Dakotacare

QlikView Offers Dakotacare a Cure for Information Overload

Dakotacare, South Dakota’s only statewide health maintenance organization (HMO), has dramatically improved customer service, streamlined communication with care providers, improved claims processing, and enhanced self-auditing capabilities. The key to these improvements is QlikView, an innovative business analysis tool from QlikTech, the world’s fastest-growing business intelligence software company.

In comparing QlikView against “traditional” OLAP-based Business Intelligence solutions, Mark Tracy, director of information technology at Dakotacare, found QlikView to be the most cost-effective solution, the easiest to deploy and fastest to learn. “My biggest hurdle in selecting QlikView was skepticism based on the price point; I couldn’t believe it would do what it said, at the price that it was,” he said. The free download from the QlikTech Web site convinced Tracy, and he in turn, convinced Dakotacare’s management team.

Dakotacare relies on several enterprise databases and ERP systems to manage information from care providers, suppliers, clinics, hospitals and patients. The HMO’s legacy databases were challenging to manage and individuals within the Dakotacare organization found it difficult to access the information they needed to do their jobs efficiently. A year ago Tracy implemented QlikView on a dual-core X64 Xeon-based server, giving the HMO new abilities to aggregate, analyze and audit data. QlikView not only provides real-time access for the organization, but allows its employees to instantly put information in the hands of its constituencies as well. DAKOTACARE employees now have the information they need at their fingertips.

“QlikView opened up new opportunities for us. Its phenomenal response time means that we can investigate time-sensitive issues accurately and quickly. In our case, instant access to data means sorting through hundreds of millions of records daily. QlikView’s 64-bit multi-processor platform design has enables us to significantly improve our accuracy, efficiency, and overall productivity,” said Tracy. “At the end of the day, Dakotacare is about making life easier for our members, clients and health care providers, and QlikView has enabled us to meet this challenge.”

Health insurance companies process massive amounts of data. Dakotacare’s claims data set alone contains more than 140 million records with hundreds of columns of data. This data set contains every detail on every claim paid since 2001. Because of this quantity of data, inaccuracies and discrepancies in data entry were difficult to find and manage. Using QlikView, Dakotacare quickly uncovered and corrected many of these errors, which impacted claims processing, provider reimbursements and ultimately, the bottom line. QlikView allows Dakotacare to “get it right the first time, before we get checks out the door,” said Tracy.

“Health insurance companies have unique operating demands that require business analysis tools that can probe large volumes of data quickly and easily and help them solve real business problems,” said Rick Pitts, CEO of QlikTech U.S. ”In an increasingly on-demand marketplace, leading HMOs like Dakotacare are using QlikView to leverage vital data across its organization and respond quickly to its constituents’ needs.”

QlikTech is leading a new class of easy-to-use, fast and flexible business analysis solutions that empower individuals to improve corporate performance and drive innovation. QlikTech’s flagship product, QlikView 7.2, extends the company’s vision of simplifying business analysis, offering solutions that can be deployed in days, where users can be trained in minutes, and where end users have the freedom to be more creative in their analyses.

About Dakotacare
Formed in 1985, Dakotacare is South Dakota’s largest and only statewide health maintenance organization, serving over 110,000 members. In addition to South Dakota, Dakotacare and its subsidiaries’ service areas include: Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Dakotacare has 130 employees in Sioux Falls and at its Webster, SD claims processing center.

Channellock

Channellock, Inc., the leader in the design and manufacture of high-quality pliers and hand tools, has implemented QlikView to help improve data transparency across the company. With QlikView on a 64-bit HP Proliant server, the Channellock sales teams have access to timely business information that helps them build and close sales and unearth trends faster and more effectively than the competition.

“Channellock’s commitment to American craftsmanship and quality is key to everything we do,” said Mark Yoder, National Sales Manager at Channellock. “In QlikView, we have found a tool that gives each of us instant access to all the data throughout our enterprise, and lets us manipulate that data anyway we need to. For the sales team, this means we can anticipate customer needs, find unanticipated insights and respond to them faster than the competition. In the end, using QlikView means that nobody has to waste valuable time fumbling through irrelevant data or waiting for reports from the IS staff.”

Channellock is the worldwide leader in manufacturing premium-quality pliers. With more than 4,000 wholesale and retail customers in the United States and in 45 countries around the globe, the Channellock sales team has a lot of ground to cover. Information on new products, sales, promotional details and customer requests amount to a tremendous volume of data that has not always been easy to access. Prior to implementing QlikView, the team relied on a JDE system running on the iSeries (AS/400) platform with green screen interfaces. Implementing QlikView on top of the AS/400 platform enables the sales team to access and analyze all of this data simply through a Web browser, empowering them to respond faster and more effectively to customer needs.

