HMB Business Intelligence
Access to information for anyone, anywhere.

By leveraging Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint, and Office, we can help you build a robust Business Intelligence solution that will provide your workers with the ability to make smarter decisions that advance the goals of your business.

Our Microsoft BI experts can collaborate with you to create a business intelligence roadmap to empower your users to leverage familiar tools to gain the right information at the right time and in the right format to drive your business forward.

SQL Server

Reporting Services: Create and deploy both operational and ad-hoc reports

Analysis Services:  Create robust analytical models for data visualization, interactive analysis, reporting and predictive analysis

Integration Services: Leverage exceptional ETL capabilities – connect with disparate data sources

Data Warehousing: Aggregate, compress, and store data in an optimized, scalable system.

Office

Leverage the familiarity of MS Excel to deliver data visualization and collaboration through your SharePoint environment.

SharePoint

Give data meaning across your organization with SharePoint Insights.

Collaborate and share data from different systems.

Leverage SharePoint’s single browser-based interface to empower your staff to make better decisions for the business.


Additional Resources


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Business Intelligence Implementation

NiSource Gas Distribution

Background/Overview
In early 2010, NiSource Gas Distribution (NGD) embarked on an initiative to address the growing need for a Business Intelligence team. Source system data existed on different platforms and were difficult to access in a timely manner. Reports were generated by various groups and resources specific to the systems they supported.

Reporting tools consisted of EZTrieve, Excel, and Cognos 7 directly against operational source system data and mainframe file extracts. There was no established Data Warehouse in place. In addition, reporting was tactical in nature and the scope was primarily limited to supporting the Operations Department within NGD 		The Challenge
Establish a structured Business Intelligence environment and team within NGD to support the following goals:
  • Improve access in scope and speed to market with actionable information from source systems required to run the business.
  • Promote transparency of data and reporting from which to report against (Data Warehouse/Data Marts).
  • Eliminate the negative system and performance impact of directly accessing operational data for reporting.
  • Provide for cross-departmental (Operations, Planning, Engineering, and more.) reporting and analysis with a combination of tactical and analytical reporting.
Strong technical expertise and vision was critical to the success of the initiative.
 
  		 
 
The Solution
NGD partnered with HMB in May, 2010, initially with the addition of a single technical resource to address the Data Warehouse component of the BI environment. Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) tools were identified and the necessary hardware infrastructure was established to support a Data Warehouse and ETL processing. A short time later, NGD extended the partnership with HMB and augmented the team with additional Cognos, ETL, and program management resources to keep pace with the growing demand and to take advantage of the BI environment.
The Result
HMB remains a partner with NGD today, fully embedded within the Business Intelligence team and providing Data Warehouse/Data Modeling, ETL, and Cognos 10 reporting solutions.

With the constant addition of source data/content to the Data Warehouse, the reporting capabilities, requests, and value to the business continues to increase. Cross-departmental reporting and analysis is a reality. Interactive/analytical reporting has become the focus, with Cognos Dashboards providing real-time analytical capabilities to support the needs of the business. Access to a broader scope of data needed to perform analysis and support decision making is more readily available and easily accessible within the Data Warehouse.


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Sales Force Automation & Reporting

International Education Publisher

Background/Overview
An internationally known publisher in the education market wanted to implement a custom sales force automation application to enable their sales force to efficiently and intelligently market to their customer base by providing samples entry, timely product pricing and sales history while out in the field. 		The Challenge
The sales department already had a small, homegrown application in place with rudimentary offline capabilities, but the architecture was quickly overwhelmed with a growing user base. Sponsorship wanted to make the application more robust to deliver segmented sales history, opportunity tracking, and management reporting capabilities. Additionally, they wanted to integrate the system with the corporate ERP system for bi-directional communication of data.
 
  		 
 
The Solution
Using the existing application’s concepts, HMB designed a new architecture where the client application could operate offline and then synchronize to an enterprise grade database when online for data updates on either end using database replication. Uploaded data was then delivered to a staging area on scheduled intervals via Extract Transform and Load (ETL) technologies to be processed by the ERP. The same ETL tools imported data back into the central database for distribution to the sales force to provide updates on sample/sales orders and product pricing and availability. ETL processes were also built to import daily sales data in the form of a flat file into the application. A reporting portal was then built to facilitate forecasting and gauge performance. Technologies used to deliver the solution included MS SQL Server, DTS, SSIS, SSRS, Oracle, Tibco middleware, MS Access, and C#.
The Result
The sales force automation department was able to deliver an application to the sales force that provided timely information on sample and sales orders, and product pricing and availability. Management was able to forecast inventory based on opportunity data collected, forecast sales goals and assess overall performance of their sales team via the report portal.


HMB Delivery Experience

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  • “
    As a customer, I appreciate that HMB approaches our business like a partnership, offers very competitive rates and all the while providing top notch IT services
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    Franklin County Treasurer
  • “
    HMB has consistently provided high quality .Net developers to our team.  The rapid ramp up and ability to become quickly productive for the project has not been matched by any other consultants.  We are very pleased with HMB's high performing, business-minded developers.
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    Head of IS
  • “
    Well done! This is the A-team!
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    IT Manager
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    HMB focuses on customer inclusion and participation, which has provided opportunities for both clarity of business needs and project success.
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    Leader, Operations Support
  • “
    HMB has the ability to gently help their customers navigate operational roadblocks entrenched in “the way we’ve always done it” to assist their customers gain operational efficiency via technology improvements
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    Franklin County Treasurer
  • “
    Jody, congrats to you and the team on a successful implementation!
    ”


    Sr Vice President Distribution Operations
  • “
    From the beginning of the project, it was clear their major concerns were doing the project in the right way the first time and understanding the business just as well as the practitioners in the agency.
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  • “
    HMB is just not another highly skilled service provider; they care about the solution they are providing their customers, and how it will continue to serve them in the future.
    ”

    Rosa Barker

    IT Director, Franklin County Treasurer
  • “
    I'm attending the lessons learned to understand what made this program so successful.
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    Tom Harris

    Partner, HMB
  • “
    At the end of the day it comes down to doing the right thing. If you do what's right for your clients and treat your employees well, everything else falls into place. It's just that simple .
    ”

    Mark Buchy

    Partner, HMB
  • “
    The HMB team has established themselves as not just a vendor, but a partner, in helping us achieve our mission. They believe and live with us our value of 'be so good they can’t ignore us.
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    Sr. Director
  • “
    My company chose HMB over other options primarily because of their people.  They came highly recommended, but what made them stand out amongst their peers was the professionalism and expertise of their team.
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    Business Application Manager
  • “
    In developing Ohio’s educational e-grants system, HMB served as a great partner from start to finish.
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    Director of Grants Management, Ohio Department of Education
  • “
    Most importantly, [HMB] seems to live by the idea that their business is not just about performing their assignments brilliantly, but also about satisfying their clients deeply.
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    Business Application Manager
  • “
    High achievement always takes place in a framework of high expectation.
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  • “
    We partnered with HMB because of their track record of successful projects, the depth of their technology staff and their flexibility. HMB provided us with the right resources in a short timeframe that allowed us to meet our client commitments in a timely and cost-effective manner. 
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    Vice President of Technology
  • “
    HMB truly catered to 'our' needs on our RightFax Implementation. Their sales representatives and technical staff were a pleasure to work with. 
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    IT Contract Administrator
  • “
    Professional, experienced, reliable and trustworthy sum up our relationship with HMB
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    Emily L. Shaw

    Chief Deputy, Franklin County Treasurer
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