We implemented the Web reporting application in September 1999. Both the number of reports and the number of users have increased steadily. Since its official release in October 1999, the number of reports generated with the new system has increased 375 percent, and the number of users has increased 257 percent, with the total number of users approaching 800 of the 6,400 employees in the company. The main advantage of the data warehouse is that it supplies the users with integrated access to financial data and the detailed components that make up such data just by clicking a few buttons. In the past, this data was only available by executing several applications.
Users can access data from any system that is stored in the warehouse in an integrated fashion.
A single query can contain data from multiple systems. While adding subject areas, we took care to store foreign keys in such a way that the data would be stored as an integrated whole. Another benefit of the application system is enhanced access to the financial data. Without the data warehouse, users had to access several stovepipe applications to obtain the required data. Various portions of the application also provide other, less measurable benefits.