Since Channellock operates with a small management team, the need for each employee to have immediate access to relevant data is vital to the way the company conducts its business. QlikView has enabled all salespeople, especially the management, to analyze data in new ways. As a result, the company has gained hidden insights into their data, resulting in the ability to identify trends quickly and test the validity of some of those insights.

“Channellock is a true leader in quality and performance in the manufacturing sector. At the heart of the company’s long history is a combination of innovation and dedication to excellence. The company has developed a global network of manufacturing and sales teams, making it one of the most advanced operations in its industry,” said Rick Pitts, CEO of QlikTech U.S. “By providing a means for the company to access and analyze business data on the fly, QlikTech is helping Channellock ensure its current and future success.”

About Channellock
Founded in 1886, Channellock, Inc. is a worldwide leader in the manufacture of high-quality pliers and assorted hand tools. For more information on Channellock products, sales contacts, breaking news, and historical information, visit the Channellock Interactive website at www.channellock.com.

WD-40

After deploying QlikView, WD-40 immediately experienced increased productivity and gained access to invaluable company information that previously was inaccessible.

Through the use of QlikView, WD-40 has replaced weekly hard copy ERP reports and eased demands of the IT department. Prior to deploying QlikView, WD-40 calculated customer sales totals manually at the end of each year by totaling up historical hard copy reports; now annual sales totals are available immediately with a single click. WD-40 employees can simply open up QlikView, make their data selections and analyze the information they need – from their desktops or from a Web server. As a result of this success, the company is planning to expand QlikView into other areas of its business.

"We have found ourselves in the position where we can now analyze over 500,000 order lines in seconds and in real time,” explains Julian Spencer, finance and operations director, Europe for WD-40. “On the sales side we use QlikView to find selling opportunities with existing customers as well as to highlight customers who are ordering less frequently than before. On the control side, we can track margins and customers' rebates instantly whereas before it took hours of manual data collation. QlikView is a great way to get at company data quickly and easily."

QlikView has also enabled the company to investigate profit margins in greater detail by drilling down to product information and highlighting customers who have not placed recent orders. The finance and logistics departments are now able to look at orders, margins and stock in a way that was not possible before.

“Implementing QlikView couldn’t have been easier,” said Jonathan McCoy, IT manager for WD-40. “It took less than two weeks to create our sales analysis application and it’s as easy to use as Excel, requiring no training whatsoever. The system consistently gives us new ideas on how we can make maximum use of its capabilities. When users want a new report or additional data, they know it’s going to be possible. When you’re running an IT department, it’s great to know that you will be able to give users what they want with a minimum amount of effort.”

“WD-40 is yet another leading international brand realizing the power of QlikView’s simple design,” concludes Andy Honess, managing director of QlikTech UK. “In today’s on-demand economy, people require immediate access to, and the ability to analyze data. By providing precisely the right level the information, when it’s needed, QlikView is helping users improve their own performance, as well as that of the company.”

About WD-40
WD-40 Company is a global consumer products organization, renowned for its range of popular household brands, which are found under the sink, in the garage and in the toolboxes of homes throughout the world.

Its products are now sold in more than 160 countries worldwide. WD-40 Company's corporate headquarters and Corporate Brand Support Centre is based in San Diego, California, U.S.A. The brand is supported by a group of international offices.

The company recorded sales of $242.5 million in 2004. WD-40 has grown to more than 254 employees worldwide, employing 42 at its UK headquarters in Milton Keynes.

About QlikTech
QlikTech is the world’s fastest growing business intelligence software company. QlikTech believes information should be available broadly, affordably, and quickly. QlikTech’s flagship product, QlikView, makes sophisticated analysis dramatically easier to deploy, use and maintain. QlikTech’s patented technology allows instant, in memory, manipulation of massive datasets on low cost hardware, allowing affordable widespread deployment of highly sophisticated analytic applications in days. QlikView’s click-driven, visually-interactive interface is simple for end users to learn and use. QlikView has more than 3,384 customers in 58 countries, and adds 6.9 new customers each working day. In addition to hundreds of small and midsized companies, QlikTech’s customers include large corporations such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Top Flite, 3M, and The Campbell Soup Company. QlikTech is privately held and venture backed by Accel Partners, Jerusalem Venture Partners, and Industrifonden. Founded in Sweden, QlikTech has subsidiaries in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, and Scandinavia, and over 100 partners across the world.

