Metrics Manager Provides Executive
Dashboard at BARTON PROTECTIVE SECURITIES
Company Overview
Founded in 1977, Barton Protective Securities, Inc.
(Barton) has grown to become the 5th largest
security company in America with 1,000 high profile
customers and 13,000 employees. Barton provides
contract security personnel services to its
customers who are premium properties in class A
commercial buildings, corporate and technology
facilities, and upscale communities. Barton has been
named for five consecutive years by FORTUNE Magazine
as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" in
America and remains the only security company on
this prestigious list. Barton has maintained an
annual client retention rate of 92% in an industry
that averages 75%. Barton Securities has recently
merged with Allied Securities.
Challenges Faced
Barton's management team wanted a strategy to
systematically measure performance against corporate
goals. This progressive requirement prompted Barton
to initiate a metrics management project. The
challenges to face and the obstacles to overcome in
order to achieve success with this project were as
follows:
-
Key business measures existed in multiple
technical locations, in disparate data formats,
and were maintained by several different
resources.
-
Many business resources managed data
inconsistencies and spent too much time
producing one-dimensional reporting.
-
The current solution required patience and
functional compromise. Barton resources yearned
for a utility to assist in the consolidation and
distribution of the business data.
“Metrics Manager
enabled Barton to take our disparate data and
put it into a simple and easy to understand
dashboard that our executive team is able to
analyze on a daily basis.”
Jamie
Kranking,
Vice President of Information Services
Barton wanted to achieve the following:
-
Provide business leaders with quick/easy/up
to date access to a strategic, goal focused
solution to deliver comparison measurements
between actual performance and targeted goals
-
Reduce the complexity and inconsistency of
data integration for reporting to business
leaders
-
Leverage previous solution investments (in
Cognos data logic)
-
Standardize the evaluation criteria for
measuring performance independent of operating
unit size
-
Create conformity of data formats supporting
the processes to deliver performance information
to managers
-
Offer a simple and secure, web-based
application for distributing critical business
data throughout Barton’s leadership hierarchy.
The Solution
Barton partnered with
CD Group to assist in three
key areas. First, CD Group assisted Barton
management team in determining the critical
performance indicators of the business. Second, CD
Group assisted the information technology team in
the implementation of the information delivery
system. Third, CD Group provided leadership in
integrating multiple data sets into a consolidated
and supportable methodology congruent with the
business's accounting calendar.
The solution included Cognos Metrics Manager, a
proof-of-concept implementation, as well as the
integration required to bring more than a dozen key
performance metrics together for executive
consumption. Cognos Metrics Manager was selected
because it provided the functionality desired as
well as it enhanced an already deployed Cognos
implementation.
CD Group business consultants interviewed Barton
executives to define the metrics for consolidation
into the fully functioning proof-of-concept
solution. After Barton and CD Group agreed to the
prototype's foundation of metric benefits, CD Group
consultants developed a work plan to leverage
existing Cognos Decision Stream program logic assets
into an integration model including non-Cognos
disparate data sets. Once fully-integrated and
deployed to the enterprise, Barton branch leaders,
regional leaders, and executive leaders could access
a solution providing timely financial information
following month-end closes via a web-based, common
user interface. The solution seamlessly integrated
data assets existing in the ERP solution, Cognos
data mart, and stand-alone information utilities.
The process to support the integration was
straightforward as it is repeated monthly following
accounting period close procedures.
The project accomplishments included:
- Dramatically increased visibility of
critical management metrics to leadership team
- Rapid executive adoption and benefit
realization of the application deployed
- An operational process for refreshing
month-end data that could be maintained by
existing Barton technical resources without
incremental cost
“Being able to make business decisions based on
real time information is a critical advan-tage
for us.”
Jamie
Kranking,
Vice President of Information Services
Benefits Realized
- The solution provides an executive
performance evaluation tool and a communication
infrastructure for business leaders to
correspond with metric results in mind.
- Business managers realized that the Metrics
Manager solution could be leveraged during
management meetings to explore trending against
metric targets and evaluate adjustment plans.
- The consolidation and standardization of
fragmented data sets made the reporting process
easier to manage while making the data more
accessible to executives.
- A new multi-dimensional view of the business
that business managers leverage to make improved
business decisions.
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