By working across a large number of different projects in different manufacturing and distribution industries we've gained some solid experience in the most common issues and challenges.

Industry segment list

  • Agriculture
  • Apparel
  • Beverages
  • Consumer Packaged Goods
  • Forest Products
  • Industrial Equipment
  • Machine Tools
  • Medical Devices
  • Medical Equipment and Supplies
  • Metals

Case Studies

  • After selling the IBM Cognos 8 business intelligence to a major forest products company we created a financial data mart and connected the IBM Cognos 8 application to this data mart in record time.
  • Created a data warehouse for a jewelry wholesaler that allowed them to break down their extensive product catalog by hierarchies that their primary business system couldn't support. Deployed Cognos 8 with two web gateways so that a selected subset of reports and analyses could be accessed over the Internet by business partners using a distinct authorization system.
  • Worked with a leading manufacturer of medical devices to install IBM Cognos business intelligence applications directly against the Oracle tables of their primary business system.
  • Created a data warehouse for a regional beverage distributor that dealt clearly with complex issues such as case equivalents and gave them unprecedented visibility of their inventory and sales volume. Via the deployment of IBM Cognos business intelligence tools they were able to provide secure access to this information to hundreds of sales reps in the field as well as key vendors.
  • Developed sophisticated multi-dimensional analysis cubes and reporting tools for the customer service segment of a large computer products manufacturer.
  • In less than one week we constructed a prototype data warehouse for a manufacturer of machine tools that provided visibility to both booked and shipped orders. This warehouse also integrated plan and forecast data from another system for comparison of plan to actual. The prototype was so successful that it was put into production right away.
  • We provided IBM Cognos expertise to a leading Northwest manufacturer of coin sorting systems to allow them to greatly improve the performance of key reports.
  • Created a sophisticated data warehouse for a leading food products manufacturer and integrated this warehouse tightly with a hosted solution for trade incentives management. Deployed IBM Cognos business intelligence and planning tools to allow visibility to all the source information as well as advanced budgeting and forecasting capabilities.
  • Delivered a complete set of structured system diagrams for a leading Northwest specialty publisher and a set of specification documents for a system to integrate their content development, licensing and production processes.
  • Created an integrated multi-dimensional analysis system for a multi-state value added distributor of stainless steel. This system allowed them clear visibility of the product lineage from raw sheet steel to specific cuts from those sheets to satisfy specific orders.
  • We developed a highly flexible wizard-like quoting system for a manfacturer of turn-key brewing systems. This system allowed them to quickly and completely specify and quote all of the products needed for a complete client installation. The application was so successful and adaptable (via user changes to data tables) that it is still in use ten years later.