By Michael Burns
*This is an expanded version of a column that appeared in the October 2003 print edition of CAmagazine.
Is the data you need spread all over the place -- across spreadsheets, a contact management system, an accounting system and a payroll/HR system? Well, you're not alone. If you work in an accounting firm, key data is locked away in your practice management system; in industry, it's in your ERP and related systems that control your finance and operations. This means you're not getting all the data you need from the various systems in a consolidated format that is useful for decision-making. You also have different reports telling you different things about your business.
Intellera (www.intellera.com) has created industry-specific business intelligence (BI) solutions that consolidate disparate data so users can slice and dice information across multiple dimensions in cubes -- a technology known as online analytical processing (OLAP). For more on BI and OLAP, see "Accounting for business" (CAmagazine, April 2003).
Intellera started operations in 1995 as a division of a Montreal based software development and management consulting firm, and was spun out into an independent company in January 2002. Today, it has more than 80 clients using its BI solutions.
The target
In the accounting industry, Intellera's clients range from small firms with fewer than 10 partners to large firms, including American Express Tax & Business Services. Intellera also serves medium-to-large law firms, as well as retail and wholesale distribution companies. Clients include Black Photo Corporation, which implemented Intellera for its 180-store operation.
A full 75% of Intellera's clients are in the US even though the company is based in Montreal. This might be because there are more opportunities in the US or because of the exchange rate. But could it also be that Canadian accountants are more cautious with technology investment than their US counterparts?
The product
Intellera has bundled a number of products and services to create its solutions. First, it has created the links to extract data from many of the leading practice management and ERP systems, including CCH, CMS OPEN and Navision. Second, OLAP cubes are built with data dimensions (such as customers, employees and departments), levels (such as year and period) and measurements (such as revenue and gross margin). Finally, an OLAP viewer allows you to slice and dice all these dimensions and levels with the measurements.
The technology
Intellera provides business intelligence solutions using Cognos and Microsoft technologies. Many people are unaware that the tools to generate OLAP cubes are included in the price of Microsoft SQL Server. These Microsoft cubes can be viewed with Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Data Analyzer. BI is a huge marketplace and Microsoft is jumping in, just as it has with accounting/ERP and customer relationship management (CRM).
Intellera has also developed a product called Courier that disseminates Cognos, Microsoft and Crystal reports in commonly readable formats such as PDF and HTML. Courier can be scheduled to refresh and distribute reports on an automated basis. Some of Intellera's clients use Courier to update intranets and portals with links to the information. Courier also includes an address book that determines who should get what reports and in what format.
The price
It would cost about $25,000 to purchase Intellera's solution for an accounting firm that required three to five users of Cognos PowerPlay, with the rest of the firm accessing reports using Courier. If a company already owns MS SQL, Intellera solutions can cost up to 20% less if Microsoft cubes, rather than Cgonos cubes, are used. In any case, the Cognos PowerPlay OLAP viewer often remains the viewer of choice owing to its power and flexibility.
Assets
OLAP tools have many advantages. A typical cube could represent the equivalent of more than 100 different reports. It's a lot more efficient to create one cube than to generate 100 different custom reports. Many firms also struggle to create traditional reports using tools such as Crystal or Access. They typically rely on one individual to generate the reports and then are up the creek when that person is no longer available. With Intellera, power users (who are not programmers) are easily able to generate new views from the OLAP cubes.
Based on its extensive experience in targeted industries, Intellera knows the metrics that should matter to its clients. Its pre-built OLAP cubes include profitability and margin analysis, vendor collaboration, sales, inventory, staff productivity and marketing.
One example of a cube that would be interesting to an accounting firm relates to cross-selling. Intellera will allow you to see the extent to which a firm's existing clients are using services outside their primary department. For example, it will show how much an audit client is using the services of the consulting practice. It will also show which partners are cross selling with drill-down to specific clients. It's a lot easier to generate fees from existing clients than to acquire new ones, so cross-selling is a critical strategy for any firm.
Liabilities
One of the liabilities of any OLAP solution is the cost to outfit large numbers of people with the cube- viewing capability. Intellera has addressed this issue by developing Courier. But the output provided by Courier does not give the recipient the "slice and dice" capability offered by a cube viewer such as Cognos PowerPlay. While this is often enough for the casual report reader, Intellera has recently begun offering an optional third-party Microsoft cube viewer that is more cost-effective for a wide number of users.
If you use Cognos cubes, the only viewer you can use is Cognos PowerPlay; with Microsoft cubes you can use any of a number of viewers on the market, including Microsoft's own Excel and Data Analyzer.
Intellera knows the key performance indicators to generate, but does not provide benchmarks for clients to compare their numbers. It is hard to find a reliable source for these benchmarks.
Bottom line
Some partners in accounting firms will be reluctant to see their numbers placed under the magnifying glass of an OLAP viewer. But these tools can shed light on any company's operations. Rather than getting reams of reports telling you different things about your business, you will get one version of the truth.
Michael Burns, MBA, CA, is President of 180 Systems (http://www.180systems.com), which provides independent consulting advice in the selection and implementation of business systems. Michael can be reached at 416-963-1296 or by email at mburns@180systems.com | 
