Choosing the Right

BI Platform

Ryan Buerger IT Manager,

Enterprise Content & Collaboration

FirstBank

Denver, Colorado

Agenda

• The Lay of the Land

• Goals and Objectives

• Things to Know Before Your Start

• BI Platform Selection Process

• Real-World Benefits

• Questions & Answers

The Lay of the Land

FirstBank Denver, Colorado

• Second largest bank by deposits in Colorado

• Focus on consumer banking

• Over $11 billion in assets

• Founded in 1963

• Over 125 locations in Colorado, Arizona, and California

www.efirstbank.com

Technical Challenges • Multiple BI systems

• Platform-dependent reports

• Developers created new reports based on the tool they knew

• Java and Windows teams couldn’t use each other’s applications

• Difficult to maintain reports

• Complex integration with in-house applications

• Reports routed via email and network drives

Environment • Windows and Java

• Internal data sources only

• Everything lived in database, data warehouse, or web services

• LDAP with authentication via Active Directory

• Oracle Advanced Security

• Entire environment virtualized with VMware

Requirements • Broad database, driver,

programming interface, and export support

• Add and convert applications easily and quickly

• Improve report return time from minutes to seconds

• Meet scalability needs of organization over time

• Improve time to market on all new reports

Goals and Objectives

Objective Don’t get distracted by shiny objects

Big Data, Mobile, other BI concepts and buzzwords that grab attention, but don’t align with your situation, diverting focus from the task at hand.

Objective Render old platforms obsolete and consolidate them

Eliminate platforms to: • Speed development • React quickly to change • Reduce support and

maintenance costs

Objective Reduce report integration complexity

Speed application development and integration by reducing data integration and UI complexities

Things to Know Before

You Start

Know Your Data Sources

• Web Service • Direct Database • Data Warehouse • Programming Objects • LDAP • XML • Flat File

Know Your Business Process

• Application development

• Analytics

• Static reports

• Documents and disclosures

• Self service

Know Your Audience

• Programmers • UI developers • Report developers • Business users • Partners

The BI Platform Selection Process

Evaluation Lessons

Ask developers—with no training—to create various reports using each platform

Evaluation Scorecards

Develop evaluation metrics and complete scorecards for each report on each platform

BI Platform Scorecard • Data sources required

• Report scheduling and bursting

• WYSIWYG editor

• Types of report builders

• APIs

• Output types

• Parameter support

• Licensing and costs

• Training and services

• Vendor and product stability

Timeline 2009-2010

Evaluated BI platforms

Summer 2010 Gathered requirements and created plans

December 2011 First production reports

March 2012 First Windows apps

June 2012 First Java apps

BI Platforms • Actuate • MicroStrategy • Business Objects • Cognos • Jaspersoft

XML Solutions • LogiXML • Stylus Studio

Analyst Reports Gartner and Forrester

Technical Evaluation

• Downloaded trial versions and public documentation

• Narrowed to MicroStrategy and Actuate

• Selected Actuate

Preliminary Evaluation

Why FirstBank Selected Actuate • Scalability

• Report performance

• Java and JavaScript APIs

• Web Services

• WYSIWYG design tools

Sample Reports

2 days with Actuate 2 weeks with MicroStrategy

SSO/Basic Authentication

Token

Pass-through

Security Architecture

IC2

IC2

IPSE

iServer

RSSE

Web Browser

ASP.Net

Java

SSO

IC2

IPSE Thick

Client App Token

Username

Token Database Username

Directory

Token

SSO

I

P

R

E

S

T

R

I

C

T

I

O

N

IPSE User/Pass

SSO

Username Directory

Reports Embedded in SharePoint

Early Results Using

Actuate

Enterprise Reporting Implementation

2200 users across the entire company

Windows

• Loan request system

• Point-of-sale tool for bank officers

• Back office centralized loan processing

Java • Account cross-sell

application

Anti-Money Laundering System

FirstBank users:

• Run daily and weekly reports to verify activity

• Navigate directly to reports through iServer portal

• View reports in Information Console

Loan Tracking System

• Tracks loans in process, who is involved and what is still needed

• Users include 100s of branch reps, officers and back office staff

Cross-Sell Reports

• Recommends other products when bank reps open accounts and sell products

• Users include branch workers, tellers, managers, marketing, new account reps

Future Plans • Add 10 to 12 more apps

by end of year

• Convert or eliminate all non-Actuate reports including 200 Crystal reports

• Build Personal Financial Management System

• Provide user self-service platform

• Support mobile devices

Real-World Benefits

with Actuate

Development Benefits • App specialists focus on

their apps, not building reports

• Reports integrated into apps quickly and without extra development

• Multi-source support reduced reports required

• BIRT Exchange provided pre-built components

Business Benefits

• Faster time to market for new systems

• Report wait reduced from 10 minutes to seconds

• Multiple-source reports more usable

• More work done with same number of people

• Lower support and training costs from platform consolidation

Lessons Learned

• Consolidate similar BI functionality onto one platform

• Focus on areas that affect everyone

• Give developers reports to implement on each platform you evaluate

• Use evaluation scorecards

• Understand licensing and hardware issues

Keep your eyes on the prize and prioritize

Questions & Answers

Ryan Buerger

rbuerger@efirstbank.com

Choosing the Right

BI Platform

THANK YOU

Ryan Buerger rbuerger@efirstbank.com