The consolidated BI server, known as Merlin, now brings together the bank's four original SAS server environments, from the leader in business analytics software and services, in order to create a standardized data source. In addition, it has allowed its data processes to become transparent, traceable and ultimately enabled its analysts to surface their reports and expertise in a more sophisticated way.

"Data is quintessential to our business, and we use our data daily to glean insights to our business, our customers, and our products as well as a reporting mechanism to regulatory bodies, our board and our shareholders," said Ryan Prozesky from Strategic Credit and Analytics at FNB. "Merlin has enabled us to centralize these efforts, create a platform for future growth, and more importantly, provide a centralized area for the intellectual property of our processes."

Based on the SAS Enterprise BI Server, Merlin is now helping the bank eliminate duplication of data and is allowing it to leverage economies of scale throughout the bank. Key findings revealed that FNB had a lack of automated reporting capabilities, that its analytics resided in user folders and that its environment was hampered by data duplication.

Working with business analytics giant SAS, FNB now has a single server environment for use by the analysts, statisticians and quants throughout the business. Merlin is currently accommodating information management activities and cross-departmental synergies, as well as ensuring all data authentication and authorization is done via a centralized metadata server, and ultimately reducing the SAS PC license footprint.

"We have built an environment that meets everyone's needs. We have managed to consolidate analytic efforts, help analysts build standardized code for their processes, and document and contain the intellectual property of the analysts across the bank," added Prozesky.

"Business intelligence and data analysis is the future of business. We need to be able to react proactively to risks, identify business opportunities and new products as well as closely monitor customer satisfaction on a daily basis. With Merlin, we now own our data processes and have a much better view of our business, being able to meet and exceed deadlines and business expectations," concluded Prozesky.