2010 Rotherham Deploys SAP® Crystal Server to Deliver Critical Information
2010 Rotherham is an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) set up to manage, maintain and improve the 21,000 Council homes in Rotherham. Being government funded, there is a high level of responsibility for reporting back operational efficiencies and to ensure that critical information is available to key personnel wherever and whenever they need it.
The Challenge
With a number of core IT systems capturing critical data on the efficiencies of 2010 Rotherham’s wide range of services from rents and repairs, to keeping estates clean and tidy, to tackling anti-social behaviour, the challenge was not so much as making sure the information was being recorded, but to reduce the weekly overhead on IT, in terms of the time it took to compile the data into professional looking, comprehensive reports.
We needed a powerful reporting tool that could sit across the organisation’s core applications and produce reports containing information from a number of disparate databases.
Jon Cocker, ICT Manager
With over 300 remote case workers entering information to satisfy the company’s dayto-day targets, it was essential that their Managers had access to the reports at any time and in a format that suited them.
The Solution
On referral from another supplier, 2010 Rotherham approached DSCallards with these fundamental reporting requirements. This led to the investigation of SAP Crystal Reports Server 2008 as well as SAP Crystal Reports and the SAP Crystal Dashboard Design tools.
2010 Rotherham already had considerable in-house expertise in writing SAP Crystal Reports and pulling the required data through from their core IT systems, which included Northgate OHMS, Rocc Uniclass Enterprise and Apex.
We already knew what was possible with SAP Crystal Reports, but with SAP Crystal Dashboard Design it also gave us the ability to produce professional looking dashboards for the Board of Directors.
Jon Cocker, ICT Manager
Once 2010 Rotherham took the decision to proceed with SAP Crystal Server, a DSCallards Consultant went on site to carry out the software installation and system configuration.
In addition, whilst implementing SAP Crystal Server and to ensure a smooth skills transfer, the DSCallards Consultant spent time working on a one-to-one mentoring basis with the Management Information Officer responsible for the day-to-day operation of the system.
The Business Benefit
The implementation of SAP Crystal Server has brought about a number of improvements in the way 2010 Rotherham generates and delivers reports. They found the system to be very robust, stable and reliable. The system links seamlessly into their existing infrastructure and core system databases.
As the implementation project manager it has been very easy to identify the success of this project. The ability to automatically schedule reports and provide online access for our remote case workers and management team to run upto-date reports at any time, without the need to contact the Information Systems team, has led to time efficiencies being experienced across the organisation. Moving forward, we believe that the professional appearance of SAP Crystal Dashboard Design will provide the cherry on the cake to the reports that we currently produce.
