Microsoft Business Intelligence
Customer Solution
Switch to SQL Server–based Financial
Reporting System Vastly Improves Analysis
Functionality, Maintainability
Published: February 2003
Solution Overview
To collect information for U.S. Securities Exchange Commission filings
and financial reports, Motorola had relied on antiquated technology that
required IT intervention for basic processes and maintenance. Doubtful
about the system’s reliability and wanting to avoid the high cost of
maintaining the system, company managers began searching for a
replacement. After reviewing alternatives, the company decided to
develop a system based on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition
with Analysis Services. The new system is easier to use and provides the
necessary analytical capability. Because the system puts routine
administrative tasks in the hands of users, it requires limited IT
intervention, thus saving time and vastly increasing return on investment.
Situation
Motorola is a global leader in providing integrated communications solutions and embedded
electronic solutions. Its extensive solutions include wireless subscriber products, which are sold
through distributors and retailers worldwide. As of September 30, 2002, the company employed
100,000 people worldwide. Motorola had sales of U.S.$27 billion in 2002.
Motorola’s Year-End Work Papers (YEWP) financial reporting system used antiquated technology
Customer Profile
Motorola is a global leader in
providing integrated communications solutions and embedded
electronic solutions. Its wireless
subscriber products are sold
through distributors and retailers.
Business Situation
The system that Motorola used to
collect information for SEC and
other governmental filings and
financial reports required IT
intervention for basic processes
and maintenance. It also lacked
analytical capabilities.
Solution
Motorola developed a system
based on Microsoft® SQL Server™
2000 with Analysis Services. The
system provides the necessary
analytical capability, and because
it puts administrative and
maintenance tasks in the hands
of users, it requires limited IT
intervention.
Benefits


and required intervention by the information technology (IT) department for basic processes and
maintenance. The system was very labor-intensive to use. In addition, it lacked analytical
capabilities, which required employees to create time-consuming workarounds. Although
separate from the company’s primary financial reporting system, YEWP is still a critical
component because it is used to collect information for U.S. Securities Exchange Commission
(SEC) and other governmental filings and financial reports.
YEWP had been based on another provider’s database, its Web component built using an early
version of that database. Motorola decided that the system was at the end of its useful life when it
discovered that system enhancements would require expensive rewrites because of changes
between old and new versions of the product. The company found that it lacked the in-house
expertise to write enhancements and couldn’t justify hiring a prohibitively expensive consultant to
upgrade a business-critical product that would have questionable reliability and that consumed a
great deal of time to use and maintain. “The information collected in the YEWP system goes into
our annual SEC filings and other government-mandated filings and reports, and Motorola
management started worrying that the system would no longer be reliable. Had it broken down,



