Financial Performance Optimization and myHR Analytics for Real Estate Services Client

Client Profile

The client is a leading real estate services and investment firm offering a broad range of integrated services such as property management, appraisal and valuation, and mortgage services. The company has been named one of Fortune’s “Most Admired Companies” multiple times.

Client Requirements

The client wanted to achieve a 360-degree view of all their financial and HR data using Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics. Data discrepancies and data visualization were critical business issues that needed to be addressed.

Challenges

1) Data Discrepancies in Financial and HR Systems

The client faced significant data discrepancies across their financial and HR systems. These discrepancies stemmed from problems in the underlying algorithms and inconsistent data cleansing processes, which led to inaccurate reporting and analysis.

2) Data Visualization Limitations

Despite utilizing business intelligence tools, the client struggled with data visualization limitations. They needed a more robust, user-friendly way to present complex financial and HR data to ensure better decision-making across various business units.

3) Complex Integration with PeopleSoft ERP

Integrating data from the PeopleSoft Finance and HR systems into the BI platform was complex due to the data’s multiple business user roles and dynamic nature. Ensuring secure and accurate data synchronization between these systems was a key challenge.

4) Performance and Load Optimization Issues

The BI system’s performance was critical, as hundreds of reports and dashboards were generated. Frequent performance bottlenecks during data loading and query processing, particularly with incremental and full data loads, required optimization for smoother operations.

Solutions

1) Fit-Gap Analysis for Data Discrepancies

Veritis conducted a comprehensive analysis to identify the gaps between the client’s current data and the expected results. The team effectively resolved the data discrepancies by refining the data cleansing processes and adjusting the algorithms, leading to more accurate financial and HR reporting.

2) Enhanced Data Visualization through Custom Scripts

To address the visualization limitations, Veritis developers created custom scripts using HTML and CSS within OBIEE, which improved the presentation and accessibility of the data. This allowed the client to gain a 360-degree view of their financial and HR data, facilitating better decision-making.

3) Seamless Integration with PeopleSoft Systems

Veritis worked closely with the PeopleSoft Finance and HR teams to integrate data from these systems into the BI platform. This involved defining user roles, scheduling security loads, and ensuring seamless data synchronization between the ERP and BI systems, which improved data accuracy and security.

4) Performance Optimization and Load Management

Veritis optimized data loading processes to tackle performance issues using Informatica and DAC for incremental and full loads. In addition, performance-based query optimization was achieved by creating usage tracking and daily monitoring dashboards. These measures ensured the system ran smoothly even with high volumes of data and reports.

Veritis Approach

The client initiated an enterprise BI adoption in 2012 for financial and HR reporting using PeopleSoft ERP system. Subsequently, the BI usage in the organization has increased significantly at an average of 200% every year with 30 dashboards and hundreds of reports being generated.

The Veritis team of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) consultants determined the business requirements with the client’s analysts and business users and planned the data visualization limitations.

The developers worked closely with the PeopleSoft Finance and HR teams in defining Finance and HR business user roles and scheduling the weekly security loads.

Other tasks taken up as part of the engagement include:

• Modelling the data designs, data tables and customizing the Oracle BI Repository database (RPD file)
• Designing and developing custom scripts (HTML, CSS) within OBIEE for better visualization
• Creating dimensional hierarchies for Dimensions, Aggregates and Level-Based Measures in the Business Model and Mapping (BMM)
• Testing the system upgrade to Oracle DB 12c and OBIEE 12c
• Triggering and debugging incremental loads on a daily basis and full loads on weekly basis using Informatica and Data Warehouse Application Console (DAC)
• Creating and configuring usage tracking / daily monitoring dashboards for performance-based query optimization
• Creating and updating technical documents such as Data Lineage spreadsheets, DW, ETL and OBIEE trackers, technical specifications, test case documents, repository utility documents and catalog reports

Environment / Technologies / Tools

OBIEE 12c/11g Tools, PeopleSoft Finance/HR, Informatica, DAC, Star-Schema/Snow-Flake Schema, TOAD, SQL Developer, Oracle 12c/11g DB, BI Publisher, Data Visualization, XML/HTML/CSS/JavaScript, JIRA, Putty

Value Delivered

Veritis BI services helped the client in greatly curtailing their project timelines and saving costs. Some of the other advantages delivered by the project include:

• Collaborative and seamless work environment
• On-time and even advance delivery
• Bug-free reporting
• Increased ROI of over $13 for every dollar spent