intelligence Platform allows selection and use of various review areas
according to the user’s needs. Below are examples of review areas:
:: Sales :: Finances :: Warehouses :: Accounting :: Controlling
:: Logistics :: EDI transactions :: Financial parameters.

Reporting system
The basic component of the Reporting System included in Comarch Business Intelligence is
the Report Book. This comfortable and reliable tool allows to prepare the required report
4 :: quickly and easily. The Report Book uses Microsoft technologies that enable constructing
individual reviews by “drag&drop” method. This solution allows you to create a report on
your own within several minutes. According to the user’s preferences, the following can also
be used as a reporting system:
:: Web Report Book,
:: Microsoft Excel,
:: Advanced analytical systems.

Integration modules
Integration modules are the components of Comarch Business Intelligence. They enable
schedules, budgets, descriptive data and other additional information to be entered into
the system. Their objective is to support the data warehouse feed process and to manage,
organise and describe the individual data. The use of specific integration modules depends
on nature of the project, quantity of diverse data sources and company needs in relation to
the reviews carried out.
Users
The Comarch Business Intelligence solution becomes an ideal part of the organisational
structure of a company. Regarding the usage of the system, at least four groups of users
who use the reports and reviews generated by Comarch Business Intelligence can be distin-
guished. These are:
:: Board Representatives,
:: Directors,
:: Managers,
:: Analysts and Controllers.

Access rights to data, and thus the contents of reviewed reports, depends on the role and
position of the user on the corporate “information ladder”. A description of the access rights
and examples of how the system is used by individual user groups is illustrated in the follow-
ing table.

:: 5
Management
Board

Reviews
Directors
Controlling

Managers

Position Access rights Examples of system use

Chairman, Profitability analysis for products and projects,

Board’s Access to all data control of budget deviations, amount of
Representatives liabilities in overall terms, etc.

Decision on the volume of sales to a specific

Operating Access to a precisely defined
customer, control of commercial credit level,
Directors subset of data
execution of the line’s budget, etc.

Control of expense levels, execution of

Department Access to a precisely defined
department’s budget, stock review, liabilities
Managers subset of data
structure, etc.

Preparation of reports and reviews for other

Analysts,
Access to all data system users, construction of detailed reviews,
Controllers
conclusion presentation.
 Case study

Controlling within a manufacturing company

Efficient realisation of controlling processes within a company with a production
profile is of key importance for its position in a market that is subject to continuous
changes. Without thorough knowledge of operation costs we would not be able
to properly mould the pricing policy of the company. The use of Comarch Business
Intelligence and controlling review area resulted in a reduction in production costs
of our products, which obviously strengthened our position against the competi-
tion. At present the ongoing monitoring of the costs or review of profit margins on
individual products or customers is not a problem any more. The gained knowledge
is a solid basis for further consolidation of our market position.
Board Representative

Examples of reports prepared by the company in the controlling area:

:: Multilevel cost, income, result, profit margin and profitability review;
:: Budget execution report – monthly and increasingly by organisational units;
6 ::
:: Comparison of company expenses by type;
:: Multilevel profit margin coverage review;
:: Result account for company and individual departments;
:: Analysis of changes in company financial and efficiency indices;
:: Expenses of organisational units with review of source documents;
:: Analysis of time structure for expenses and interrelations between them.

Integration of distribution network

In order to be able to effectively compete in our business, we must be absolutely
sure that the logistic processes within our company are efficient. The ongoing
control of correct organisation of the logistic chain is important not only for us
but most of all for our customers. It ensures that goods will always be delivered
to the right place in time. The multitude of warehouses all over the country and
diversity of the systems to operate them was always a challenge to our analysts.
The use of Comarch Business Intelligence logistic review area allowed the logistic
management within the company to be significantly improved and the operating
costs to be reduced.
Chief Controller

Systems used by the company:

:: Company Stores Service – system based on Microsoft SQL 2000;
:: Company’s headquarters – system based on Oracle 8i;
:: Manufacturing Plants – system based on Oracle 9i;
:: Warehouse management of local departments – system based on DB2 database;
:: ERP system (branch 1) – system based on Btrieve database.
Reviews in a trade company
In a company with a trade profile, the ongoing review of sales trends is one of
the most essential issues. Our presence on the markets that differ to such a large
extent from one another would not be possible without the reliable analyses pro-
vided by Comarch Business Intelligence sales review area. Always up-to-date and
easy to prepare reports provide information that allows us to adjust our sales to
the key requirements of the customers, check on the efficiency of promotional
campaigns, shape the pricing policy to be adequate to the continuously changing
market conditions and modify the incentive system within the company.
Sales Director

Below are some of the reports prepared by the company:

:: Changes in Sales by Geographical Areas;
:: Comparison of gained profit margin by Products and Groups of Products;
:: Analysis of the growth in quantitative sales for selected Customer or Contractor;
:: Realisation of the sales curve for new products by days; :: 7
:: Ranking of the Sales branches and individual sellers;
:: Analysis of efficiency of promotional campaigns and their
influence on various Groups of Products;
:: Detailed report on sale expenses and types of discounts granted;
:: Summary of historical sales and their profitability;
:: Comparison of sales by various Companies and Product distributors;
:: Report on influence of the sales to a customer on the profit margin gained.
 Technology for business

The ability to use state-of-the-art technology in business is now the basic criterion for
making decisions about investing in IT solutions. On this account, the latest trends related
to design and use of data warehouses focus on using them as effectively as possible for
running and controlling the company business or monitoring the organisation’s activities. The
objective of the modern architecture of data warehouses is as follows:
:: Providing legible and understandable data in the business review process;
:: Integration of many information from diverse data sources;
:: Combining important data sources;
:: Organising data into thematic groups arranged according to subjects;
:: Gathering data in structures that are optimised in terms
of queries and extracting information;
:: Facilitating the process of building reviews and reports for the final user.