Increased return on
investment
Easy and inexpensive to
maintain and upgrade
Superior reliability
Scalability for future growth
Automation and ease of use
empower employees and save
time
Software and Services
Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server,
including Microsoft Internet
Information Services 5.0
Microsoft Office XP
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Enterprise Edition with Analysis
Services
Microsoft Visual Studio®
Microsoft Consulting Services
Hardware
Two Dell PowerEdge 2550
servers with two x86 Intel 993MHz processors
the process to collect the YEWP data would have been extremely manual and cumbersome,”
says Reem Hantash, Financial Analyst for Motorola.
The previous YEWP system had very limited analysis capability, so time-consuming
“If we had gone with another
vendor’s solution, what we
workarounds had to be devised. To perform analysis, for example, users had to copy and paste
would have needed in
data from a Web page into a Microsoft® Excel spreadsheet, or print out each business entity’s
product, training, and
page and manually review it. Doing so required extreme attention to detail because sometimes
consulting was so much
during quarter- or year-end reporting, changes would be made to the working Excel
more extensive than what
spreadsheets, which then needed to be manually entered back into the YEWP system.
The company needed a reliable system with analytical capability—a system that could continue
to be supported and upgraded inexpensively using internal resources.
The company considered the products of other vendors but decided on a business intelligence
(BI) solution based on Microsoft SQL Server™2000 Enterprise Edition with Analysis Services.
the YEWP system called for.
We were able to build a
custom system using
Microsoft software for less
money than we would have
Because of the custom modifications that would have been required to make the other vendor’s
packaged financial-reporting application work for Motorola, the overall cost of acquisition and
development made that application an expensive and complicated option.
Another offering that Motorola considered was also far more complicated and costly than what
was needed for the YEWP system. According to Ken Brinkman, Motorola’s Corporate IT
Manager, “If we had gone with another vendor’s solution, what we would have needed in
product, training, and consulting was so much more extensive than what the YEWP system
called for. We were able to build a custom system using Microsoft software for less money than
we would have spent on packages that did not entirely meet our needs.”
In addition, the other product would have required an add-on for analysis services, whereas SQL
Server 2000 Enterprise Edition ships with Analysis Services in the box. The fact that SQL Server
came with all the needed functionality combined with lower total cost of ownership made SQL
Server 2000 Enterprise Edition the obvious choice.
Solution
With the assistance of Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS), Motorola developed a system that is
easier to use, maintain, and upgrade and that provides analytical capabilities and integration with
other Microsoft software for all of its 500 users.
The system uses two Dell PowerEdge 2550 servers running the Microsoft Windows ® 2000 Server
operating system. The application server is the host for the Web site and runs Microsoft Internet
Information Services (IIS) version 5.0, the Web server built into Windows 2000 Server. Users
enter data on Web pages; when they save the data, the system writes the transactions to a
relational SQL Server database on the database server.
Data analysis functionality is available in a Web page as an Excel PivotTable ® dynamic view
saved as HTML and surfaced using Microsoft Office XP Web components. Users also have the
option of accessing the analysis functionality directly from an Excel spreadsheet by selecting the
YEWP database as the external data source.
The database server has a relational database and a data mart, as well as a cube in Analysis
Services. For certain administrative functions such as updating users, accounts, organizations,
spent on packages that did
not entirely meet our needs.”
Ken Brinkman
Corporate IT Manager
Motorola
and the calendar, it’s important to update the data mart at the same time as the relational
database. Triggers allow this simultaneous update to happen seamlessly.
“We felt that the overall
Microsoft alternative was the
better choice for this system
not only because Microsoft
offered the required
technology, but also because
that technology could be
easily and inexpensively
supported by our Microsoft
developer base going
forward.”
Rita Popovich
Systems Analyst
Motorola
Motorola Year-End Work Papers (YEWP) System Architecture
MCS worked with Motorola’s IT group to develop the new system. A Microsoft Premier Support
team helped set up and run the stress tests, analyze the results, and recommend hardware
purchases. Premier Support and MCS helped Motorola troubleshoot when the company had
problems getting the application environment to work on the new servers.
Benefits
The new YEWP system has provided positive return on investment and enabled the financial
analyst to spend more time analyzing rather than gathering and formatting data. The system is
easy and inexpensive to maintain and upgrade. Automation and ease of use empower employees
and save them time. The reliability of SQL Server means that the system is readily available—
which is crucial because the YEWP system is a financial application.
Increased Return on Investment
The old YEWP system required a great deal of IT intervention for administration and
maintenance—for example, when initializing the system at the beginning of a new quarter, adding
new accounts, or making changes that resulted from company reorganizations. The new YEWP
system dramatically simplifies those tasks and puts them back into the hands of users, saving
valuable IT resources and time and increasing the overall return on investment.
Adding to the return on investment is the analytical capability of the new system. The financial
analyst is able to spend more time analyzing rather than gathering and formatting data because
of the system’s vastly improved analytical capability. “The old system had very limited analytical
capability; it only compared one period to the prior year period. To do any more in-depth analysis,
I had to copy and paste system data into an Excel spreadsheet. The new system lets me pick and
choose what data I want to review, which quarters I want to compare. Plus, I can manipulate the
data—and it’s a lot quicker and easier to review and analyze,” says Hantash.
Easier Maintainability
In the past, Motorola found that systems, including YEWP, can become difficult to support or
upgrade. As developers move on or technology changes, it is often difficult to find resources with
“When we chose this Visual
Basic– and SQL Server–
based solution, we were
interested in building an
the necessary knowledge. If such developers are available, they must be hired from outside the
application that could be
company and are expensive. Motorola wanted to develop its system using products and
cloned or scaled to meet
technologies that the company knew it could support years from now. The Microsoft solution
other similar business
provided what the company was looking for. “It’s essential to have a system built on products that
can be maintained by people different from the original set of developers. We felt that the overall
requirements within our
Microsoft alternative was the better choice for this system not only because Microsoft offered the
company. Microsoft products
required technology, but also because that technology could be easily and inexpensively
integrate well, and have a
supported by our Microsoft developer base going forward,” says Rita Popovich, Systems Analyst
large knowledge base in the
for Motorola.
IT community. We feel
More Availability and Reliability
confident that this business
A critical factor for Motorola was the availability and reliability of the YEWP system, because it
solution and these chosen
tracks important data that goes into the preparation of SEC and other governmental filings and
financial reports. Motorola needed a solution based on reliable technology that would keep its
technologies will provide a
YEWP system up and running dependably. SQL Server 2000 has delivered. “In the first year of
good base for future
use, SQL Server has been very reliable; we’ve had no issues with downtime,” says Popovich.
application growth.”
Added Empowerment
Automation and ease of use in the new system save employees from tedious tasks, empowering
them to tackle more important issues. In addition, employees can use their time more
productively because of the enhancements and improvements over the old YEWP system:

The old YEWP system didn’t summarize sub-accounts or roll them up into higher-level
reporting, thus it required the analyst to verify and match figures manually. It also didn’t do
math or provide validation or integrity checks, thereby increasing the potential for errors and
adding to the workload involved in preparing reports. Quarterly and annually, the analyst had
to track down discrepancies, question users about data-entry errors, and obtain explanations
for anomalous numbers.

The new system automatically generates the beginning balance of valuation accounts based
on last quarter’s ending balance, and auto-summing removes prior problems with summation
errors. There is also built-in validation. Certain figures can be designated as either a positive
entry or a negative entry and are marked with red or black color-coding to help the user. If
users deviate, they must provide an explanation, a step that saves the analyst research time
later.

The new system’s data-entry screen is more user friendly. It has current quarter data, prior
quarter data, and prior year’s data all on the same screen. Having those numbers available
alongside the data being entered allows the user to check for reasonability, reducing dataentry errors and further saving the financial analyst time. Simplified data entry also saves
steps for the user.
Rita Popovich
Systems Analyst
Motorola
Better, More Promising Future
As Motorola builds on a history of success, it knows it can count on SQL Server to grow and work
with it to provide additional value to its legacy systems. “When we chose this [Microsoft] Visual
Basic®– and SQL Server–based solution, we were interested in building an application that could
be cloned or scaled to meet other similar business requirements within our company,” says
Popovich. “Microsoft products integrate well, and have a large knowledge base in the IT
community. We feel confident that this business solution and these chosen technologies will
provide a good base for future application growth.”
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For more information about Microsoft SQL Server and business intelligence solutions, go to:
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