The Jetstream Concept

"Getting there faster by going higher and using natural forces to your advantage"

The premise of Jetstreaming is very simple.

How to get business users to their meaningful data as quickly as possible:

• With a system that is easy to understand and that is largely automatic and self maintaining.
• Has the flexibility for expansion and allows advanced users to take advantage of their knowledge of their business to add finesse to their reports.

Revolve have developed a system that is so efficient it brings any user to within a maximum of four select mouse clicks away from any data in their database, with the query time reduced down to within a few seconds for each click. Revolve's director, Dean Hollingsworth, pioneered the Jetstreaming system after six years working with different clients and different levels of users. Dean has worked at all levels within the business environment, from Directors to temporary staff, in marketing, financial and human resources in industries as diverse as banking, travel, legal, theatre and construction.

The theory for Jetstreaming comes from the fact that aircraft use the jetstream to speed their journey to their destination and use the natural airflow to make their journey more efficient and economic.

By bringing together the natural forces of the company into one room for just 5 days it is possible to create the start of a reporting suite which will save the company time and money by getting to a result much faster than traditional methods.

Jetstreaming uses the Cognos product Impromptu. As independent consultants in this product, we have found that it is the most dynamic and useful tool for extracting data from a database without having to learn the complexities of SQL (Structured Query Language). Not only does it extract data from the database, it adds value to it, by using a multitude of functions and operators. It also provides security in terms of access to the data, allowing administrators to choose the level of access to sensitive data and define those levels by user class. Once the data is retrieved, it is an easy task to export to other formats such as excel, dbase files or Impromptu's own hotfile system which can be integrated into its catalog system. The flexibility of its formatting allows data to be reported in many different formats including list frames, form frames, chart frames, text frames, photo frames or any combination of these, making professional and meaningful reporting easy, both on screen and paper. Using Impromptu's scheduler and macros, data can be extracted and distributed automatically, even outside office hours. Most usefully, the data can also be transmitted electronically via e-mail or published as html for use on an Internet, Extranet or the Internet. It can display information from your database in a graphical format, allowing you to create invoices, letters, card indexes or just about anything you want to from your data.

An independent Cognos Consultant will traditionally come in and liaise with the DBA, a decision maker and other participants on a report writing project, often taking a long time to absorb the specialist knowledge of each of these individuals and only really getting a surface view of each. Each individual often unwittingly blocks the advancement of the process because of legitimate fears. The Finance director is frightened that sensitive data will get out, the DBA is worried the reporting tool will put too much load on the system and crash it. The report writer is anxious he won't meet his deadline because he can't get access to the data he needs. All these fears can be solved literally in minutes and yet they can take months to resolve using traditional business practices. In the meantime opportunities are lost. Often a complete deployment can take up to two years by these methods. By bringing the main participants together and giving them simple skills and tasks to perform the group can tap into their far superior group intelligence, getting satisfactory results much quicker. Because this method works the group can produce reports within the 5 days, which will have a real practical value to the company, saving time, resources and money and making a small investment pay dividends. It can secure the system, reduce the database load and free up information without worry.

Efficiency and economy

A recent implementation of Jetstream recouped twice the implementation cost within 2 months of starting, through savings achieved. The first Jetsteaming reports were available to the client on the first day of implementation.

Implementation included three mouse clicks to a personal profile of any of their employees with information about their salary, personal details, training history and future training, qualifications and absence all on one A4 sheet. Automatic data quality checks are performed daily and errors are reported in a central area. Data is automatically extracted from an external source and combined with the main database information making huge savings on integrating the two systems. A datamart system has been implemented to report on amendments made to the data. The Impromptu interface is very simple and a lot of report building is done using simple drag and drop techniques. Revolve specialise in training users at all levels in the technicalities of Impromptu, whilst keeping a firm view on the real business requirements of your company.

Jetreaming combines six years research into the Cognos Impromptu product itself, business intelligence, expert knowledge of the needs of end users and our experience of training people.