Helsingborg Hospital

QlikView increases the quality of Helsingborg Hospital

Helsingborg Hospital is one of Sweden's largest emergency hospitals that is converted into a subsidiary company, and has 2400 employees. The activity has a common vision that indicates its ambition and distinguishes the activity; high-qualitative and personal care in a nice environment without waiting times, care, diagnostics and therapy in the front line development, working methods and processes that are evaluated and improved continuously and proud, competent co-workers. Medical care is a dynamic activity that is constantly changing. For that reason there is always a re-creation and reconsideration in progress within the hospitals walls.

Make use of important information

Within Helsingborg Hospital there are a large number of data systems that are handling different areas. The systems are among other things handling patients, waiting times, economy, journals and diagnoses. The quality of producing statistics and analyzing information from these systems has been very low. Now the decision is taken that this has to change. There is so much information in the different systems that have to be coordinated for making use of it in the best way. Different opportunities for this have been investigated, and finally it was decided that QlikView would be used. The work of implementing QlikView in the organization is now going on, and in the future it is expected that about half of the 2500 employees will be using QlikView. This is why it is decided to invest in QlikWeb, which gives all users the possibility to look at the same information at the same time.

"QlikView is our washing machine!"

QlikView is superb, Margareta Davegaard says spontaneously. It is incredibly simple to analyze data in QlikView. The program has really become our washing machine that is cleaning up among all the information in all our different systems within Helsingborg Hospital.

Margareta Davegaard
PR Manager at Helsingborg Hospital

A change already at the input process

The four most important systems that will be integrated by QlikView are handling staff, patients, economy and journal systems. Margareta Davegaard is PR Manager and very much in favor of QlikView and what it will accomplish for Helsingborg Hospital. It's not only the quality of the information management that will be increased, but also the quality of the input itself. By QlikView also the staff taking care of all input will get an overall view of the value of the information they input, Margareta Davegaard says. She is also one of the key figures in the work with the information management at Helsingborg Hospital.

FiberMark

FiberMark uses QlikView to pull together data from Oracle, J.D. Edwards, SAP, Access, and Excel into individual applications - saving the company time and money.

Company Background

FiberMark is a multi-national company headquartered in Vermont, producing specialty fiber based materials. Like many other firms, Fibermark was facing a common problem. Their ERP system was doing a great job of creating and managing hundreds of transactions a day, but Fibermark's management team was forced to run thousands of pages of reports to try to glean any information or insight from that data. Fibermark also had mission critical data in a wide range of other enterprise systems and databases, including Oracle, SAP, Excel and Access. The quantity and distribution of the data made it especially difficult to analyze what was happening in the business and how to react.

Fibermark initiated a search for business intelligence tools and evaluated several, eventually choosing QlikView 5 due to its intuitive nature and ability to gather and analyze data from a wide range of sources.

Implementation

Fibermark initially selected QlikView to improve insight into sales data and to distribute information and analysis tools to the sales force. Within one week, the initial sales analysis applications based on QlikView 5 were deployed to the sales force.

"I've been working with ERP systems for years", said Joel Taylor, director of IS for FiberMark. "And I'd come to the conclusion that they were nothing but glorified report writers. Within 15 minutes of seeing QlikView I realized what it could do and why we needed it. It's quickly become the most useful software tool we have."

Fibermark distributes sales analysis to sales managers and to the remote sales force over the Internet through QlikView Web server. There are 130 users, including five power users. The sales force uses QlikView and the sales analysis application to evaluate progress against goals, compare sales statistics against baselines, and identify trends and problem areas.

Once the application was deployed, senior management from other business functions saw the insight and power that QlikView was able to deliver, and requested QlikView applications for their departments. Eventually, QlikView was deployed for sales analysis, purchasing analysis, inventory control, financial analysis, and human resources. The QlikView applications pull data from a wide range of sources. "It doesn't matter where the data is, as long as there is an ODBC driver, we can get to it", said Taylor.

Insights and Savings for Fibermark

QlikView offered Fibermark some unique capabilities, including the patented AQL associative database that resides in a computer's memory, rather than a data warehouse or OLAP cube. This means that all analysis is done locally when requested and removes the need to develop complex, expensive data structures. Since the data is not "pre-aggregated", it is possible to interact with the data from any level, any dimension with complete drill-down capabilities.

