Awards & Honors

Linda B. Zafonte, chief information officer at the New York State Insurance Fund – an Information Builders customer – has been named a Computerworld 2012 Premier 100 IT Leader. The 2012 Premier 100 IT Leaders Awards recognizes 100 business and technology leaders for their exceptional technology leadership, innovative ideas, and effectively managed IT strategies.

 

Information Builders Premium Support team received the “Customer Service Team of the Year” Stevie Award in the 2011 American Business Awards (ABA). Information Builders was also named a finalist in two additional categories, “Customer Service Executive of the Year” and “Customer Service Department of the Year.” This is the fourth consecutive year that the company's customer service has been recognized by ABA.

The following are Information Builders customers that have won the 2011 Computerworld Honors Award for using information technology to benefit society:

• Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, which was also selected as a finalist, deployed Information Builders’ Law Enforcement Analytics (LEA) dashboard and predictive policing solution to proactively fight crime with intelligent, timely, and complete information. Instead of manually sifting through 13 disparate data sources to analyze crime statistics, identify trends, and model resource allocations, this LEA solution automates tedious analytical processes and provides up-to-the-minute reports to police officers in their patrol cars.   
• FDIC – From January 2008 through December 2010, the FDIC was appointed as receiver of 322 failed financial institutions, with assets at inception totaling more than $625 billion. This resolution activity dramatically increased workloads and created a crushing demand for information about the organization, its operations, and receivership management. FDIC’s Financial and Management Reporting (FMR) group used WebFOCUS to build dashboards that enable FDIC employees to complete their jobs faster, accelerating the resolution process and reducing losses to the Deposit Insurance Fund. Prior to developing the portal, FMR was e-mailing on average more than 400 operational reports each day. The reports are now automated and are published on the portal daily for executives and management.
• Houston Community College developed an academic dashboard for board members, senior staff members, and administrators to help the college document and evaluate decisions, measure student enrollment, track student outcomes, and provide access to key financial indicators. By enabling staff to analyze data from a single source of truth in a compelling, visual way, they can make critical enrollment and financial decisions with greater insight and keep the community apprised of important developments.
• Schawk helps some of the world’s largest companies manage, monitor, measure, and protect branded assets, and comply with the requirements of highly regulated industries. This company used iWay Service Manager to create an XML-driven framework for receiving, normalizing, and integrating consumer readable packaging text and metadata into design and manufacturing processes. This includes updates to label and packaging information, such as ingredients and nutrition facts, which are now automatically converted into industry-standard XML formats and dynamically placed into electronic artwork.
• Scotiabank – At a time when the financial services industry is under intense scrutiny for how it compensates sales professionals, Scotiabank is leading the industry with its focus on accountability, auditability, and fairness in its commissions, bonuses, and reporting  practices. To streamline integration among delivery channels and across product and service lines, Scotiabank standardized on iWay Software to develop data interfaces to its Sales Builder system, which automated the sales reporting process and freed up more than 72,000 hours per year, allowing staff members to spend more time advising customers. Scotiabank’s investment in these IT capabilities has an expected return of several million dollars per year on a go-forward basis.
• Transamerica Insurance and Investment Group (TIIG) used Information Builders’ WebFOCUS BI platform to build the Sales Tracking and Reporting System (STARS), a self-service reporting environment that provides up-to-date sales and commission information to more than 800 independent life insurance distributors and company sales-line employees. By leveraging STARS to make its sales force more efficient and effective, the company is ensuring that policyholders receive superior service and support from their insurance professionals.
• Yeshiva University – iWay’s rapid integration solutions have enabled Yeshiva to maximize its research assets, simplify grant administration, control spending, automate accounts payable and procurement processes, and create highly sophisticated workflows that reduce manual effort for the administrative staff. Lowering its overhead costs helps the university to minimize fee increases, making the college more affordable for existing and prospective students.

Stu Madison, vice president of Corporate Technical Support Services, Information Builders, won the 2010 Stevie Award for "Customer Service Executive of the Year." The Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

For her innovative use of predictive analytics and business intelligence tools from Information Builders, Dealer Services’ CIO, Chris Brady, was recognized by the prestigious 2010 CIO 100 Awards from CIO magazine.

Information Builders' Vice President of Corporate Technical Support Services Stu Madison, won the 2010 American Business Awards' (ABA) Stevie for "Customer Service Executive of the Year." His department was also named a finalist in the "Customer Service Team of the Year" category. This is the third straight year that the company's Customer Support department has been recognized by the ABA.

Information Builders was selected as one of the leading "Companies to Watch" in Intelligent Enterprise’s 2010 Editors' Choice Awards. The company was ranked within the Business Intelligence category for its Active Reports and RStat technologies.

