Revas, the outsourcing arm of Baker Tilly – the international provider of accountancy and business advisory services – is using ‘Active Analytics’ from LogiXML (www.LogiXML.com) to build financial apps that have drastically improved operational efficiency. This not only delivers better operational insight to Baker Tilly Revas clients, but also saves the company significant time in client ramp-up and implementation costs.

 

Using LogiXML’s Active Analytics technology, Revas revamped its client portal in less than 90 days, establishing a customisable, real-time dashboard with various key indicators and drill-down capabilities. The resulting new reports are driven with output from multiple data sources, providing greater ‘context’ and ‘insight’. Users can now select from drop-downs and filters to display data dynamically and directly from the financial system.

 

Revas’ clients can now analyse and query data in several ways without Revas having to provide custom reports. Using the Analysis Grid, Revas’ clients can view purchase ledger transactions, as well as drill down into images of uploaded documents and invoices via integration with barcoding technology.

 

“Because we used LogiXML to create a single analytics delivery environment, we no longer need to manage multiple reporting applications,” said Kevin Dodson, associate director, Baker Tilly Processing Limited. “With the old environment, the reporting framework and the report delivery software were two different applications and the link between them was tough to manage. None of the things we are doing now were possible with our previous platforms – and most of the new features were built in just a few days.

 

“We also wanted documentation to be visible through the reports within the client portal,” Dodson added. “This was to overcome limitations where clients would want to see a document we had or vice versa. Using LogiXML plug-ins, web integration and reporting enhancements we delivered this with little custom development on our part.”

 

LogiXML’s Active Analytics technology is based on meeting four key functional criteria:

  • Pervasive – it makes BI available on the technology that people use, such as mobile devices;
  • Integrated – it allows information to be embedded into existing applications;
  • Innovative – it allows the IT department to carry out agile and iterative development to serve their end-users;
  • Actionable – it lets users turn decisions into immediate operational actions.

 

Comment: The days of static reports, isolated tools and restricted business intelligence (BI) deployments would seem to be numbered. Companies – such as Revas – now seem to want immediate, accessible and actionable analytics that correspond with the decisions that drive their businesses every day. It’s fortunate that the technology now exists to meet these needs. What a coincidence! Who’d have thought it?