U.S. Lumber Improves Business Performance With IBM Business Intelligence

New intelligence helps increase profitability and customer satisfaction

ARMONK, N.Y., May 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced
that it has provided U.S. Lumber Group with a business intelligence (BI)
solution that is providing the company with in-depth reporting capabilities in
real time versus their original system that provided reports daily.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )

The system is helping the Atlanta-based wholesale building-materials
distributor view key performance indicators enabling them to make smarter,
more informed decisions since it is now possible to quickly compare actual
results with strategic goals.

As a midsized company, it was important that U.S. Lumber find a new solution
that would reduce overhead costs and increase customer satisfaction. This is
particularly significant in today's economic environment. Initially, U.S.
Lumber had a small vendor providing day-to-day metrics. The Web-based
application was limited to daily performance indicators and the overall data
scheme was small in scope and difficult to extract. As the company grew and
became more sophisticated, U.S. Lumber's ability to forecast a year's sales
activities became a lot more complicated with the available tools.

"With the current economic conditions, data becomes like a goldmine and you
need the best tools to mine it," said Felipe Herrera, senior financial
analyst, U.S. Lumber Group. "With IBM Cognos 8 BI, we can create our own
applications that are ten times more sophisticated and flexible than any of
the applications created by other third-party vendors."

IBM Business Partner Lodestar Solutions helped U.S. Lumber develop more
informed and accurate business strategies providing greater insight into
operations and increased customer satisfaction by being able to diagnose and
solve issues quickly. U.S. Lumber also reduced software costs compared with
its previous solution, which was provided by a competitor.

"We are dedicated to helping companies like U.S. Lumber become self
sufficient, leveraging their own data to become more successful and grow their
business while cutting costs," said Heather Cole, president and CEO, Lodestar
Solutions.

In addition to significant cost savings, IBM Cognos 8 BI provided U.S. Lumber
with flexibility in consolidating reports. Branch managers can now create
reports that break down information account-by-account and expense-by-expense.
With more granular breakout, the company can easily see which strategies work
best and improve on the execution of those strategies.

The IBM Cognos 8 BI solution has also given U.S. Lumber the ability to create
a profitability application that helps the company better assign costs to each
customer based on order size. For example, orders can vary from sending one
piece of lumber to one customer to sending an entire truckload of 45,000
pounds to another. U.S. Lumber now has clear visibility into profit levels for
each and every order.

U.S. Lumber was also faced with the challenge of improving its internal
procurement process as the company learned that the former system would
require custom software development work. The original estimate from another
third party to begin development on a procurement system was estimated at more
than $100,000.

Instead, US Lumber opted to implement IBM Cognos Software. As a result, U.S.
Lumber was able to minimize risk and save money by utilizing the tools and
knowledge in-house to successfully manage its procurement process.

Most importantly, by having all the data in-house, U.S. Lumber has complete
control of the information and issues with reports and scorecards. The company
is also able to immediately catch an order that was missed or billed
incorrectly, and make necessary adjustments the same day.

About U.S. Lumber Group
U.S. Lumber Group is a specialty wholesaler of building-materials distributor
with headquarters in Atlanta, GA. The company provides personalized customer
service to more than 6,000 customers and currently distributes products from
eight cost centers, providing service throughout 14 southeastern and
Mid-Atlantic States. U.S. Lumber also distributes domestic and imported forest
products from Europe, Canada, and South America.

About IBM
For more information about IBM Information Management, please visit
http://www.ibm.com/software/data/.

Contact:
Jeff Gluck
IBM Media Relations
jgluck@us.ibm.com
914-765-6072

SOURCE IBM

Jeff Gluck, IBM Media Relations, jgluck@us.ibm.com, +1-914-765-6072