Information Builders Case Studies First Industrial Realty Builds Self-Sufficiency With Enterprise Business Intelligence

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	First Industrial Realty Builds Self-Sufficiency With Enterprise Business Intelligence Information Builders

First Industrial Realty Builds Self-Sufficiency With Enterprise Business Intelligence

Information Builders

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
Applicable Functions	Business Operation
Use Cases	Predictive Maintenance Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration Training
Challenge	First Industrial Realty Trust, one of the largest providers of diversified industrial real estate in the U.S., faced the challenge of providing more than 175 employees with access to on-demand property management information. They needed to develop a secure BI environment that could support partners, customers, and internal staff. The company had previously implemented a business intelligence (BI) environment supported by Crystal Reports from Business Objects, but users found it difficult to export data to Microsoft Excel. To maximize employee efficiency, First Industrial decided to deploy a Web-based BI environment that could combine data from multiple systems, seamlessly integrate with Excel, and bolster reporting and analysis capabilities for end users. Read More
About Customer	First Industrial Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust that engages in the ownership, management, acquisition, sale, and development of industrial real estate properties. The company is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and has more than 20 regional offices. As one of the largest providers of diversified industrial real estate in the U.S., First Industrial Realty Trust leases, develops, buys, sells, and manages industrial facilities. The company has a vast property portfolio and a wide range of clients, including partners, customers, and internal staff. The company's operations are spread across multiple regions and involve various property types. Read More
Solution	First Industrial deployed Information Builders WebFOCUS BI platform to provide users with convenient, intuitive, and flexible access to property, tenant, leasing, legal, and financial data from a variety of homegrown and third-party applications. Information is delivered via customizable dashboards. The team also replaced a real estate reporting software package called First Request from Resolve Technologies. By empowering executives and employees with better access to vital information, the company has increased productivity by improving its management of property portfolios and sites, tenant relationships, finances, and vendors. First Industrial purchased WebFOCUS, iWay DataMigrator, and iWay adapters for Oracle and ODBC, along with an education package and licenses for 500 users. Information Builders Professional Services helped the company develop the initial reporting infrastructure and ETL environment. First Industrial then used the WebFOCUS portal in conjunction with third-party tools, such as Delphi and Cold Fusion, to build a comprehensive BI environment called, “The BI.” Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Use Cases

Predictive Maintenance

Real-Time Location System (RTLS)

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Training

Challenge

First Industrial Realty Trust, one of the largest providers of diversified industrial real estate in the U.S., faced the challenge of providing more than 175 employees with access to on-demand property management information. They needed to develop a secure BI environment that could support partners, customers, and internal staff. The company had previously implemented a business intelligence (BI) environment supported by Crystal Reports from Business Objects, but users found it difficult to export data to Microsoft Excel. To maximize employee efficiency, First Industrial decided to deploy a Web-based BI environment that could combine data from multiple systems, seamlessly integrate with Excel, and bolster reporting and analysis capabilities for end users.

About Customer

First Industrial Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust that engages in the ownership, management, acquisition, sale, and development of industrial real estate properties. The company is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and has more than 20 regional offices. As one of the largest providers of diversified industrial real estate in the U.S., First Industrial Realty Trust leases, develops, buys, sells, and manages industrial facilities. The company has a vast property portfolio and a wide range of clients, including partners, customers, and internal staff. The company's operations are spread across multiple regions and involve various property types.

Solution

First Industrial deployed Information Builders WebFOCUS BI platform to provide users with convenient, intuitive, and flexible access to property, tenant, leasing, legal, and financial data from a variety of homegrown and third-party applications. Information is delivered via customizable dashboards. The team also replaced a real estate reporting software package called First Request from Resolve Technologies. By empowering executives and employees with better access to vital information, the company has increased productivity by improving its management of property portfolios and sites, tenant relationships, finances, and vendors. First Industrial purchased WebFOCUS, iWay DataMigrator, and iWay adapters for Oracle and ODBC, along with an education package and licenses for 500 users. Information Builders Professional Services helped the company develop the initial reporting infrastructure and ETL environment. First Industrial then used the WebFOCUS portal in conjunction with third-party tools, such as Delphi and Cold Fusion, to build a comprehensive BI environment called, “The BI.”

Impact #1	Executives have vital information at their fingertips.
Impact #2	Employees can more efficiently obtain property management data, which helps them more effectively buy, sell, and manage First Industrial’s vast property portfolio.
Impact #3	Users can automatically export their reports to Excel, preserving all necessary formatting, calculations, and links.

Impact #1

Executives have vital information at their fingertips.

Impact #2

Employees can more efficiently obtain property management data, which helps them more effectively buy, sell, and manage First Industrial’s vast property portfolio.

Impact #3

Users can automatically export their reports to Excel, preserving all necessary formatting, calculations, and links.

Benefit #1	Reports that used to take minutes now run in seconds.
Benefit #2	Data is pulled into the data warehouse hourly.

Benefit #1

Reports that used to take minutes now run in seconds.

Benefit #2

Data is pulled into the data warehouse hourly.

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Overview

First Industrial Realty Builds Self-Sufficiency With Enterprise Business Intelligence

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit