NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - July 7, 2010) - Information Builders, an independent leader in business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that Goodfellow Inc. has standardized on the Information Builders WebFOCUS BI platform to develop operational reports that boost worker efficiency and streamline the distribution of information to support its just-in-time inventory model. Headquartered in Delson, Québec, Goodfellow is a wholesaler and distributor of wood and wood by-products.
As a leading supplier of specialty products to the construction industry, Goodfellow knows the key to running a thriving business hinges on having accurate information on sales, inventory levels, budgets, freight, financials, and product management. The CAN$500-million company constantly analyzes forecasts, adjusts pending orders, and monitors supply chain activity to keep just enough product on hand to satisfy immediate customer needs. Goodfellow depends on WebFOCUS to provide accurate information to the people and processes involved.
"Like many companies in this economic climate, we have done a lot of restructuring during the last couple years," said Graham Rattray, IT Director at Goodfellow. "When cash flow is down, maintaining precise inventory levels becomes much more critical. Accurate sales information is also essential. WebFOCUS helps us access, analyze, and distribute information throughout our company a hundred times better than we could do before."
Previously, all requests for information were routed to the IT department. Fulfilling these requests was very time consuming for Rattray and his group. Goodfellow purchased WebFOCUS to simplify report development and improve the flow of information throughout the company. Information Builders Professional Services helped Goodfellow build ten crucial reports to field common requests for information from a variety of business applications deployed in an IBM iSeries environment. Rattray and his team went on to create many other reports on their own.
For example, Goodfellow's sales reporting application permits everyone from senior officers to sales reps to glean daily, monthly, and annual sales information about product lines and SKUs from an intuitive, parameterized report. Other standard reports supply current information to shipping, accounts payable, accounts receivables, orders, credits, and the call center. Authorized users can customize these reports through a WebFOCUS dashboard and enter parameters to qualify their queries by type of customer, product, and other variables. WebFOCUS puts seven years of historical information at their fingertips.
"The recent economic downturn has impacted virtually every industry, but the construction sector has suffered more than most," acknowledged Gerald Cohen, president and CEO at Information Builders. "Many building supply companies were forced to shut their doors, but Goodfellow learned how to maximize efficiency to keep its business afloat. Thanks to its unique BI environment, Goodfellow will emerge from the economic recession in a position of strength."
About Goodfellow
Goodfellow is a wholesaler and distributor of wood and wood by-products with headquarters in Delson, Québec. The company has wood treating facilities and offers a full inventory of exterior siding, flooring, plywood, treated wood and prefabricated products as well as a broad range of hardwood, softwood, and exotic woods. For additional information about Goodfellow products and services, see the Company Profile and Products section of its Web site.
About Information Builders
Information Builders' award-winning combination of business intelligence (BI) 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. Information Builders also offers solutions in the performance management, business activity monitoring, and enterprise search markets. The company's comprehensive enterprise product offerings 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. More information is available at informationbuilders.com.
Contact Information:
Press Contacts:
Kathleen Moran
Information Builders
(212) 736-4433
Kathleen_Moran@ibi.com