It is the architecture named unified multidimensional model that is responsible for

accomplishing this. It acts as a “translator” of the source data into a language that would be
8 :: understandable for a end user of the data warehouse. When building reports and reviews
we use the following terms: contracting party, distribution channel, product, promotion,
profit margin, and expense. Thus, a technical data warehouse becomes an efficient business
intelligence tool.

Data Sources Unified multidimensional model End User Tools

Databases

Data in data
UDM
warehouse
Flat files

WWW sites

Data warehouse architecture

Report Book

Report Book is an effective tool that allows fast creation, review and management of reports
and management of rights and roles of the users who use the Report Book.
Using the Report Book, the Comarch Business Intelligence Platform performs the following
tasks:
:: Access to data to which the given user has appropriate rights,
:: Simple and intuitive operation,
:: Ability to publish reports on the Web,
:: Data drilling (so-called “moving downward” with ability to preview the base data),
:: Integration with Microsoft Office,
:: Easy aggregation of disperse values,
:: Graphical and legible presentation of reports,
:: Automatic data refreshing – report updating.

:: 9

Web Report Book

Modern technology means the coexistence of software and hardware capabilities. The
Comarch Business Intelligence Web Report Book and mobile Internet access allows you to
take care of your company’s situation in almost every place all over the world. It is enough to
have a PC with a web browser to be able to safely control any events within your company or
present selected reports to network users.
 Advantages

The observed effects of the data warehouse project deployment within a company can be
divided into:
:: Advantages – their positive influence on the enterprise
results can be calculated in measurable values;
:: Quality advantages – their unambiguous calculation is not possible, however they
significantly influence the result and quality of the enterprise’s operation.

The most important advantages of using the Comarch Business Intelligence solutions are:
:: Provision of up-to-date and understandable executive information to various recipients;
:: Support for enterprise scheduling and controlling;
:: Reduction in labour consumption when reporting and making reviews;
:: Presentation and control of the company’s current situation;
:: Correct stock evaluation and optimisation;
:: Presentation of income, expense and profit margin gained on goods and a customer;
:: Controlling and forecasting the company’s liquidity;
:: Collecting and gathering financial and executive information from subsidiaries;
10 ::
:: Stock visualisation for goods suppliers;
:: Obtaining the effect of motivation by information;
:: Arrangement of reporting on the basis of many spreadsheets;
:: Efficient customer service and adjusting an offer to the customer;
:: Verification of the efficiency of promotional campaigns
and their influence on goods turnover;
:: Relieving the operation of source systems;
:: Mobile access to necessary reports;
:: Making the company’s analytical system independent of changes in source systems;
:: Simplification in IT infrastructure dedicated to reporting;
:: Relieving the operation of the company’s main production system;
:: Improved information delivery for new employees;
:: Better preparation of the company to the strategy that
aims at increasing sales on new markets;
:: Quick and flexible response to the analytical needs of various recipients.
Comarch

Comarch is a company of knowledge of academic origin with unceasing scientific support

from the best universities both in Poland and abroad. It is an integrator of the most
advanced telecommunication technologies and provider of its own unique solutions. It is
a capital group which, as a whole, offers a comprehensive IT offer for telecommunication,
industry, trade, financial institutions, power industry and public administration.
Comarch is the winner of numerous honours and prizes. Among other things, it was recog-
nised by the President of the Republic of Poland as the Best Polish Company in 2000. In the
same year it was recognised by the World Economic Forum in Davos as a Technological Pioneer,
i.e. a company that contributes to the improvement of global social and economic conditions.

:: 11
References

We can read in many of the reference letters received: “Comarch’s IT solutions and experi-
ence deserve the full recognition of current and future customers.” Below are some of the
customers that use Comarch’s data warehouse-based solutions in the field of Business
Intelligence implementation:
:: Atlantic
:: Ambra
:: BP
:: Ministerstwo Finansów (Ministry of Finance)
:: Invest Bank
:: Telekomunikacja Polska
:: Telefonia Dialog
:: Zespół Elektrociepłowni Bytom (heat and power plant group of companies in Bytom)
:: Przedsiębiorstwo Energetyki Cieplnej Malbork (heat and
power plant group of companies in Malbork)
:: OPEC Gdynia
:: Kreisel Technika Budowlana (construction company)
:: Sprint
:: Fabryka Wyrobów Runowych Biruna (fleece production plant)
:: Artman
:: Italcolor
:: PKM Duda
Headquarters
Comarch SA
Al. Jana Pawła II 39a
31-864 Kraków, Poland
phone: +48 12 64 61 000
fax: +48 12 64 61 100
e-mail: BI@comarch.com
Subsidiaries and offices
EUROPE Germany Dresden :: France Paris
:: Belgium Brussels :: Finland Helsinki :: Slovakia Bratislava
:: Russia Moscow :: Ukraine Kiev
AMERICAS USA Miami :: Panama Panama City
MIDDLE EAST United Arab Emirates Dubai

www.comarch.com :: www.comarch.pl :: www.comarch.de :: www.comarch.ru