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Customers In The Spotlight

Graniterock

"Someone once said, 'IT is not a strategic differentiator.' At Graniterock, we believe otherwise. And we believe that Business Objects software is offering us strategic differentiation in our industry."

Steve Snodgrass, CIO, Graniterock

Challenge

There's more to construction than pouring concrete. Running a successful construction enterprise requires the ability to track, manage, analyze, and report on an enormously complex mix of operational data. In fact, accurate and timely reporting is one of the biggest demands from the industry's customers and a key differentiator in terms of securing client jobs.

Founded in 1900, Graniterock has more than a century's worth of experience and success in the construction business. With 700 employees and 16 locations throughout Northern California, the company knows the importance of reporting - and wants to meet its ever-increasing data needs. These needs include management and delivery of growing volumes of data to internal and external customers. That's why Graniterock is expanding its use of Crystal Reports and delivering reporting needs via BusinessObjects Enterprise as data content increases with the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) tagging and balanced scorecarding.

"Our Business Objects solution (BusinessObjects Enterprise) covers the gamut in information delivery - from integrating with safety, vehicle compliance, and preventive maintenance programs to reporting against PeopleSoft Enterprise One and PeopleSoft World financial data and helping to improve customer satisfaction levels. We rely on Business Objects products and are committed to using them to their full potential," says Steve Snodgrass, CIO, Graniterock.

Approach

Graniterock's user base consists of the finance, accounting, and sales departments, as well as senior and middle management, job project managers, and preventative maintenance planners throughout the enterprise. "What's great about Crystal Reports is that we don't need our IT or finance and accounting departments to be the gatekeepers of data," says Snodgrass. "Our group of users is very self-service and self-sufficient."

In addition to its ease-of-use, another strength of Business Objects technology is its ability to integrate to multiple applications. Historically, the heavy construction industry has stored information in separate operational data silos. Says Snodgrass, "I can think of three separate applications that we've integrated with Business Objects software. We're reporting heavily against PeopleSoft Enterprise One and PeopleSoft World financial data, as well as a ticketing application and a sales and quoting application."

Another example is the monitoring of the company's growing user and report base. Reporting against the Visual Basic 6 application, Graniterock is using RFID tags to collect data on inventory and supply movement. The RFID system processes the arrival and departure of trucks through its asphalt and quarry loading locations. With minimal human intervention, this system identifies the truck, project assignment, and weight for each load.

Graniterock uses BusinessObjects Enterprise to manage the collected data, which is expected to grow exponentially with RFID tagging, and produce cycle-time reports. The system provides information on truck pick-ups and deliveries and creates the data points that allow customers to ask, for example, why one truck driver can finish a cycle in a half hour and why another driver takes an hour to do the same job.

Results

The ability to report on the RFID system is extremely important to Graniterock and its customers. The company uses this information to determine transportation charges. These charges, based by the hour or the load, are a huge component of Graniterock's expense structure. The company can use this RFID tracking to normalize cycle times and ensure timely delivery of materials. Graniterock uses the information gathered to develop quotes and identify job sites. Then, additional report functionality built against the Visual Basic .NET application allows Graniterock to automatically email or fax sales quotes and job updates to customers.

"Customers like the fact they automatically get their reports. It's a brand of loyalty that we couldn't otherwise provide to our customers," says Snodgrass. "It's not only a great value-add, but also a capability that none of our competitors has."

"Long story short," explains Snodgrass, "BusinessObjects Enterprise has allowed us to do something very unique in our industry - and that's to cross over data from different product lines and operational systems. We use the flagship Crystal Reports as a reporting engine to tell us how many quotes and pricing documents are being generated by each location across lines of products. These reports provide us a wealth of information, including the ability to evaluate our employees via a balanced scorecard system."

Graniterock has an extremely comprehensive, homegrown balanced scorecard system with Crystal Reports embedded as the reporting engine for its metrics. The system includes 35 scorecards, which are specific to departments or operations. Each scorecard then has nine sub-scorecards. Called Nine Corporate Objectives, these help Graniterock develop its annual, baseline goals.

Snodgrass concludes, "Someone once said, 'IT is not a strategic differentiator.' At Graniterock, we believe otherwise. And we believe that Business Objects software is offering us strategic differentiation in our industry."

• Read eWEEK story about Graniterock: "RFID Does More Than Track Trucks"
• Learn more about BusinessObjects Enterprise
• Learn more about Crystal Reports
• Read more Business Objects customer success stories

Video

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  How does Graniterock use BI to improve customer satisfaction?
  (WMV, 2 min 16 sec)

Quick Facts

• Industry
  Construction
• Business pain:
  Graniterock needed a way to extend its reporting system to include radio frequency ID tagging and balanced scorecarding.
• Why Business Objects?
  Crystal Reports easily integrates with the company's RFID tagging and balanced scorecarding systems to help better manage data on inventory, deliveries, and personnel performance.
• Press release:
  Business Objects Helps Graniterock Manage Mountains of RFID Data

Business Objects Products and Services:
BusinessObjects XI, Crystal Reports