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I’m quite excited with the utilization dashboard in Visio 2010 because I think it will provide a multi-dimensional view of the information and present it across multiple business units and geographies seamlessly. |
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Bhageerathi D.R.
Vice President & Head, Microsoft Technology Practice, IT Services,
MindTree Ltd. |
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Situation
MindTree Ltd. is a global IT Solutions company specializing in IT Services, Independent Testing, Infrastructure Management and Technical Support, Knowledge Services and Product Engineering, including R&D Services, Software Product Engineering and Wireless Products. Headquartered in India, MindTree was ranked 43rd among the leaders in The 2010 Global Outsourcing 100 by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, and in 2008 was ranked No. 1 among the Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) India Award winners for the second consecutive year.
As a services company, MindTree generates its primary revenue through the billable hours of its staff across many different business and industry units. MindTree Senior Management regularly monitors a number of key measures to evaluate performance and make decisions (including overall staff utilization, business unit utilization, and the types of projects underway with the highest and lowest utilization, to name a few). MindTree’s Business Finance Group supports Senior Management by tracking and monitoring the financial health of the organization across various business units using employee utilization, project status, and financial information stored in MindTree’s SAP back-end system.
To evaluate performance and measure utilization, MindTree executives relied on 20-25 periodic utilization reports in total. To generate each report, MindTree’s Business Finance Group’s analysts would query the SAP utilization database, copy the data to pivot tables in Microsoft® Excel®, then manually manipulate and analyze the data, export the analysis to Microsoft Word, convert to PDF, and distribute via email. This in turn created a cumbersome and unwieldy report development process, where the report would generally take between 4-5 hours to develop and present.
As the scope and complexity of MindTree’s business grew, the Business Finance Group found itself dedicating more and more time to developing and managing these unwieldy performance reports, while MindTree executives needed utilization data on a more real-time basis to review performance and make timely decisions. MindTree executives wanted a solution where they could review utilization reports in real-time, be able to drill down to any level of required detail, and with minimal effort from the Business Finance Group without requiring any programming skills.
Solution
To address these challenges, MindTree developed a utilization dashboard that would provide Senior Management and other business users with the ability to gather, review, and drill down on business unit utilization data, eliminating the need for manually created performance reports. This would provide real time reports to executives regarding revenue forecasts and utilization so that management could plan accordingly.
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| Figure 1: MindTree’s Visio 2010 Utilization Dashboard |
To do this, MindTree extracted data from their operational SAP system, exported the data into Excel worksheets published using Excel Services, connected the Excel Services data to the dashboard created using Visio® Professional 2010, and published the Visio dashboard to SharePoint® Server 2010 using Visio Services. This allowed MindTree to incorporate existing utilization, financial, and project status data into the dashboard and facilitate wider consumption across the enterprise.
MindTree was “able to develop the solution using Visio 2010 and its backend Excel integration, and also be able to publish to SharePoint very easily with hardly any programming required. [Visio 2010] was an ideal fit for this kind of work,” says Bhageerathi D.R., Vice President & Head, Microsoft Technology Practice, IT Services, MindTree Ltd.
Benefits
MindTree’s approximately 50 Senior Managers will now have access to real-time utilization dashboards, and can review and drill into the previous quarter, month, or year in real time without having to wade through and analyze a whole set of emails. This will enable MindTree’s executives to make better and timelier decisions without waiting for a report to be generated.
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| Figure 2: Visio 2010 Utilization Dashboard with Supporting Data |
“Visio 2010 provides capability to view a diagrammatic representation of data. Information was available before in the form of Pivot tables in Excel, but publishing the reports graphically and also providing real time data was a challenge. With the integration of Visio 2010 and SharePoint 2010 with Visio Services, the above issues can be addressed,” says Venkatraman G. S., Associate Director, Business Finance, MindTree Ltd.
In addition, MindTree believes that effort spent to develop a custom reporting application can be reduced if not completely eliminated with Visio 2010 and SharePoint 2010. Prior to this solution, report development would require developing a one-time dashboard, with supporting data manually generated from data exported in Excel.
With the new solution, it becomes easier for business users to generate reports on the fly without involvement of technical team. Any person with knowledge of the business and an understanding of how to use Visio, Visio Services and publish to SharePoint will be able to generate their own custom reports without requiring IT support.
Microsoft Visio 2010
The advanced diagramming tools of Microsoft® Visio® 2010 help you simplify complexity with dynamic, data-driven visuals and new ways to share on the Web in real-time. Start by building your diagram with a diverse set of professional-looking templates and modern, pre-drawn shapes. Then, easily link your diagram to popular data sources (such as Microsoft® Office Excel®). You’ll see data automatically refresh right within your diagram, reflected in vibrant visuals such as icons, symbols, colors, and bar graphs. Finally, with just a few clicks, publish your data-linked diagram to Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2010, and provide access to others on the Web, even if they don’t have Visio. Together, simplicity, data-driven shapes, and Web sharing make Visio one of the most powerful ways to see and understand important information.
For more information about Microsoft Visio 2010, go to: www.visio.com
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about MindTree Ltd. products and services, call (425) 867-3900 or visit the Web site at: www.mindtree.com
Legal Disclaimer
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published May 2010.
