Measuring performance, providing insight leads to millions in savings
Usually when we talk about open source saving customers money it is in regard to lower costs of licensing software and maintenance. However, here is another way that open source can save you money. Using Actuate’s Performance Management cloud-based SaaS solution, based on the Eclipse BIRT open source BI and reporting platform, customers are saving literally millions of dollars a year.
At one of the companies I helped co-found, one of our company foundational beliefs was that everything is judged through the looking glass of metrics and everything can be measured. With Performance Management that is exactly what is happening. I spoke to individuals from two companies who are using this open source based BI package to make a meaningful impact on the bottom line.
First I spoke with Attila Mistzi, Enterprise Performance, Process Coordinator for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). SMUD is a community owned electric utility serving 592,000 customers and a total population of approximately 1.4 million. It is the sixth-largest public utility in the country. Using the Acuate solution to better prioritize actions to deliver maximum efficiency for the company. In one year SMUD saved between 2.5 to 3 million dollars through greater efficiency and those savings increased year over year. Mistzi thinks that Performance Management is directly responsible for this savings.
I next spoke with Malcolm Hopkins, VP Corporate Services at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital in Ontario, Canada. St. Thomas Elgin is a small to medium 166 bed medical facility. By implementing the Actuate solution they realized about 3.1 million in savings and additional revenue. That allowed them to enter this fiscal year with a balanced budget (if only our government was so lucky). Again in this case, Hopkins credits the Performance Management solution for giving him and his team the insight they need to make a real difference.
Both of these examples illustrate how better insight leads to better business. The savings realized obviously far outweigh the costs of this software.
Another interesting thing about the Performance Management solution is that it is available as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering via the cloud. Increasingly we are seeing open source vendors taking their open source solution to the SaaS model. While not charging for traditional licenses, SaaS delivery is a viable business method for open source companies to actually make some money.
Actuate has set up a full web site for Performance Management at https://www.scorecard-exchange.com/se/home/. There is a whole community building around this offering with lots of other add ons available.
Acuate has shown that it knows how to build a business around open source with BIRT. They are taking it to the next level with Performance Management.
