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Police Credit Union Saves Time, Money, and Frees up IT Resources with Informer’s Operational Business Intelligence Solution
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Visualization
Applicable Industries
- Finance & Insurance
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Quality Assurance
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
Police Credit Union (PCU), a customer of Entrinsik’s Asia-Pacific Informer distributor Meier Business Systems (MBS), is one of the larger and more successful credit unions in Australia offering access to a wide range of products and services. Prior to implementing Informer, an award-winning reporting and analysis solution, PCU was relying on a single IT staff member with specialized skills to write basic reports in Pick programming language with each report averaging a day to write. In addition, their software vendor would charge approximately $7K per customized report plus the cost of storing the extra report since it was considered a modification. As a result, it was taking PCU significant amounts of time to write customized reports (since most were done without a program specification), and often the majority of new reports would eventually have to be rewritten. In addition, only one IT staff member had the skills necessary in proprietary report writing, so it was an operational risk to the business as well as being inefficient. “It was typical for the Executive team to expect turnaround of a week or more from report requisition until delivery,” said Mr. Trevor Savin, Support Analyst at PCU. PCU needed to remove the reliance on a single staff member for report generation so anyone would be able to quickly and easily generate ad-hoc reports as well as schedule operational, often mission-critical reports. “PCU is also going through a phase of ‘print less and view more’ and we needed a solution that would facilitate staff anywhere to view reports online,” said Savin.
About The Customer
Police Credit Union (PCU) is one of the larger and more successful credit unions in Australia, offering access to a wide range of products and services. As a financial institution, PCU serves a diverse customer base, providing various financial products such as loans, savings accounts, and other banking services. The organization is committed to delivering high-quality financial solutions and exceptional customer service. With a significant number of members and a broad range of financial products, PCU operates in a highly competitive market where efficiency, accuracy, and timely decision-making are crucial. The credit union's IT infrastructure plays a vital role in supporting its operations, ensuring that data is accurately processed and reports are generated efficiently to aid in strategic decision-making. PCU's commitment to innovation and operational excellence drives its continuous efforts to improve its IT systems and processes.
The Solution
PCU chose Informer initially because it was compatible with the database engine used at PCU (UniVerse®). They realized quickly that Informer met almost every reporting need, utilized an intuitive web interface, and leveraged commonly used programming tools. PCU mentioned several features and capabilities that stood out: Quickly map a new data source, either U2 or SQL database; Easily add and change field mappings; Simply drag and drop to add/remove fields to/from reports; Create complex reports in minutes rather than days; Easy to use, comprehensive report scheduler; Multiple options for report delivery (via email/exporting to directories/archiving); Simple and easy for staff to retrieve reports and customize views on their own; Perform calculations on report data; Link U2 files to other files from either their U2 or SQL databases; View data from both U2 and SQL databases on the same report; Comprehensive security that restricts users from viewing other reports, data. To date, PCU has created in excess of 300 reports, and of these, a number are scheduled to run periodically, on their own.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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