Additionally, there is insight in what is not selected, through the "reverse answer concept". When a field is selected in QlikView, all the values associated with that field fl oat to the top of their column; alternatively values not associated are grayed and sink to the bottom of the display box. "Reverse answers tell me more than anything else" said Taylor. "Now I not only know who is selling a product; but who isn't selling it. When I know that, I can try to find out why. That solves problems we might not have known we had."

But it was more than QlikView's ease-of-use and intuitive user interface that really convinced FiberMark of its value. "QlikView paid for itself instantly just in error corrections" said Taylor. "We discovered problems with the way some orders were being filed; finding and fixing them easily saved us the cost of QlikView. And if we hadn't gotten our money's worth then, we saved as much money over nine months in savings from paper and print cartridges. With QlikView our people don't have to run endless reports all the time. We cut our printing costs in half just by installing QlikView."

A Product People Use and Enjoy

Every enterprise dreads the idea of "shelf ware", the expensive system that is so difficult to learn and hard to use that ends up gathering dust on the shelf. QlikView lets users interact with their data in a natural and intuitive manner. End user training can be completed in a few hours as opposed to days. When software is easy to understand it is adopted much more widely throughout an enterprise, and becomes a useful tool and provides real ROI. FiberMark doesn't worry about shelf ware with QlikView. QlikView has provided Fibermark with access to their data, real and immediate ROI, and a software solution that has been enthusiastically embraced throughout their company. This all comes together and helps deliver tangible competitive advantages for FiberMark short term as well as for a long time to come.

Scania Danmark

Scania Danmark A/S gets things done quicker and easier thanks to QlikView

Challenge

With a market share of approx. 30% and 31 service stations spread out all over Denmark, Scania needed to be able to view information anywhere, and in real-time.

Solution

All desired data can be extracted in a structured way from the AS/400-server. Scania Danmark A/S uses QlikView to analyze several business areas including sales and fi nance. For example the sales people receive instant feedback about what has been reported to head office.

Benefits
· Simplified review, reporting and follow-up in real-time for management
· Extended life of existing systems
· Instant information access and reporting for sales people
· Stock and delivery information available in real-time

Like many large companies, Scania Danmark A/S had an organization that was widely spread and was using a number of different applications on different platforms, including generic reporting systems. It was important to Scania to quickly retrieve and compile all necessary information, and train its organization to use this information proactively. What was needed was an analysis tool that could be implemented very quickly and that didn't require a lengthy specification process for each new application. After evaluating a number of rival products they saw the advantages of using QlikView, which was easier to use, cheaper and far more fl exible than its competitors.

Many units need information

Scania is a world leader in the sales and service of heavy trucks and buses. Its market share in Denmark is about 30%. That means there are over 16,000 vehicles that need servicing at regular intervals at the 31 service stations dotted around the country. By implementing QlikView, all service stations have instant access to all the information they need. This is achieved by adding a QlikView Server, a client/server solution for analyzing QlikView documents in an ordinary web browser.

Scania gains many advantages from the new system. The exact data required can be extracted from AS/400 in a structured way. Fields can now be named in plain English when loading data. QlikView also highlights incorrect data in the database. Errors such as incorrectly registered vehicles, or vehicles registered more than once are seen instantly.

Several areas analyzed

By implementing QlikView we have greatly enhanced and extended the life of our existing systems as well as simplified the management reporting.

Björn Jacobsen, Financial director, Scania Danmark A/S

Scania Danmark A/S uses QlikView for analyzing several business areas, including sales and fi nance. The sales people get instant access and feedback on what has been reported to head offi ce. Information such as delivery times for ordered trucks, the number of vehicles available for immediate delivery, etc are all available in real-time. An application has also been developed to allow management to follow up and review the business. The application also gives direct access to the latest version of documents from different departments such as training schedules, spare parts, orders etc.

Even the people on the shop floor will benefit from using QlikView

Modern trucks are technically complex and produce a large amount of data. Data about speed, fuel consumption, wear, distance, etc, is stored in the truck's computer. All this information can be analyzed in QlikView.

Björn Jacobsen, Financial director, Scania Danmark A/S

The next step

The next step is to make QlikView available to the entire Danish Scania organization. The QlikView Server will then be used throughout the organization, where more than 1,100 employees will be able to make use of QlikView. Once in place dealers will be able to analyze business on the fly, and display information instantly to their customers. Customers will be able to get an on-thespot delivery date - a real advantage in logistics planning for everyone concerned.

