IT infrastructure and solutions provider, Datacentrix, has played a vital role in implementing a business intelligence (BI) solution at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) aimed at better managing the institution`s critical information.
The ProClarity-based solution will underpin DBSA`s innovative balanced-scorecard business concept, which is used to track performance progress and support business objectives.
According to DBSA`s business intelligence programme manager, James Thackrah, the bank needed an IT solution that supported decision-makers by ensuring quick, easy and timely access to and utilisation of key information, allowing the tracking of business progress and performance.
"We identified BI as one of the key enablers of our new IT strategy and decided to integrate all of our outstanding information-related requirements into a single, common BI project," he says.
After conducting extensive research, DBSA opted for a solution based on the ProClarity Analytics Platform deploying ProClarity PAS and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services. The bank received valuable support with the implementation from ProClarity`s regional partners, Harvey Jones Systems and Datacentrix.
Comments Farrell Berson, sales and marketing director: business intelligence at Datacentrix: "We took responsibility for the creation and stabilisation of the solution architecture and customised the solution to address DBSA`s requirements comprehensively.
"In addition, we transferred knowledge to relevant staff members and negotiated better support service level agreements (SLAs)."
In the short time since deploying the ProClarity solution, DBSA has already identified several clear indications of business benefits.
"Quality tools and information are now more timeously made available to users, allowing for better informed decision-making processes at the bank," says Berson.
"The BI solution helps bank employees to track performance against set targets, especially in the financial and sustainable-development perspectives, which tend to contain more quantitative KPIs (key performance indicators), at any point in time.
"In particular, ProClarity has enabled the bank to analyse the loan/grant composition by various dimensions, including project manager, client and product type. Also, the business reporter has simplified the preparation of financial statements and streamlined the whole financial reporting process."
Datacentrix, adds Berson, will provide ongoing support as the benefits of the solution are extended to cover all aspects of business management at DBSA.
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