The Town Lake Animal Center (TLAC) sees more than 23,000 animals a year. With an average of 63 animals a day coming into the shelter, tracking the animals' health needs and dispositions, as well as supplies, can be an unruly task. So the shelter implemented a business intelligence solution that helps facilitate pet adoption, track the health and needs of animals at the center, and maintain a database for employees and Austin residents to easily access information about the animals.

In 1997, the city of Austin took over the TLAC from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals because the city thought it could run the facility more effectively, according to Duron Davis, system support technician for Austin.

Davis was sent in to improve technological efficiency, and one of the first problems he identified was a haphazard computer network.

"We had all these disparate databases that were not networked or connected," Davis said. "If employees wanted to exchange data, they had to put it on a disk and walk it over to another person. It was a mess."

Davis' first priority was to create an online system that would better track and manage animal inventory. He created an SQL database of all the animals and their characteristics, including diseases, special conditions and disposition. Then he created an inventory for animal products used at the facility, including medicine, blankets and food.

Davis used a chameleon user interface to connect to the SQL database. The interface was initially modified to fit the specifications of animal service providers in Maricopa County, Ariz., and San Diego County, Calif., where it became popular for animal shelters.

When the Austin City Council asked Davis for a report, he needed a way to analyze the data, so he began running Crystal Reports business intelligence software from Business Objects -- designed to generate reports from a wide range of data sources -- on top of the SQL database.

Now Davis creates reports that detail animal inventory and adoption within particular time frames.

The first report Davis ran listed 187 animals missing, but by pulling inventory reports, Davis found that 181 animals were entered twice in two separate departments.

"Crystal Reports is great," Davis said, "because it's user-intuitive and knows where to go. It almost walks you through writing an SQL query."

One instance where the software allowed the center to better manage and save animals was with an Austin resident who kept 119 dogs in unhealthy living conditions. The TLAC took all the animals back to the shelter and entered their information into the database.

"We were able to track them and make sure all animals were treated," Davis said. "A lot of the animals were saved, and we were able to do that because we had software that allowed us to track all these animals."


New Millennia Adoption
When the city took over the TLAC, eliminating euthanasia for all adoptable pets was the center's primary goal. At that time, city leaders and animal rights groups had devised the "No Kill Millenium" plan, which aimed to eliminate euthanasia for adoptable pets by 2002. Unfortunately that goal has gone unmet. Euthanasia rates have decreased from 60 percent to 50 percent, but the overall number has increased along with the city's population. Some of that 10 percent reduction can be attributed to the TLAC's Web site which went live in 2001. The site lets Austin residents search for adoptable or lost pets online.

Since the TLAC already used the reporting software to track animal inventories, Davis decided to use Crystal Reports to export the animal shelter data to the Web site.

TLAC employees now post profiles of adoptable animals, so area residents can search for a lost