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UM-St. Louis Business Intelligence

UM-St. Louis Business Intelligence. March 16, 2011. Hello, and now a disclaimer…. These are my opinions, etc. Some (pertinent) background. Director of Sales & Marketing Applications @ Nestle Purina PetCare

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UM-St. Louis Business Intelligence

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  1. UM-St. LouisBusiness Intelligence March 16, 2011

  2. Hello, and now a disclaimer… • These are my opinions, etc.

  3. Some (pertinent) background • Director of Sales & Marketing Applications @ Nestle Purina PetCare • Responsible/accountable for $100M impact to sales in 2011 through the usage of point of sale information • Departments include: • Technical (very large data warehousing) • Technical/Business (front-end development) • Business (analysis and strategies) • Architecture • Testing • UM-St. Louis 1988 BSBA in MIS, Quantitative Mgt. Science • ACNielsen Technical Board • Nestle internal consultant, data warehousing, POS direction

  4. Nestle Purina PetCare, Nestle • Roughly $8.5 billion in 2010 US Sales • Approximately 8% of Nestle sales, 10% of Nestle profit (EBITA(R)) • Ralston Purina purchased by Nestle in 2001 • Nestle moved significant portions of their business to St. Louis • Friskies and Mighty Dog moved from Los Angeles • Product-based company, our product innovation fuels our growth • Information is increasing in worth as a competitive resource • …and…we can bring our pets to work! • Nestle is the LARGEST consumer packaged goods company in the world • 22nd largest company in the world (includes everything: oil, banks, auto) • $100B sales in 2010 • Approx 250,000 employees

  5. RECOGNITIONS

  6. RECOGNITIONS

  7. A few thoughts, and then technical stuff • Understand that IT is business • 80% is very often good enough for business decisions • BI is not a black and white world, mostly shades of grey • Take big ideas forward • Don’t negotiate up front • Great attributes for you to have if you pursue a role in the BI world • Curiosity • Empathy – to see things from other perspectives • Courage – to change direction, to ask for what you really want • Communication (verbal, written, take acting classes) • Other Degrees, pursuits, hobbies that could significantly help you in a decision support career: • Economics, Marketing, Statistics, Quant Mgt Science, Supply Chain, International Business

  8. Business Intelligence • General Ledger and back office applications were traditional focus for IT, but this didn’t really offer a competitive advantage for the investment • Movement towards commodity software (e.g., Oracle Financials, SAP) shifted focus to other applications • 90’s, 2000’s – many companies began data warehousing efforts • Consolidation was a goal • Benefit was often ill-defined past financial reporting • Technologies • Move from COBOL to ETL tools, NPP is 100% Informatica • Evolution of multi-dimensional tools • Essbase, Microsoft Analytical Services, Oracle, Cognos, SAP • Microsoft Pivot Tables helps users bridge the intellectual divide • Data warehousing appliances, NCR’s Teradata…and MS SQL Server

  9. BI Subject Areas • Architecture • Traditional focus was for system design • Systems were designed well, but didn’t tend to work very well together • Integrated data, via data warehouses, helped to highlight the need for integrated BI systems/applications • Architecture is an effort to design integrated, planned, reasonably efficient (build and support) systems and applications • Think across systems in a horizontal manner, rather than vertical • Most difficult thing to teach/mentor/coach • I’ve met very few people in 14 years of data warehousing who are truly data warehouse architects • Without a proper focus on architecture, support costs can take an increasing portion of the budget, so less development will be done

  10. Reporting and Apps • Multi-dimensional DB’s began to take care of some ad-hoc reporting needs • MicroStrategy, Cognos, BusinessObjects, SAP BW, Crystal Reports, MS Access Reports, Actuate, many others fragmented the report tool market • Cognos purchased by IBM • Essbase purchased by Oracle • HyperRoll purchased by Oracle • Business Objects purchased by SAP • BIG companies are consolidating report tools with application suites, may soon be a case of “use all of our tools, or all of theirs” • Microsoft is consolidating products to make a standalone technical, rather than business, solution • This should allow more flexibility for application development • Still making custom applications in addition to reports and dashboards

  11. Why I stay in BI • Hadn’t really thought of it until Vicki pointed it out to me that most of my career was in BI • I’ve changed careers and areas of interest, all while staying in BI • Very creative portion of IT and general business • Can leverage IT background for huge bottom-line benefit • Very competitive with other HUGE companies • Remains a cloak-and-dagger area of business • Things I’m interested in right now • Columnar databases • Microsoft BI (with or without SQL Server underneath) • Promotional Optimization • Cultural Change in a Large Organization

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