“MicroLink came in at a critical time and assisted us with the improvement of the EIS system to a point where the system is consistent, available and manageable for our team. The team has been great to work with.” - Thomas Palmer Information Architect in the Office of Information and Business Management Systems at EERE

Customer Background. The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) mission is to strengthen America’s energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality in public-private partnerships. The office is responsible for the development and marketplace integration of renewable and environmentally sound energy technologies, as well as the preservation and efficient use of our nation’s valuable resources.

With an annual budget of $1.74 billion and managing a portfolio of ten research development demonstration and deployment (RDD&D) programs, EERE needs an information system that allows for user (C-level, program managers, and analysts) accountability and can keep pace with new energy efficiency initiatives and the legislation that result from these policies.

Business Challenge. The EIS system was created in 2005 but with time became overloaded with report redundancy, user growth, and content. Plus, the system was failing to give full insight into RDD&D program performance and lacked report standardization across the board, which hindered decision making.

Finally, IBMS was becoming overwhelmed by the number of information requests and programs requests for financial and performance information and analysis. Adding to the challenge was a recent upgrade to Cognos 8 that was not used to its full potential.

Technologies at Work BI Consulting Services Cognos 8 Business Intelligence Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft Server 2003

These challenges effected the quality of service that EERE was able to provide. The information was inaccurate and therefore budget, forecasts, and reports were imprecise.

EERE understood that a Business Intelligence solution would be the catalyst to help this situation and decided to seek recommendations to improve the system.

Solution. MicroLink, a Cognos Silver Reseller partner, was requested to provide a third party consultative system analysis to identify system improvement recommendations for the EIS system. Once this analysis was complete, the recommendations included:

• Establishing a multi-server environment to handle the increased usage of the system and content growth
• Reorganizing and streamlining the portal content,  updating the look and feel to align with other EERE systems, and enhancing the usability of the system
• Creating standard reporting templates for development and ad-hoc report writing
• Leveraging new features of Cognos 8 such as business scorecarding

Benefits. The new and improved EIS system provides the right information at the right time for the users to make informed decisions. EERE’s workforce now has a Business Intelligence solution used for:

• Quick access to information  allowing faster response to requests from department constituents
• User-friendly environment for EERE programs allowing the ability for ad-hoc information analysis 
• Consistency of data delivery and quality to improve EERE’s reporting capabilities
• Better decision making ability with standardized reports from various EERE information systems
• Enhanced ability to monitor performance