Sara Lee

Sara Lee Corporation Improves its Planning and Forecasting with QlikView

"QlikView has improved our sales and forecasting analysis significantly" said Gary Kahler, Director of Sales & Operations Planning for Sara Lee Household and Body Care - USA. "We now have a powerful yet easy-to-use performance management solution that brings interactive planning and analysis to our employees' desktops. In addition to better analysis capabilities, QlikView saves us more than $35,000 per year in reduced archiving and printing costs alone."

Powered by QlikTech's patented Associative Query Logic (AQL) technology, QlikView's innovative architecture eliminates the costly and time consuming process of designing, developing and maintaining OLAP cubes and, in most cases, also the need to build and maintain separate data warehouses and data marts. This enables companies to develop and deploy fully functional business intelligence and performance management applications in days rather than the customary weeks or months, resulting in greater flexibility, faster ROI, and lower cost of ownership for enterprises. An intuitive, easy-to-use interface makes it possible to spread the power of QlikView through all levels of an organization.

"Sara Lee H&BC is an excellent example of how QlikView can be quickly deployed throughout an organization, providing a wide range of users with better ways to track, manage and optimize their business" said Christer Berg, president and CEO of QlikTech Inc. "We are delighted with the benefits Sara Lee has gained from using QlikView and excited about developing our relationship further"

Colonial Life

Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company Deploys QlikTech Business Intelligence Software

"QlikView is exactly the tool we have been looking for" said Bryan Allen, assistant vice president of Business MIS Services for Colonial. "We need BI powerful enough to support the sophisticated analytical needs of our business analysts, yet easy and intuitive enough to be used by non-technical independent sales representatives across the country. QlikView is the only reporting and analysis solution we've seen with that sort of flexibility."

Colonial' sales representatives will use QlikView for sales reporting and analysis functions to help them generate higher sales and to identify and close new accounts faster. Colonial's ustomer Service Department is currently using QlikView to analyze its policyholder call center data to enhance Colonial's customer service experience. Colonial anticipates a broad array of future QlikView applications by analysts performing financial and business analysis.

"Corporations are beginning to see the value of business intelligence and analysis beyond its traditional use by power users" said Christer Berg, president and CEO of QlikTech Inc. "The benefits of improved reporting and analysis can stretch throughout any enterprise, no matter how large. Colonial is an excellent example of a company looking to leverage the power of QlikView in new and exciting ways, both for internal power users, managers and executives, and for external, independent agents."

Life Pharmacy

Life Pharmacy wins Best Pharmacy Group thanks to QlikView

A publically listed company, Green Cross Health is New Zealand’s premier pharmacy retailer for prestige brands in health, beauty and fragrance with staff members who are passionate about the business of providing leading products and outstanding service.

In seeking to streamline and unify their data as a Group, Life Pharmacy also sought to provide a user friendly, robust benchmarking tool for members of the group that would enable individual pharmacies to measure their performance against similar pharmacies with the overall objective of improving business performance in each pharmacy.

“Our choice to use QlikView as our key dashboard and analysis tool”, says CFO Craig Wilson, “has transformed the way we think about measuring our business and reporting. We have moved from only having fixed, static, printed reports to flexible analysis that gives us insight and transparency into every area of our business performance. This insight is enabling us to provide sustainable sales and maximise profit growth opportunities to improve the profitability of the individual stores and Life Pharmacy Group to market leading levels.”

QlikView is the flagship product of QlikTech, the world’s fastest growing Business Intelligence (BI) company and Life Pharmacy’s experience of the product leaves little room to wonder why.

QlikView ‘s revolutionary ‘in-memory’ analysis technology makes it an extremely powerful analysis tool that incorporates a data-warehousing solution and front-end analysis all in one interface, delivering instant business answers. According to Life Pharmacy, the speed of information access available QlikView has provided is not something that is available elsewhere in the pharmacy industry.

“The power of the analysis delivered by QlikView in a very short time-frame made it extremely cost effective. We found the cost was a fraction of the cost of similar solutions available on the market which involve the set up of a very complex data warehouse plus the front end reporting tool. Eliminating the need for a separate data warehouse, QlikView delivered a very powerful solution, tailored to meet our business needs, at a low cost, in a short time using very little staff resources”, says Mr Wilson.

“Furthermore”, Mr Wilson adds, “We found the local QlikView partner Visual Intelligence Ltd, who handled the QlikView implementation to be flexible, knowledgeable and professional, as well as cost effective, making the whole QlikView experience positive and clearly beneficial to our business. We are proud to accept the Best Pharmacy Group award and plan to continue to be a market leader within both the Pharmacy industry and wider business arena.”