Haskell Maximizes the Value of Its ERP Investments

WebFOCUS and iWay Make JD Edwards Data More Valuable for Leading Construction Organization

The ebb and flow of the economy affects some industries more significantly than others. In the construction business, periods of economic uncertainty can hit with the impact of a sledgehammer. For Haskell, one of the foremost design-build organizations in the U.S., business intelligence (BI) tools from Information Builders are helping HR and finance professionals improve performance at a time when every dollar counts.

Haskell has invested heavily in enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology from JD Edwards. But like many midsize firms looking for an edge from technology, Haskell found that its ERP system was only as good as the data people could get out of it.

"ERP systems help companies compete more effectively, but the key is leveraging ERP data to enhance decision-making," says David Ibach, manager of Application Development at Haskell. "WebFOCUS and iWay have brought about a dramatic shift in our ability to extend operational information into the company's day-to-day activities. Our focus is on front-line managers – delivering timely data to the people who are making tactical decisions."

As a growing company with a small IT department, Ibach and other IT pros are intent on maximizing the return on their technology investments. "By using WebFOCUS in conjunction with JD Edwards for our financial and HR reporting, and automating the process of getting information for those operational groups, we are seeing vast improvements," says Ibach. "IT is still developing the reports, but these reports have more robust functionality, and we are able to get them out the door much faster now."

For example, complex reports that took 40 hours or more to develop in JD Edwards can usually be completed in a few hours with WebFOCUS. "We're seeing a huge productivity boost with WebFOCUS," Ibach notes. "The development process is much faster. We are able to rapidly develop a prototype, go through several development iterations with the users, and complete the finished product in the time it takes to deliver the first prototype in JDE."

Quality Data as the Foundation

Haskell has discovered many advantages to using WebFOCUS to augment JD Edwards reporting, including greater flexibility and ease of use, leading to a drastic reduction in the amount of outstanding IT support issues. A big part of these improvements stems from better data quality.

For example, the company had been analyzing workers compensation figures across 50 states using a summary report generated from JD Edwards and manually compiling a spreadsheet. The problem, says Ibach, was that "there was no way to see what was behind the numbers in the summary report. I'm a big believer in transparency," he adds. "You need to be able to see the details that make up the summary data so you can reconcile the numbers."

Using WebFOCUS, Ibach generated a new workers compensation report that allows users to view both summary and detail information, and creates the final spreadsheet automatically. By analyzing the workers comp data with this new WebFOCUS report, a business analyst in the payroll department discovered that the original report was pulling duplicate data. Rectifying the situation yielded an immediate savings: instead of cutting a check for $30,000 for worker's comp insurance, Haskell got a refund of $50,000.

"We saw an $80,000 savings just from that single report," says Ibach. "It's a great example of how a seemingly insignificant report can directly impact the bottom line. It is also a great example of what WebFOCUS can do."

Choosing a Vendor That Delivers on Its Promises

Haskell employs a small IT department, with two developers supporting about 750 employees. Ibach joined the company in 2007 and immediately rolled up his sleeves to take on the task of improving the flow of information.

"When I arrived, we had very limited reporting capabilities through JD Edwards," he reveals. "If users needed data, they went to IT. It would take so long to develop and deploy a report using the JDE toolset that by the time it was tested and finished, the need for it had passed or a workaround was in place."

Haskell needed a toolset that would enable the IT department and business analysts to create financial and HR reports more easily. They built a list of requirements and began investigating the offerings from several technology vendors.

"Often, vendors show a lot of impressive functionality in demos, but implementing those functions turns into an expensive consulting arrangement," he says. "Thus you don't always get the value out of the system that you were expecting."

Information Builders presented a more workable solution.

"WebFOCUS puts flexibility into the hands of end users through run-time parameters such as sorting, summation, subtotals, and groupings," explains Ibach. "Because these capabilities can be delivered via a Web browser, developers can create reports that enable large numbers of people to easily access information in a variety of rich formats. Also, because it is a browser-based tool, it is easy to maintain from an IT infrastructure standpoint. Our controller and HR manager were sold on WebFOCUS immediately."

Operational Reporting in the Nick of Time

For Haskell, this versatile BI environment arrived just in time. Haskell's HR and payroll departments had been struggling with JD Edwards reporting tools for more than six years in an effort to distribute total compensation statements to company employees. Once WebFOCUS was in place, Ibach's team delivered the total compensation statements in about one month. "We delivered all the information they were trying to get from JD Edwards, along with graphics and rich content that made it very user friendly."

For example, WebFOCUS quickly generates pie charts that represent the total amount of compensation based on categories like insurance, disability, 401(k), and FICA. These colorful reports – many of them accessible with one or two clicks – are more visually appealing and easier to comprehend than the standard reports from JD Edwards.

WebFOCUS reports are also easier to modify. With JD Edwards, IT professionals had to make modifications using desktop software, then go through a deployment process to distribute those changes to users. This made it incredibly time consuming to update reports. With WebFOCUS, they simply update the report and the new functionality is available to people as soon as they refresh their browsers.

"WebFOCUS lets people create new reports and modify existing ones very quickly," confirms Ibach. "It is immeasurably faster than our former approach."

Smoother Data Integration Leads to Better Reports

Integration technology from iWay Software helps streamline the report development process using master data management (MDM). For example, the iWay JD Edwards Adapter can pull in user-defined codes and descriptions from JD Edwards. It also inherits the security built into the ERP system.

"Once users are authorized to access specific data in JD Edwards, WebFOCUS upholds these access requirements," explains Ibach. "To build that kind of security from scratch would be difficult and time consuming. iWay replicates the ERP security and user-defined codes each night and puts it into a form that WebFOCUS can read very quickly."

Currently Haskell has more than 50 regular WebFOCUS users. Another 50 or 60 people use the BI software periodically. That number is bound to grow as developers open up new reporting domains and introduce people to the power of self-service reporting.

For example, Ibach is using WebFOCUS ReportCaster to notify budgetary managers when new budget-to-actuals reports are available in the WebFOCUS Report Library. Each manager gets an e-mail message with a link to view the summary report(s), which include drill downs to the budgeting system, the detail data in JD Edwards, as well as the payroll sub-ledger for certain accounts. The Report Library enforces pertinent access controls for each user so managers can view important yet potentially sensitive data with confidence.

Using ReportCaster and the Report Library replaces several manual processes, making it easier for budgetary unit managers to review financial information and make quick decisions.

Haskell also plans to replace a variety of Excel reporting applications with WebFOCUS applications to improve functionality and enforce consistent data management at both the summary and detail levels. In addition, the company plans to use WebFOCUS to link BI users to the company's document imaging system.

"Our philosophy is simple: get data out to the masses first, then roll it up into executive dashboards for management," says Ibach. "By adopting a BI environment that delivers timely operational data to the front lines, people can get 80 to 90 percent of the information they need, and are far more effective in their decision-making."

Ibach acknowledges that Haskell has a way to go before management achieves its vision for cohesive data management and enterprise-wide reporting. But WebFOCUS is already an integral part of the company's information systems.

"Information Builders is helping us improve the quality of our data, making it more accurate behind the scenes and allowing us to have fewer manual processes," he concludes. "In an era of economic uncertainty, having precise and accurate data makes us more credible with our clients."