Case Study
Perth and Kinross Council
Zellis have been involved in providing a human resources information system (HRIS) to Perth and Kinross Council as far back as 2010, and over that time have always been quick to implement new Zellis products. In this case study, we spoke to Allan Craik, HR Officer at Perth & Kinross Council.
Zellis and Power BI have enabled him to have a deeper understanding of developments within the workforce and share much more granular data with senior management teams. However, the capabilities extend far beyond simple data sharing…
By their own admission P&K were rather behind the times in terms of how they previously managed their data reporting, which involved using BusinessObjects (BO) to cascade information throughout the council. Lack of BO integration however meant...
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Perth & Kinross Council had been using Business Objects (BO) for a number of years as their main reporting tool to cascade information throughout the Council. Lack of BO integration however meant that sharing data was a cumbersome process, and with BO being decommissioned in 2025, they had to consider a different route.
Making the decision to move to Power BI with Zellis was a natural progression.
Because Zellis provide our HRIS, they understood what was going on. They already understood our way of working.”
With an update to Microsoft 365, Power BI was included, and Allan quickly discovered that there was a high level of functionality, including interactivity and the ability to share reports. This was a big uplift from previously sharing reports via email or as hard copies. Power BI enables everyone to receive and access the same amount of required information to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Power BI also enables a level of scalability that is simply not possible when sharing information via email.
If we were emailing everyone, that is 6,000 emails. Our email server couldn’t handle that. So, we would have to break it down into chunks which was cumbersome and time consuming.”
Using Power BI will enable the sharing of interactive dashboards with our senior managers. With around 300 reports which are now automated in the system, all of which are updated on a different timescale, some daily, some weekly, some monthly, a simple and cohesive system is crucial. And self-service dashboards means that managers can investigate any areas that they want to with whatever level of granularity is meaningful for them, allowing a fuller picture in one view of their Service/Section/Team instead of collating multiple reports.
One of the biggest differences between Power BI and BusinessObjects is that BO required programming to be exported to Excel. This consumed precious man hours which are hard to come by in a department with already stretched people resources. Power BI can deliver efficiencies and provide a dedicated resource for reporting that people are able to log into and have refreshed data on a daily basis.
It also means that the information can be shared with the right people, providing a level of control beyond the capabilities of email. The dashboard system means that everyone can be set at the correct security level, with managers being able to access only the people that are below them.
