Removing burden of disparate spreadsheets

Integrating the disparate royalty system with CornerStar Sales and Finance offers an accurate look at cost data.

Problem: Our client’s financial and revenue reporting was too complex and required the heavy use of spreadsheets and manual adjustments. Managers and information users had to request reports from analysts who assembled the data. Often they had to wait days or even weeks to receive the needed reports only to find the information was not compiled in a way that was meaningful to their area of business.

Solution: CornerStar installed two integrated Data Marts, the CornerStar Financial and Sales Marts and customized certain aspects in line with the way the different departments think about their business. The Data Marts are incrementally refreshed nightly and users employ Cognos Impromptu and PowerPlay to access existing report templates or to write their own queries and drill-down reports.

Outcome: The CornerStar solution allowed end users to see their information in a more meaningful way without the burden of having to consolidate information from different sources. Information users are no longer dependent on analysts for vital information and analysts are freed to focus on more strategic tasks. Productivity has increased sharply. This cost effective solution also resulted in:

• Ability for managers to view daily refreshes of departmental expenses to plan reports allowing for rapid troubleshooting and plan adjustments.
• Ability to make better managerial decisions.
• Ability to distinguish between profitable and non-profitable products and services greatly enhancing strategic decision making.
• Sharp improvement on speed of reporting delivery.
• Sharp increases in productivity.
• Freeing of analyst and programming manpower.