The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) is a leading publisher of information and analysis products for
professionals in law, tax, business and government. Needing an effective change management solution
for its PeopleSoft environment, BNA turned to Stat for PeopleSoft from Quest Software.
The Challenge
The IT environment at BNA includes Sun file servers running Oracle databases and a Solaris platform.
Their software applications include PeopleSoft, Siebel ICM and a proprietary software package
developed in Java.
“Our path to Stat was pretty direct,” said Bernard Mazyck, IT Development Manager. “A few years back we
attempted a PeopleSoft upgrade, but during acceptance testing the upgraded application repeatedly
failed. We tried to identify the issue, but the log showed no problems.”
BNA’s hunt for the problem was time consuming and frustrating. “We lost seven months doing a very
painful code review of the PeopleSoft application because we didn’t have a change management tool
that could recognize PeopleSoft objects,” said Mazyck.
BNA also needed to address version control issues. “We had instances in which development would
move a project to production,” said Mazyck. “And three or four months down the road we’d discover the
production version wasn’t the same as the development version.”
The solution needed to not only provide complete integration with PeopleSoft, versioning for improved
control over BNA’s change process, and automation of workflow, but also improve BNA’s auditing and
reporting capabilities to meet Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.
The Quest Solution
BNA selected Quest’s Stat for PeopleSoft as its change management solution after extensive research.
“We were driven to Stat by our need for better version control for PeopleSoft,” said Mazyck. “Because Stat
is the only solution that offers the ability to manage and control PeopleSoft objects, we never experience
any of the problems we had prior to implementing Stat. I don’t think – even today – there’s any other
change management tool that handles PeopleSoft proprietary objects like Stat.”
Thanks to Stat, BNA no longer moves projects manually through the workflow. “We use Stat’s workflow to
do all our moves from the development environment to production,” said Mazyck. “We’ve encoded our
business rules and processes into the workflow, and because we can use status rules we have better
control when objects are moved, making sure the appropriate permissions are set. Stat helps us make
sure everybody’s following the rules since they’re embedded in the workflow.”
Stat also gave BNA something unexpected – easier Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Said Mazyck: “Something
we hadn’t envisioned at the time was how Stat would make complying with Sarbanes-Oxley so easy.
What Stat allowed us to do is maintain separation of duties through the workflow, so we can easily take
the auditors through each step. We can show them the appropriate permissions and safeguards
regarding the objects being moved. The reporting in Stat has really helped us in the audits as well.”

The Bottom Line
By using Stat, the IT and Development team at BNA has improved the overall efficiency of its change
process, while significantly reducing the time needed to generate audit reports.
“Stat’s given us the ability to better control objects – eliminating code confusion for flat files and native
PeopleSoft objects,” said Mazyck. “And because of the way we can set up and define security, it’s easier
to keep a separation between development and production.”
Mazyck also lauds Stat’s value to the end users. “Since we use the workflows for notifications, our end
users are able to easily track the status of their projects,” said Mazyck. “And since our reporting is
automated, they’re also e-mailed a weekly status report.”
BNA credits Quest Professional Services with providing knowledge and best practices for getting
maximum value from Stat. “The training with Quest’s Professional Services is a must,” said Mazyck. “It’s
critical for anyone administering Stat to understand its capabilities. Professional Services was very
thorough in showing us the different parts of the application and explaining how it would work in
our environment. It’s one thing to know the software, but to see how it will impact your organization
is tremendous.”
Mazyck said measuring Stat’s impact goes well beyond dollars and cents. “We’re making fewer errors
while reducing the amount of time we’re spending on IT projects and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, all
thanks to Stat,” he said. “Our processes are streamlined and improved, and our time savings are
incredible. Stat’s made us very happy.”
About the Bureau of National Affairs
Headquartered in the Arlington, VA, metropolitan area for more than 75 years, The Bureau of National
Affairs is an independent publisher of information and analysis products for legal, legislative, regulatory,
and economic developments affecting business. Today, BNA employees in the U.S. capital and around
the world produce more than 350 news and information services. BNA is the oldest wholly employeeowned
company in the United States.
About Quest Software, Inc.
Quest Software, Inc. delivers innovative products that help organizations get more performance and
productivity from their applications, databases and Windows infrastructure. Through a deep expertise in
IT operations and a continued focus on what works best, Quest helps more than 50,000 customers
worldwide meet higher expectations for enterprise IT. Quest Software can be found in offices around
the globe and at www.quest.com