Features - Enterprise Data Insights:

DATABEACON TAKES GOLD IN COLOMBIAN DATA ANALYSIS OLYMPICS

Aaaahh, rich Colombian coffee. Full-bodied. Brimming with flavor. Good to the last drop. Mention Colombian exports and most of us think of coffee. After all, it is Colombia's best-known product. But there's a lot more to this thriving South American nation of 42 million people than roasted beans and Juan Valdez. In fact, Colombia is a major producer of textiles, apparel, live plants, furniture, chemicals, plastics, software and much more.

Promoting these and other products abroad and helping Colombian firms sell their goods into the brutally competitive world market is the job of Proexport. Proexport is tasked with identifying opportunities for Colombian business, analyzing existing competition, developing strategies to penetrate external markets, and creating action plans to help specific firms adapt to the international marketplace. As well, Proexport is often called upon to bring entrepreneurs, commercial promoters and investors together and to assist foreign firms wishing to source Colombian goods.

Proexport Tasked With Identifying Opportunities For Colombian Firms

"We have so much information to manage, and we found ourselves with four basic problems," says Proexport president Luis Guillermo Plata. "One -- with our offices all over the country and around the world, how do we make massive amounts of information available to everyone? Two -- with fresh data coming in all the time, how do we make sure everyone has up-to-date information? Three -- how do we make Web reporting and data analysis faster and easier and push it out of headquarters and out to the regional offices where it's needed? Four -- how can we keep real track of our clients and their export results, and how can we measure our performance and impact?"

Struggled With A Hodge-Podge Of Custom Analysis Tools, Static HTML Reports And SQL Server Databases, But It Wasn't Working

The agency had been struggling with a hodge-podge of custom analysis tools, static HTML reports and SQL server databases, but it wasn't working. So Proexport turned to the business consulting firm ISI that represents Databeacon in Colombia in association with Abaco. Working closely with ISI, Proexport put most of the major business intelligence applications through a grueling evaluation process.

The Most Rigorous Testing And Selection Process

"It was probably the most rigorous testing and selection process I've ever seen," says Giovanni Gomez -- Intelligence Enterprise Consultant. "We went head-to-head with all the big players -- Microsoft, Cognos, Beyond 20/20, Microstrategy, and Business Objects. You could almost say it was the Olympic Games of data analysis. But when it was all over, I'm proud to say that Databeacon took home the gold medal."

"I think the key factor in our decision was that Databeacon was clearly designed from the very beginning as a Web-based application," says Proexport's Plata. "The other tools, even the ones that worked quite well, had obviously been migrated from a client/server architecture. That gave us problems with scaling and licensing. Databeacon scales up very easily. And the licensing structure is designed for a large and growing number of users so when we expand exponentially, we won't need to worry about exponentially escalating costs."

Licensing Structure Designed For A Large And Growing Number Of Users

Today, mere months after the launch of Proexport's Databeacon application, it's too early to accurately calculate the agency's return-on-investment. "Implementation was very smooth and un-complicated," says Plata. "And as we rolled out the software across our organization, our people found it extremely easy to use. In fact, once they experienced the Databeacon application, everyone was very happy to discard our old processes."

Proexport Managers Using Databeacon To Analyze Trends And Seek Opportunities In Specific Markets

And as Proexport managers have just begun using Databeacon to analyze trends and seek opportunities within their specific market sectors, to follow up business opportunities and to analyze information collected through their brand new CRM system, the vistas for the Web reporting and data analysis are opening wider in Colombia, allowing Proexport to measure their real impact in Colombian non-traditional exports and therefore in employment generation, according to their commitment with National Government.

Databeacon Reports Very Easy For The End User

"We've already found that Databeacon reports are very easy for the end user," says Plata. "So down the road we may push our data outwards, perhaps making data analysis available directly to our clients. There's a lot we can do. Databeacon opens up many possibilities for us in the future."

In the meantime, working with Databeacon, Proexport will be happy to do for Colombia's non-traditional products what Juan Valdez has already done for the country's famous coffee trade.