Replaced excel spreadsheets with a slick Management Information reporting system

1. MI REPORTING CASE STUDY
COMPASS GROUP PLC
REPLACED EXCEL SPREADSHEETS WITH A SLICK
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION REPORTING SYSTEM

2. Compass Group PLC
is the largest contract foodservice company
in the world, operating
in over 50 countries
and serving 4 billion meals a year
WHO IS COMPASS GROUP PLC

3. Data relating to
15 business-critical
Key Performance Indicators
was fed into Excel from SAP,
Cognos and other reporting
tools. The output was
a 250MB spreadsheet
that was almost
impossible to open
and even harder to interpret.
COMPASS’S CHALLENGE AND OUR SOLUTION
Working directly with the business, we designed and built a Management Information Reporting System that organised the data based
on the business’s requirements
and presented it in a user friendly interface.

4. WHAT WE DELIVERED
An online Management Information Reporting System

5. »»
Business analysis
»»
Legacy systems audit
»»
User research and definition
»»
Information Architecture
»»
Interactive prototyping
»»
Interface design
»»
Testing
SKILLS USED
We looked into the requirements of the business to establish what reports senior management needed, what decisions they would make and what actions they would take.
Our UX investigation looked into the data presentation requirements, devices used by management, information sharing needs, access control, as well as viewing behaviour and context: session length, frequency, location, solitary vs group viewings, etc. We then translated the spreadsheets into a series of interfaces weaved into a stand-alone interactive prototype. The prototype was circulated within the business and road-tested by numerous end-users returning some very insightful feedback. The broad testing had the additional benefit of significantly increasing the business’s awareness of the project which in turn led to a higher adoption rate upon launch.
HOW WE DID IT - THE BUSINESS & USER EXPERIENCE ANGLES

6. »»
Database design
»»
Stored Procedures
»»
SQL
»»
.NET
SKILLS USED
»»
DevExpress
»»
.NET
»»
SQL
»»
SQL Reporting Services
TECHNOLOGIES USED
There were four components to our technical solution:
The import routine’s goal was to enable importing one month’s worth of Excel data within 30 seconds, with error handling messaging built-in.
The database design (built in Microsoft SQL Server) had to be flexible and scalable enough to allow reporting variations, and still show trend data.
The business logic, implemented as Stored Procedures, allowed for rapid calculations of only a few milliseconds and in turn report creation over a 3G or weaker signal.
As with many corporates, browser restrictions were in-play, so we used our standard cross-browser compatible toolkit of DevExpress for rapid deployment of a consistent front-end.
HOW WE DID IT - THE TECHNOLOGY ANGLE

7. THE OUTCOME
95%
76%
Cumbersome, error-prone and hard-to-manage spreadsheets were replaced with a single,
fast, logical, and well designed online reporting tool that allows management to
access accurate, up-to-date information and make better informed decisions.
of users rated the tool to be
from good to excellent
of users stated that the
new tool has saved them time when reviewing and analysing performance data