The Web-basedapplication was limited to daily performance indicators and the overall datascheme was

The Web-basedapplication was limited to daily performance indicators and the overall datascheme was small in scope and difficult to extract As the company grew andbecame more sophisticated, U.S. Lumber's ability to forecast a year's salesactivities became a lot more complicated with the available tools. "With the current economic conditions, data becomes like a goldmine and youneed the best tools to mine it," said Felipe Herrera, senior financialanalyst, U.S Lumber Group. "With IBM Cognos 8 BI, we can create our ownapplications that are ten times more sophisticated and flexible than any ofthe applications created by other third-party vendors."IBM Business Partner Lodestar Solutions helped U.S.

Lumber develop moreinformed and accurate business strategies providing greater insight intooperations and increased customer satisfaction by being able to diagnose andsolve issues quickly U.S. Lumber also reduced software costs compared withits previous solution, which was provided by a competitor."We are dedicated to helping companies like U.S. Lumber become selfsufficient, leveraging their own data to become more successful and grow theirbusiness while cutting costs," said Heather Cole, president and CEO, LodestarSolutions. In addition to significant cost savings, IBM Cognos 8 BI provided U.S Lumberwith flexibility in consolidating reports.

Branch managers can now createreports that break down information account-by-account and expense-by-expense.With more granular breakout, the company can easily see which strategies workbest and improve on the execution of those strategies.The IBM Cognos 8 BI solution has also given U.S. Lumber the ability to createa profitability application that helps the company better assign costs to eachcustomer based on order size.For example, orders can vary from sending onepiece of lumber to one customer to sending an entire truckload of 45,000pounds to another U.S. Lumber now has clear visibility into profit levels foreach and every order U.S. Lumber was also faced with the challenge of improving its internalprocurement process as the company learned that the former system wouldrequire custom software development work.The original estimate from anotherthird party to begin development on a procurement system was estimated at morethan $100,000.Instead, US Lumber opted to implement IBM Cognos Software.