Solutions used: APOS ADMINISTRATOR, APOS INSIGHT, APOS PUBLISHER
Product Components Used: Bursting Manager, InfoScheduler, Instance Manager, KPI, RealTime Monitor, Report Package Booster
Background:
Southwest Airlines has been providing customers’ transportation within the contiguous United States, as the "Low Cost Airline" for 36 years. Southwest also transports cargo and freight. The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit. In order to keep fares low Southwest must keep costs low. Southwest is dedicated to finding ways to lower costs and increase productivity and quality.
Challenge:
Southwest’s technology department assists the Company in lower costs, while increasing the productivity through technical solutions. Southwest is using BusinessObjects Enterprise with more than 1,600 reports that are managed within the environment. The increasing demand for the Business Intelligence data by more departments and more users introduces new complexities associated with a large user base. These challenges include user administration, security, and the different performance needs of the customers. There is a broader need for the platform to integrate with internal applications and portals. The Business Objects infrastructure required improvements to meet Southwest Airlines requirements. For example, when a single report needs to be executed for each of the airports that Southwest Airlines flies from, it becomes a time consuming and overwhelming task. Southwest contacted APOS Systems for a solution.
Solution:
Southwest Airlines’ goal was to provide an easy to use solution to enable report owners to schedule and reschedule their reports at will, very quickly, while maintaining a record of schedules. The decisive factor for choosing a solution provider was they must be a Business Objects partner and they must be flexible and easy to partner with. The new solution must be integrated with BusinessObjects Enterprise and the tool set must be on the same major release schedule as BusinessObjects Enterprise. APOS System and the APOS BI tools fit these requirements.
Southwest also utilized an on-site visit from an APOS Consultant for a BI Tools Assessment. During his visit, the consultant met with different user groups to review their requirements. Then he provided a proposal to Southwest for the tools that would best equip their Business Objects Administrators, as well as their report developer’s productivity.
Among the products implemented, the APOS InfoScheduler has been able to improve the end-users ability to schedule and distribute a single report, numerous times to different audiences.
The technology department has seen the benefit of the APOS tools that have been put into operation with the increased productivity of personnel. The airport personnel also benefit from the APOS tools by having necessary reporting on time and with the correct / appropriate information. "Currently, there have been approximately five people that have used the InfoScheduler to schedule and execute reports, but the receiving audience could reach more than 2,000 users," stated Lynn Lagowski, Manager of Enterprise Insights Platforms, Southwest Airlines.
Why APOS?
"We have saved time, which translate to money, when we use InfoScheduler. It has increased the productivity of our report developers and our end-users in executing necessary reports, with the right criteria, distributed to the appropriate location, at the right time. The tools assist in enhancing the productivity of our report developers and more importantly the Business Objects Administrators, who are being asked for assistance in executing reports," Lynn states.
APOS Systems Inc. is an SAP BusinessObjects software solution provider in the SAP PartnerEdge program. Named SAP BusinessObjects Technology Partner of the Year for the past three years, APOS has been a Crystal partner since 1996. APOS has acknowledged a key SAP BusinessObjects XI and Crystal Enterprise strength - its open architecture - and has designed and developed a variety of add-on solutions that offer customers additional capabilities within the SAP BusinessObjects XI infrastructure.
For more information:
Allan Pym, VP Sales and Chief Operating Officer
519.666.2020 or apym@apos.com