The following are winners of Information Builders Awards of Distinction, recognized for their ongoing efforts to bring BI technology benefits to the forefront of their organizations:

• Best Enterprise BI Application - Ford
  Ford Motor Company saved money through BI using Information Builders' Web-based reporting system across 9,000 dealerships to compare their performance on warranty costs with peers, saving Ford $40 to $60 million per year in covered warranty expenses.
• Most Innovative BI Implementation - New York Public Library
  The library's BI system, MOD, allows employees to analyze many facets of the library operation, helping personnel track traffic patterns, use of materials, and inventory to preserve the services people care about most. The dashboard-driven environment empowers hundreds of employees to share information and create customized reports.
• Most Humanitarian Use of BI - Nationwide Insurance and Columbus City Schools
  Nationwide Insurance developed a tool for the Columbus City school district using BI technology that helps administrators analyze student data. This connects 4,000 teachers and administrators to student assessment data, attendance data, and discipline data with the overall goal of improving student achievement.
• Best Use of BI in the Public Sector - US TRANSCOM
  BI technology is helping US TRANSCOM devise optimal patient-movement plans based on urgent medical needs, available facilities, in-transit visibility, and enterprise-wide cost and performance analytics enabling the military's evacuation and patient movement activities in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to be more efficient.
• Best Use of iWay Software – TNT
  TNT provides mail and express services for customers worldwide. With high volumes of data in multiple locations, in a variety of languages, and on several platforms, the company brought in iWay integration solutions to help. Integrating with legacy systems, iWay's SOA solutions allow business units to access the data they need, when they need it, for improved decision-making.

Information Builders was named a finalist in the 2009 American Business Awards (ABA) for "Customer Service Department of the Year." This is the second straight year that the company's Customer Support department has been recognized as a finalist by the ABA.

Ventana Research named Information Builders as the Hot Vendor in its first-ever Value Index on Business Intelligence (BI). The company secured a weighted top-ranking position for products and customer assurance supporting BI.

Information Builders scored well in the Business Application Research Center’s (BARC) BI Survey 8, the world’s largest independent survey of BI and performance management users. Ranked second in overall KPIs, product quality and support KPIs, and aggregated loyalty KPIs, Information Builders also came in:

• First in prevalence rates
• Among the top three in product reliability, support quality, and overall performance
• Among the top five in number of applications, range of applications, data volumes, and fewest product-related problems

CRM magazine named Information Builders a Market Leader in the Business Intelligence category for the 2009 CRM Market Leader Awards, which honors the companies that focus on customer relationships and the customer experience through the sophisticated integration of people, processes, and technologies.

Information Builders was named in Software Magazine's 27th annual Software 500 ranking of the world's largest software and services providers, representing the best in the industry.

The Hillman Group, an Information Builders customer, won CIO magazine's 2008 CIO 100 Award. A supplier of hardware items as well as manufacturer and distributor of key duplication and engraving systems, Hillman won for its innovative use of Information Builders WebFOCUS BI platform.

Information Builders and its CEO and founder Gerald Cohen were named finalists in the 2008 American Business Awards within the Best Customer Support Organization and Best Executive for Computer Services categories, respectively. The American Business Awards (ABAs) are the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring outstanding performances in business.

Information Builders, along with the City of Houston Police Department (HPD), won BeyeNETWORK s first annual Vision Award for Business Impact for HPD's innovative use of WebFOCUS, iWay Software, and ESRI's GIS mapping tool, enabling a predictive analysis of crime activity in Houston. Watch Information Builders VP of Corporate Marketing Jake Freivald s Podcast, where he discusses HPD's successful launch of its high-tech Crime Center and Law Enforcement Application.

In 2007, these customer applications were accepted into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution for their innovative uses of technology:

