Johannesburg, 17 Nov 2009
In a move that will increase its relevance to its nearly 62 000 members, 29 000 of which are CA (SA)'s, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) has implemented a business intelligence (BI) system using ProClarity from Harvey Jones, South Africa's leading Microsoft-centric BI specialist and a company in the AIM-listed Avisen group.
Jaco Venter, business information manager at SAICA, says: “As part of a strategic roadmap, SAICA decided to embark on a business intelligence project in November 2007. We evaluated a number of players in this field, and chose Harvey Jones due to the company's excellent track record.
“We planned a BI project so we could get closer to our membership. SAICA is a non-profit organisation that exists entirely for its members. We needed to understand who they were, what they did, where they were and how they interacted with our institute. Previously, this information was available, but unruly and hard to access. We wanted to have what we term “one vision of the truth” - a true and accurate picture of who our members are.
“Business intelligence has proven to be a powerful tool. It has changed the way we do business and is definitely the most successful project that SAICA has undertaken. Thanks to Harvey Jones, we have been consistently on time and within budget,” says Venter.
Harvey Jones undertook a rapid proof of concept, and this indicated to SAICA that it was the right road to take. The contract was signed for the project to proceed in January 2008. Numerous workshops were conducted between SAICA and Harvey Jones consultants and it was decided to break down the project into three-month “chunks” or plateaus that could be built on constantly. This meant the team had a deliverable every three months.
The team decided that the first project would revolve around membership demographics such as race and gender statistics.
“This information underlies all that the institute does. This project came in two weeks ahead of time and within budget. We have been building on this ever since,” says Venter.
The system is based on the ProClarity application running on a Microsoft SQL Server database in a Dell environment. A data warehouse has been developed and as additional plateaus are added to the project, the information is added to the data warehouse.
Harvey Jones notes: “We have developed an SQL Server 2005 data warehouse for SAICA, which is updated nightly with all data as at the end of the work day. This is then made available the next morning. The data in the warehouse has been drawn from a number of sources, using SQL Server Integration Services to extract, transform and load the data. A cube layer has been developed in SQL Server Analysis Services on top of the data warehouse to provide the multi-dimensional capabilities that the users require for a meaningful interrogation of data.”
“Business intelligence is a powerful tool. It has changed the way we do business. For example, when we plan seminars, through our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme for our members, we now know who they are, where they are and what topics they would be interested in,” Venter reports. “This helps us decide where and when to host our seminars to attract the maximum number of members.” Many lessons have come out of this project. “If you undertake a business intelligence project to simply extract reports, you are wasting your time. Business intelligence needs to prompt you to ask more questions about your business. It is an ongoing process that we can build on in the future,” adds Venter.
“Harvey Jones is the most professional company I have ever worked with. They know what to do and how to do it. Their professionalism in dealing with our staff is exemplary. We have been constantly ahead of time and within budget,” concludes Venter.
Harvey Jones is a Microsoft Gold Business Intelligence Partner, one of three in the country. It works closely with its clients to ensure the solution is in line with strategy, and the right team, training and support are delivered to guarantee success.
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