Georgia DOT taps Business Objects

The Georgia Department of Transportation has tapped Business Objects’ business intelligence software suite to track the performance of road construction and other transportation projects.

Business Objects’ Global Services unit managed the installation of BusinessObjects XI Release 2 at the department. The company’s software will help the organization manage financial and cash flow forecasting and determine whether the agency is on course to meet its goals for strategic objectives such as customer service and employee development.

Jenny Quillian, business analyst consultant for IT applications at the department, said the organization had been using Business Objects’ Crystal Reports reporting tool. The deployment of BusinessObjects XI provides additional capability in performance management, query and analysis, and data integration.

As for the latter, the department is using Business Objects’ Data Integrator XI to provide broader access to PeopleSoft data. Georgia’s State Accounting Office owns and manages the PeopleSoft system, but DOT employees need the data to manage their projects. Employees request reports from the accounting office, which can take months to fulfill those requests, according to Business Objects.

The department aims to use Data Integrator to move PeopleSoft information into a data warehouse, where DOT employees can query it directly.

“This is what we are working on right now,” Quillian said. She said the data access capability has yet to be realized.