• Air Canada for its multi-trip pass product that enables companies, ranging in size from small businesses to large corporations, to better manage travel while simplifying the booking process for employees. The WebFOCUS application provides a unique reporting solution, and employees enjoy the ease of use and flexibility while travel managers can rely on a robust online reporting tool to track and manage all user activity. The system helps corporations reduce and simplify the management of travel costs.
• City of Richmond Police Department is using WebFOCUS, predictive analysis from SPSS, and dynamic geographic information system (GIS) mapping from ESRI, to predict the likelihood of crime in each city sector. The new operational system powered by WebFOCUS allows the city s crime analysts to look at the interaction between present and past data, such as arrest records, motive, and type of crime at a particular location based on the day, time, weather, and the coincidence of public events. This insight enables the city to knowledgeably optimize police resources to deter crime.
• The Hillman Group created an effective way to react to sudden changes in any of its many product lines. They streamlined revenue reporting with real-time data, empowered business users, and helped managers better identify and address problems. WebFOCUS' GIS integration has enabled cost-effective decisions about shipments. Hillman has already realized hard-dollar returns: Hillman used the BI fill-rate reporting system to analyze instances to prove that it had not short-shipped, saving $131,000 in fines.
• Jefferson Regional Medical Center constructed a self-service reporting environment with WebFOCUS that organizes reports into three primary groups: financial reports for the finance department, productivity reports for department managers, and bed-management reports for hospital administrators. Information management has become an integral part of the hospital's daily management activities boosting staff productivity, improving physician deficiency rates, and cutting costs throughout the facility.
• LaBarge Inc. improved efficiency and profitability of their production lines. Using WebFOCUS, they gave authorized users easy access to information. From purchasing to customer service, contracts, and accounting, LaBarge employees no longer struggle to extract the information they need.
• St. George Bank developed a groundbreaking solution addressing credit risk monitoring and management, management reporting, loans management, consolidation and regulatory reporting (largely, as a result of the BASEL regime), and default and compliance management. The solution provides a more efficient and proactive way of conducting portfolio reviews with online access to past inspection comments and real-time access to current reviews. An intuitive, visual workflow-related interface enables users to conduct train-of-thought analysis and stay focused on the business objective with automated distribution of issues intuitively guiding users to areas of concern. Savings in time and money have resulted through reduced administration and portfolio review preparation, decreased paper volume, a 40 percent reduction in the time to complete an inspection review, and a simplified user experience requiring less support.
• Caja General de Ahorros de Granada created an application to monitor and measure the bank s performance. Certified by the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative (BSC), WebFOCUS converts the bank s strategy into a series of well-defined steps and clearly presents then in a highly visual format, helping management to see and understands objectives, initiatives, and results. This solution helped to effectively communicate the new company strategy to its employees. Its also aligned all the internal information necessary to comply with objectives.

Richmond Police Department selected by a panel of independent judges to receive a TDWI Best Practice Award in the Government and Nonprofit category. TDWI's Best Practices Awards program identifies and honors excellence in developing, deploying, and maintaining business intelligence and data warehousing applications.

At the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, a component school of the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC), administrators developed a WebFOCUS-based, comprehensive online student-tracking system that delivers electronic reports in real time, with full drill-down capability. Color-coded grade records reduce interpretation time.

Each year, we recognize select customers for their outstanding use of WebFOCUS and iWay Software:

• Air Canada – Best Operational Business Intelligence WebFOCUS reports help Air Canada's planners ensure that aircraft problems are corrected as soon as possible. WebFOCUS also produces a scorecard of key metrics to show how well each maintenance crew is performing. With this information in hand, Air Canada is able to improve aircraft reliability and enhance customer satisfaction.
• Bell Canada – Overall Excellence Using iWay Software Using iWay Software and WebFOCUS, the telecommunications giant has developed, from their enterprise data warehouse, a business intelligence application that enables customer service reps (CSRs) to maintain a current view of all interactions with customers, regardless of which channel customers use to contact the company. A custom-developed Web portal that provides up-to-the minute customer information to over 4,000 CSRs.
• Elie Tahari – Most Innovative Application InSeam, Tahari's WebFOCUS business intelligence system, links legacy production systems with retail sales systems, allowing users to easily monitor inventory, order status, shipments, sales, and finance. Innovative use of photos and graphic imagery allows InSeam users to explore performance by clicking on pictures of each garment in their reports.
• Pershing LLC – Best Use of Enterprise Business Intelligence. In order to help its customers improve their business analysis and bolster corporate decision-making capabilities, Pershing needed a highly scalable enterprise BI and reporting environment that could deliver ad hoc reports on demand. WebFOCUS had the capabilities they were looking for, and also offered Pershing's customers the benefit of seamless integration with the firm's existing security framework and NetExchange Pro online brokerage platform – all for a low total cost of ownership.
• State of Missouri Department of Social Services – Most Humanitarian Application To better serve Missouri citizens, the State's Department of Social Services (DSS) built a WebFOCUS business intelligence system that seamlessly integrates many different child welfare databases. The self-service environment lets caseworkers access complete client histories on demand, so they can tailor their services to the unique and documented needs of each individual. The end result is faster response and better care for people throughout the state of Missouri.

Editors at Intelligent Enterprise selected Information Builders as a top BI company to watch in 2005 because "business intelligence isn't much without underlying data integration. Combining the two is Information Builders' strong suit. The private company reports robust customer growth, especially among organizations looking to consolidate."

Readers of Data.ti, mainly professionals and executives from the technology sector, recognized Information Builders' WebFOCUS as the best business intelligence product of the year launched in Spain. According to these readers, WebFOCUS represents the most solid technology within the operational BI market and offers a much more innovative and advanced solution than its competitors.