Business Objects, a provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, has announced that Triad Financial Corporation selected an enterprise performance management (EPM) solution from Business Objects to implement the recommendations of its Six Sigma initiative. Triad says it has implemented a number of Business Objects solutions including BusinessObjects(TM) Dashboard Manager, a product for delivering management dashboards, scorecards, and alerting capabilities to the enterprise, and WebIntelligence(R), the web-based query, reporting, and analysis solution from Business Objects. Headquartered in Huntington Beach, Calif., Triad has over 1,400 employees and regional offices in Florida and Texas.

According to the company, after an extensive BI application selection process, Triad Financial, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Credit, selected Business Objects for its enterprise performance management needs. With the deployment of Business Objects, Triad has eliminated IT as a bottleneck to information requests and enabled executives to use dashboards to proactively manage the business and improve performance.

Triad Financial says it has a reputation for quality control and an efficient processing system. Triad's Six Sigma initiative, a customer-based approach to improving processes and products through the development of fundamental process knowledge, created the need for a business intelligence solution. Triad says it selected Business Objects because it offers more robust EPM features and was easier to use than competing solutions, resulting in a shorter learning curve and faster time to ROI. With the help of Business Objects, Triad created a pilot dashboard and demo application for its executive team in just three days. Deployment of the first production dashboard in January 2003, took less than three weeks.

"The Six Sigma process and interviews with executive staff helped us define our key performance metrics," said Matthew March, manager of information management and delivery for Triad Financial. "However, it is the executive dashboard built with BusinessObjects Dashboard Manager that enables us to present this information in an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand format, complete with drill-down capabilities for individual metrics and alerts to ensure key indicators are picked up immediately. Moreover, with Business Objects we are able to share one version of the truth with our entire organization, which is critical to ensuring that we receive a payoff for all the effort we have put into our Six Sigma initiative."

The company said as part of what was dubbed "Project Clarity," Triad created a data mart to consolidate data from 26 sources, including Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft, and proprietary databases, as well as financial data from Solomon. Data is obtained from all areas of the business, including operations, portfolio performance, IT performance and scalability, customer care, customer service, and human resources. The CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, Chief Credit Officer, senior vice presidents, and the Six Sigma team all utilize the executive dashboard. These executives can customize their dashboards and drill down on the key performance indicators important to their individual roles. Dashboards specifically designed for regional executives and front-line staff will also be rolled out in the near future. Eventually, ad hoc queries, wireless access, exports to Microsoft Excel, and customized reports will all be added, and the company will completely eliminate the use of static reports, said the company.

"Triad Financial is a perfect example of an organization that has fully assimilated business intelligence into their day-to-day activities," said Dave Kellogg, senior group vice president of worldwide marketing at Business Objects. "From its Six Sigma origin, to finding the right BI solution for an end-to-end and enterprise-wide deployment, Triad has the ability to track and understand the true state of its business to improve performance."

About Triad Financial

Triad Financial Corporation

specializes in non-prime auto financing. With a 14-year history of providing a strong foundation in the automobile industry, over 1,300 employees and more than $3 billion dollars in auto receivables, Triad says it provides solutions and distinctive customer service to over 7,500 new and used car dealerships throughout the United States. Triad is headquartered in Huntington Beach, California and has regional offices in North Richland Hills, Texas and Margate, Florida. For more information, visit www.triadfinancial.com or call 1-888-577-8532.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is a provider of enterprise business intelligence (BI) solutions. Business Objects says it enables organizations to track, understand, and manage enterprise performance. The company's solutions leverage the information that is stored in an array of corporate databases, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Popular uses of BI include management dashboards and scorecards, enterprise performance management applications, customer intelligence applications, enterprise reporting, financial reporting, and both customer and partner extranets. These solutions enable companies to gain visibility into their business, acquire and retain profitable customers, reduce costs, optimize the supply chain, increase productivity and improve financial performance.

Business Objects says it has more than 17,500 customers in over 80 countries. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and www.businessobjects.com.