New York Public Library and Columbus City Schools are Named Finalists for Innovative Use of BI Technology

WASHINGTON, DC (June 04, 2009) –

Information Builders, an independent leader in business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that its customer, United States Transportation Command (US TRANSCOM), was declared a winner at the 2009 Computerworld Honors Awards ceremony in Washington DC. US TRANSCOM was recognized for utilizing BI technology to benefit society. Two additional Information Builders customers, New York Public Library and Columbus City Schools, were honored as finalists for their innovative use of BI technology.

Other Information Builders clients honored included the Erlanger, Kentucky Police Department, the engineering department of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, the Federal Student Aid Office of the Federal Department of Education, Prince George’s County Police Department, and Spain’s Ministerio de Trabajo e Inmigracion (Ministry of Immigration).

The United States Transportation Command (US TRANSCOM) developed TRAC2ES, a Web-based BI system that transports sick or injured personnel and coordinates their movement throughout the U.S. military’s worldwide network of healthcare facilities. TRAC2ES also provides critical reporting capabilities to more than 2,500 users, from senior command officers to the President and Congress, including data such as the number of patients and movements, number of missions, and costs. Detailed reports follow the status of patients from the beginning of transport to the outcome of treatment. TRAC2ES supported operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom by providing 100 percent patient in-transit visibility for more than 11,500 patients. This system improves efficiency in medical transport and access to advanced care for wounded troops, patient movement from the battlefield, and operational decision support.

The New York Public Library created a BI system called Metrics On Demand (MOD) that allows employees to effectively track visitor traffic, borrowing habits, and other key metrics. This information helps library personnel make judicious decisions about which library resources and services are most important to the general public. These capabilities have become extremely important in the face of recent budget shortfalls. The library faces budget reductions from both public and private sources, which means managers need to make tough, strategic choices about where money is spent. Personnel at 91 locations use MOD to analyze many facets of the library operation, helping personnel track traffic patterns, use of materials, and inventory to preserve the services people care about most. The dashboard-driven environment empowers hundreds of employees to share information and create customized reports.

Columbus City Schools and Nationwide Insurance are bringing greater insight and accountability to the education of more than 55,000 students at 130 schools in central Ohio. Nationwide Insurance, which is headquartered in Columbus, developed a tool with the school district using BI technology that helps administrators analyze student data. The resulting environment connects 4,000 teachers and administrators to student assessment data, attendance data, and discipline data with the overall goal of improving student achievement.

The Erlanger, Kentucky Police Department created an operational business intelligence system with integrated search capabilities that combines data from 19 government agencies to link information about suspects, incidents, arrests, and crimes. The BI environment helps patrol officers and supervisors respond more knowledgeably to calls and provide better services to Northern Kentucky citizens.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway created a Maintenance Excellence Dashboard to monitor its infrastructure of tracks, signals, and structures, which improved safety, limited train delays, and minimized revenue loss.

The Federal Student Aid Office of the Federal Department of Education created the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) tool to improve assistance to students completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). ISIR enhances verification efforts and ensures that the right students are receiving the aid they need to achieve their higher education goals. The tool has helped more than 150 schools identify discrepancies of more than $600 million in FAFSA applications.

Prince George’s County Police Department developed the Active Crime Reporting dashboard to display statistics on calls for service such as robbery, homicide, car theft, and auto accidents, helping police officers lower crime within the county.

Spain’s Ministerio de Trabajo e Inmigracion (Ministry of Immigration) implemented Project Lince, a BI environment that enforces immigration requirements by improving information integrity. A new BI portal streamlines access to information and enforces immigration rules for the entire staff.
About the Computerworld Honors Program

Founded by International Data Group (IDG) in 1988, the Computerworld Honors Program is governed by the not-for-profit Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation. In its 21st year, Computerworld Honors is the longest running global program to honor individuals and organizations that use information technology to benefit society.
About Information Builders

Information Builders’ award-winning combination of business intelligence and enterprise integration software has been providing innovative solutions to more than 12,000 customers for the past 30 years. WebFOCUS is the world’s most widely utilized business intelligence platform. It provides the security, scalability and flexibility needed at every level of global extended enterprises. Its simplicity helps create executive, analytical, and operational applications that reach dozens to millions of users. Information Builders’ iWay Software suite provides state of the art, multi-purpose, pre-built integration components that address all SOA, application, data and information management requirements. Its integration adapters have been adopted by the leading software platform providers. Together, these products give Information Builders’ customers the ability to grow and innovate according to their needs.

Information Builders’ customers include most of the Fortune 100 and U.S. federal government agencies. Headquartered in New York City with 90 offices worldwide, the company employs 1,450 people and has more than 350 business partners.

Source: Information Builders