IBM Case Studies Powering smarter decision-making with ultra-fast, highly flexible analytics

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	Powering smarter decision-making with ultra-fast, highly flexible analytics IBM

Powering smarter decision-making with ultra-fast, highly flexible analytics

IBM

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
Applicable Industries	Utilities
Applicable Functions	Business Operation
Use Cases	Predictive Maintenance Energy Management System
Services	System Integration Data Science Services
Challenge	Basin Electric Power Cooperative, one of the largest electric generation and transmission cooperatives in the United States, was struggling with data management. The company's data was held in dozens of systems, spreadsheets, and people’s heads, making it difficult to make informed decisions. The company recognized that its reliance on complex manual processes represented a serious risk to the business. In strategy meetings, staff were often unable to agree on the figures that they were meant to be analyzing. Too much time was spent trying to determine which system, spreadsheet or expert truly had the right information about a given issue – and this lack of visibility hampered the organization’s ability to make smart decisions. Read More
About Customer	Basin Electric Power Cooperative is one of the largest electric generation and transmission cooperatives in the United States. The organization is not-for-profit, and is owned by its 138 member systems, which together serve 2.8 million rural consumers spread across nine states – from North Dakota to New Mexico. The company was facing challenges in data management, with data held in multiple systems, spreadsheets, and people’s heads. This was causing difficulties in decision-making, as there was no single source of truth for the data. The company recognized the need for a more sophisticated analytics solution to improve the accuracy and timeliness of its reporting processes. Read More
Solution	Basin Electric decided to harness the power of IBM analytics technologies to improve the accuracy and timeliness of its reporting processes. The company deployed IBM Cognos software to act as a centralized, controlled and consistent platform for business analytics. The organization initially deployed IBM Cognos Business Intelligence to support its budgetary process, and subsequently extended the solution to replace spreadsheet based reporting in almost all parts of its business. Later, Basin Electric also deployed IBM Cognos Planning to further enhance the budgetary process and eliminate another large set of spreadsheets. The Cognos solutions pull data for analysis directly from Basin Electric’s core systems, ensuring that calculations are always performed on up-to-date transactional data. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics

Applicable Industries

Utilities

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Use Cases

Predictive Maintenance

Energy Management System

Services

System Integration

Data Science Services

Challenge

Basin Electric Power Cooperative, one of the largest electric generation and transmission cooperatives in the United States, was struggling with data management. The company's data was held in dozens of systems, spreadsheets, and people’s heads, making it difficult to make informed decisions. The company recognized that its reliance on complex manual processes represented a serious risk to the business. In strategy meetings, staff were often unable to agree on the figures that they were meant to be analyzing. Too much time was spent trying to determine which system, spreadsheet or expert truly had the right information about a given issue – and this lack of visibility hampered the organization’s ability to make smart decisions.

About Customer

Basin Electric Power Cooperative is one of the largest electric generation and transmission cooperatives in the United States. The organization is not-for-profit, and is owned by its 138 member systems, which together serve 2.8 million rural consumers spread across nine states – from North Dakota to New Mexico. The company was facing challenges in data management, with data held in multiple systems, spreadsheets, and people’s heads. This was causing difficulties in decision-making, as there was no single source of truth for the data. The company recognized the need for a more sophisticated analytics solution to improve the accuracy and timeliness of its reporting processes.

Solution

Basin Electric decided to harness the power of IBM analytics technologies to improve the accuracy and timeliness of its reporting processes. The company deployed IBM Cognos software to act as a centralized, controlled and consistent platform for business analytics. The organization initially deployed IBM Cognos Business Intelligence to support its budgetary process, and subsequently extended the solution to replace spreadsheet based reporting in almost all parts of its business. Later, Basin Electric also deployed IBM Cognos Planning to further enhance the budgetary process and eliminate another large set of spreadsheets. The Cognos solutions pull data for analysis directly from Basin Electric’s core systems, ensuring that calculations are always performed on up-to-date transactional data.

Impact #1	Employees can now make smarter business decisions based on more accurate data.
Impact #2	Automation accelerates reporting by up to 85 percent, saving time and enabling staff to focus on tasks that really add value.
Impact #3	Even when approximately 180 of its more than 2,000 employees retired in a single year, the organization’s reporting capabilities were not significantly affected: their corporate knowledge was stored in the Cognos environment, rather than in people’s heads.

Impact #1

Employees can now make smarter business decisions based on more accurate data.

Impact #2

Automation accelerates reporting by up to 85 percent, saving time and enabling staff to focus on tasks that really add value.

Impact #3

Even when approximately 180 of its more than 2,000 employees retired in a single year, the organization’s reporting capabilities were not significantly affected: their corporate knowledge was stored in the Cognos environment, rather than in people’s heads.

Benefit #1	Automation accelerates reporting by up to 85 percent.

Benefit #1

Automation accelerates reporting by up to 85 percent.

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Overview

Powering smarter decision-making with ultra-fast, highly flexible analytics

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit