GlaxoSmithKline Finds the Perfect Prescription for Enterprise Reporting

GlaxoSmithKline is one of the world's leading healthcare companies, encompassing pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare businesses. With corporate headquarters in the U.K., GlaxoSmithKline employs approximately 58,000 people in 160 countries. The U.S. branch of its Consumer Healthcare division, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is spread across six locations around the country. Their top-selling products include Aquafresh toothpaste and the NicoDerm CQ smoking-cessation patch.

The same dedication to quality that has made GlaxoSmithKline a leader in the healthcare industry extends to the company's own internal operations – that includes information resources. In fact, GlaxoSmithKline's company-wide Information Resources operation has received several honors for excellence, including two consecutive years on Computerworld's "Network 25" list and recognition from PC Week.

Given these exacting standards, it was only natural that the company had the highest expectations when its Consumer Healthcare division migrated from mainframe FOCUS to the UNIX platform in 1995. "Our vice president at the time decided that the cross charges for continuing to use FOCUS on the mainframe were too high," recalls Sarah Harrison, senior programmer analyst at GlaxoSmithKline. Consequently, a third-party reporting package that would run on the RS/6000 system and Sybase database was implemented.

An Unexpected Setback

GlaxoSmithKline converted all its users' databases to the new package and attempted to make the reporting application work. However, users found it difficult to learn and use. To the company's dismay – and after nearly three years of frustration and struggle – these problems proved intractable. Moreover, users started rebelling, and Harrison started hearing requests for the company to go back to FOCUS.

The Cure: A Return to the Tried and True

After considering all its options, GlaxoSmithKline felt a return to FOCUS was the best remedy – this time, though, FOCUS for UNIX. "It made a lot of sense, since so many users were already familiar with FOCUS in a mainframe environment," says Harrison. This would minimize any learning curve. In fact, there was virtually none. "There are a few differences between mainframe FOCUS and FOCUS for UNIX that users had to get used to, but they were up to speed very quickly," Harrison adds.

To GlaxoSmithKline's delight, the conversion back to FOCUS in 1998 was extremely fast and easy. It was completed in just a few short months, despite the fact that Harrison and her team decided to convert every master file on the mainframe into a FOCUS database. "We had a mixture of a lot of different kinds of files: flat files, VSAM, DB21, and FOCUS databases," explains Harrison. "Now, every file on the RS/6000 is a FOCUS database. And we were up and running in only three months."

The FOCUS users at GlaxoSmithKline come in all varieties. "We have very experienced ones who use FOCUS constantly, and others who aren't technically savvy but who really do well with it." Harrison remarks. "We have minimal problems." And all the users have one thing in common: They are very happy with FOCUS. "Today, we have well over a hundred users, and more wanting to be added all the time," Harrison says. "We offer FOCUS training sessions every three months."

The Outcome: Powerful, Robust Reporting

FOCUS for UNIX is used throughout GlaxoSmithKline as a valuable companion to all the applications used to run the organization: the order entry system in customer service, accounts receivable, sales force automation, distribution, manufacturing, and planning.

"Even through many of our programs have reporting functions," Harrison explains, "we don't use them. We find FOCUS so much more versatile and powerful." For example, the Accounts Receivable package in use already has a report writer built in. But the staff finds it complicated and hard to use. "And it doesn't offer anything beyond standard reports," adds Harrison. "On the other hand, FOCUS lets us customize reports. It can get all the information out of the system in the way we need it. It fills in all the gaps. And it's much easier to set up and use.

"SmartStream just didn't meet our users' needs," Harrison relates. "You can't do as much with it as you can with FOCUS. In the conversion process, we came across many things in FOCUS that we couldn't convert to SmartStream because it's nowhere near as flexible. Plus, SmartStream is very slow and our work is very data heavy. For example, we have a table that's more than 2 million rows."

According to Harrison, a really big advantage of FOCUS for UNIX is the ability to schedule jobs. "Now, all of our FOCUS reports are scheduled for overnight and everything's done by 7 AM," she says. "When users come in, their reports are on their desks. They don't have to wait for anyone to run their jobs. And they really like that!"

Fiscal Health and Competitive Success

Significantly, Harrison feels that FOCUS gives GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare a competitive advantage. "Our staff is always negotiating contracts and deals, and FOCUS ad hoc reporting is invaluable," Harrison explains. "If we have to research anything, it's so much faster and easier doing it with FOCUS."

The only drawback – a minor one, as Harrison sees it – of UNIX versus mainframe FOCUS is that upgrades and new features are available for the mainframe version first. "We have to wait a little while for ours," she says. But she feels that the wait is more than offset by the enormous cost savings. "By bringing FOCUS in-house on the RS/6000, we saved half a million dollars in computer cross charges."

"I don't know why management didn't look at FOCUS for UNIX initially," Harrison adds. "FOCUS is truly portable. There aren't many products out there that can do what we need to do. FOCUS is really it."

Added Benefit: Attentive Service

Another reason Harrison is so happy about their return to FOCUS is the high level of customer service from Information Builders. Harrison reports that she's experienced very few problems with FOCUS for UNIX. "And it's very easy to fix if we ever do," she says. "If I have to call with a problem, they take care of it in a flash.

"Information Builders has been a huge help," Harrison continues. "They came in and helped us get the environment set up. Then, once we got onto the system, they worked closely with us to make sure everything was running smoothly."

The Prognosis: Continued Success With FOCUS

It's never easy for a company to scrap a system it's invested heavily in, but GlaxoSmithKline feels the switch back to FOCUS was well worth it. "We haven't looked back since," says Harrison. "In fact, we just keep adding to it. When we started out, we had 52 FOCUS databases. Now we have 100. It's constantly growing and our users are constantly asking for new things."

And what does the future hold for Harrison and her team? "We'd like to be able to use some of our AS/400 data in FOCUS, so we'll probably be transferring files from our AS/400 systems to the RS/6000 in the near future," says Harrison. "I would love to go to WebFOCUS, since we have so many new users and the system is growing all the time. It would be great." Once they're ready to make that move, it should proceed as smoothly as the switch from mainframe FOCUS to FOCUS for UNIX. As Harrison learned firsthand, the common language used by Information Builders products makes porting FOCUS applications across various platforms and environments relatively fast and easy.