NORTHLAND GROUP BUILDS A BETTER DATA WAREHOUSE - WITH HELP FROM LancetCoach™
KEEPING PACE WITH COLLECTIONS IN ANY ECONOMY IS A CHALLENGE That's why Twin Cities-based Northland Group is meeting it head-on with the latest data warehousing system and reporting tools. Since its inception in 1982, the company's committed service to bank card and retail clients has made Northland Group a proven leader in those markets.
THE SITUATION
In order to maintain and enhance its cutting-edge technology, Northland recently began making extensive improvements to its data warehouse so it can better analyze the efficiencies in its collection process and realize cost savings. The company envisioned a warehouse that could better filter data and deliver more insightful reporting metrics about its collection targets -- and be able to see the different data points that would show a truer cost of doing business. Its old DOS-based application provided only general views but came up short on making data more relational and thus it was a less-than-strategic business tool.
Although its in-house IT team knew what it needed to do, the company decided it could also use some professional guidance and expertise that was not available internally.
THE SOLUTION
Northland Group took a prudent and practical approach in helping their team: It hired a coach to help them get the job done, a LancetCoach. Bruce Boelter came aboard for a three-month period. According to Jennifer Trochlil, Senior Programmer Analyst at Northland, Bruce went right to work by laying out the game plan.
"He defined specifications, created effective timelines, and established obtainable goals in the development process for the new warehouse using MicroStrategy as a platform." While the warehouse improvements are ongoing, and the development of their business software is also continually changing, Northland's experience working with a LancetCoach shed light on other areas where more data could be housed and analyzed, Trochlil notes. "With the implementation of this project, there have been more departments identified that we are going to move into the warehouse. Overall, this process taught us that our ability to understand data is now greater than at any time in our history."
THE RESULTS
"Today Northland Group has the tools in place to identify areas within our business where costs can be reduced," Trochlil explains. "Because we had such good coaching from Bruce, we also have recognized a genuine time reduction in retrieving massive amounts of data that needs to be analyzed. We now have the capability to export the data to a reporting format that can be readily shared among key decision-makers."
Building the new warehouse has been a pivotal change for the Northland organization, helping them "identify more areas where financials can be analyzed, which, in turn will be more beneficial to our company." Created internally by their own employees, the warehouse project design and execution saw a real boost with the aid and expertise of the LancetCoach.
"Lancet Software was an exceptional company to work with," Trochlil adds. "Their people are extremely knowledgeable, professional and friendly. And that knowledge among their employees was called upon a number of times in the design and development phases of our project. Bruce was an exceptional coach and helped guide Northland to the best solution. Now we have the ability to conquer future obstacles in a way that will be much easier to manage."
Even though the project was started within the last year, Northland reports that it's been a real boon to their business operations: "We have already seen an ROI."
Lancet Software was an exceptional company to work with. Their people are extremely knowledgeable, professional and friendly. And that knowledge among their employees was called upon a number of times in the design and development phases of our project.- Jennifer Trochlil, Senior Programmer Analyst, Northland Group