TM1 OLAP Engine Application – Banking
Business Challenge
A major financial institution faced a huge challenge of trying to make revenue forecasts easily predictable. They also struggled to drive growth and performance in a market that was volatile and had many tax and accounting requirements.
- Finance managers had a hard time trying to determine revenue forecasts from balance sheets and profit and loss statements
- Required an application that was Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliant
- Needed to gain a better understanding of their data in a simplified and user friendly way
The client wanted this to be performed using the Cognos TM1 OLAP Engine (formerly Applix) as there was a need to provide effective real-time views of large data sets. The TM1 OLAP server provides the capability to create multiple cubes of multi-dimensional data in the background. This cuts down development time of specific cubes for users and instead the customer will have multiple cubes in the background.
KCM’s Solution
- Analyzed the client’s data for this implementation and built custom Data Marts using Cognos Data Manager as the ETL tool
- Carried out test runs of the data to see what was the best way to present the information
- Designed custom portals for the different levels at the client’s organization according to SOX rules and regulations
- Incorporated a number of complex formulas and functionalities into the application as per the client’s needs
- Conducted end-user training to get the users familiarized with the new application
Benefits
- Immediate answers to business questions without the need for IT, increasing efficiency
- The Advanced forecasting capabilities of the new application helped finance managers determine revenue forecasts accurately
- Maintenance costs were cut and fewer resources used due to more compact data storage
- Performance time for middle management was also improved, since their analysis were queried against cubes in the background
The real value that the client obtained from this implementation was an intuitive, web-based, SOX compliant, and easy to use application. The feedback from the users was unanimously positive.
