Technique Business Intelligence Software (TBIS), a member of the PBT group of companies and a Premier IBM Business Partner, has implemented IBM Pure Data for Analytics (Netezza) technology at the Glacier division of Sanlam, to provide it with the means to manage and deliver its operational reporting more efficiently.
Glacier by Sanlam brings together niche experts and financial services companies to meet the wealth management needs of Sanlam clients. Based on its business model, Glacier relies heavily on reporting systems.
The solution being used by Glacier, for the bulk of its reporting needs, was not meeting the necessary reporting requirements.
“Sanlam Glacier needed to produce reports quickly with near real-time data while reducing its mainframe database usage costs. It required a data warehouse appliance, or an equivalent solution, that could handle the volume and complexity of its operational data. Furthermore, the solution needed to be scalable, cost effective, and be implemented in a short amount of time,” says Nigel Freddy, MD of TBIS.
TBIS proposed the IBM Pure Data for Analytics appliance (powered by Netezza technology) as a key component of the solution offering to meet this need. Given that IBM Netezza is a simple data warehouse appliance for serious analytics, which simplifies and optimises performance of data services for analytic applications – this solution provides the opportunity to enable very complex queries and analytic algorithms to run in minutes and not hours, which is key to Glacier’s reporting requirements.
“Glacier decided on TBIS as it not only understood its requirements and could meet these, but was competitive from a pricing perspective and had the knowledge around data management. It could also provide Glacier with the required local support to ensure a successful implementation,” says Hewan McCann, IT Manager at Sanlam Glacier.
Part of the broader implementation here was the redesign and development of the Glacier Web site to provide intermediaries with the ability to run more complex reports faster and more efficiently than before. Netezza will also be used to provide daily rebuilds of the Report56 database used for the bulk of the queries and reports conducted.
“These daily rebuilds provide more flexibility for both Glacier and its intermediaries when comparing values,” says Freddy.
The Netezza appliance now gives Glacier the capability to run ad hoc analysis and queries without the additional overhead, engineering, and maintenance required by supporting this in traditional data warehouses.
“The commitment of the TBIS project team in ensuring the successful implementation has resulted in Glacier being able to save on operational costs and improve its turn-around time on reports,” concludes Freddy.
