By Mark Brousseau
Faced with low customer satisfaction for its reports and financial data, and no common user interface across its systems, the Army Research Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) turned to business intelligence, Mark Sauvageau, chief, financial operations, Financial Management Office, RDECOM, said yesterday during a presentation at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009.
As a result of implementing business intelligence, RDECOM has better aligned its resources and processes, he said during the presentation at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.
Today, all desktops at RDECOM have reporting capabilities (encompassing 100 senior leaders, 150 financial analysts and 400 engineers). The organization uses data analysis for a variety of financial tasks, Sauvageau told attendees, including funding applications, cost accounting, budgeting and presentations.
Using its business intelligence programs, RDECOM has been able streamline its information flow, helping it avoid $270,000 a year in costs, while increasing productivity 146 percent. RDECOM has also seen a dramatic increase in customer satisfaction with its reports and financial data. Moreover, business intelligence has created a foundation for RDECOM’s strategic decision-making, he added. “Our business intelligence efforts have enables our engineers and analysts to spend less time on non-core tasks and more time on activities that support our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Sauvageau concluded.
Based on this success, RDECOM plans to extend business intelligence to all of its 3,500 users.
Showing posts with label CRM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CRM. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Business Intelligence at SSA
By Mark Brousseau
Business intelligence has transformed the way the Social Security Administration (SSA) does business, John Simermeyer, associate commissioner, Office of Earnings, Enumeration and Administrative Services, for the SSA said yesterday during a presentation at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 in Washington, D.C.
“Our business intelligence efforts are an integral component of the agency’s planning process,” Simermeyer told attendees. “Business intelligence empowers SSA to accomplish our mission.”
Each year, SSA issues more than 18 million Social Security cards, posts $4 trillion in earnings to worker records, processes over 23 million status-changes, pays out more than $650 billion, and fulfills more than 1 billion requests for Social Security Number verification from other agencies and organizations).
The challenge for SSA is that its workload is increasing as its staff is decreasing. “The retirement rate has hit SSA very hard,” Simermeyer explained. “Retiring baby boomers are driving up the workload at SSA. At the same time, we are losing many of our knowledge workers to the same phenomenon.”
SSA also was challenged by information silos across the organization. “We have many legacy systems dispersed throughout the agency,” Simermeyer said. “This creates problems in terms of cost and data reconciliation. We spent a lot of unnecessary effort trying to find out why numbers don’t match.”
To help with its mission, SSA deployed its SSA Unified Measurement System (SUMS) to provide critical information across its workflows and systems. “It’s all about the data, and that was perhaps our greatest challenge,” Simermeyer said, recalling SSA’s inflexible reports and lack of infrastructure across the organization. “So, we created a business intelligence repository and focused on data integration.”
Business intelligence helps “inform SSA’s strategic decisions affecting American taxpayers,” he said.
“We are using business intelligence to transform data to information to knowledge to action, and it’s having a positive impact on our business outcomes,” he said. “We’ve improved decision-making and transparency, and drastically reduced the amount of data reconciliation efforts we go through.” He noted that with business intelligence, SSA has gone from multiple sources of data to a single source.
Simermeyer said that business intelligence also, “improved the timeliness, accuracy and measurement of work. Prior to business intelligence adoption, we were reactive by nature. Now we are proactive.”
So what’s next for SSA’s business intelligence initiatives? Simermeyer said the agency plans to integrate its remaining work into the system to retire legacy systems and enhance its information infrastructure.
Business intelligence has transformed the way the Social Security Administration (SSA) does business, John Simermeyer, associate commissioner, Office of Earnings, Enumeration and Administrative Services, for the SSA said yesterday during a presentation at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 in Washington, D.C.
“Our business intelligence efforts are an integral component of the agency’s planning process,” Simermeyer told attendees. “Business intelligence empowers SSA to accomplish our mission.”
Each year, SSA issues more than 18 million Social Security cards, posts $4 trillion in earnings to worker records, processes over 23 million status-changes, pays out more than $650 billion, and fulfills more than 1 billion requests for Social Security Number verification from other agencies and organizations).
The challenge for SSA is that its workload is increasing as its staff is decreasing. “The retirement rate has hit SSA very hard,” Simermeyer explained. “Retiring baby boomers are driving up the workload at SSA. At the same time, we are losing many of our knowledge workers to the same phenomenon.”
SSA also was challenged by information silos across the organization. “We have many legacy systems dispersed throughout the agency,” Simermeyer said. “This creates problems in terms of cost and data reconciliation. We spent a lot of unnecessary effort trying to find out why numbers don’t match.”
To help with its mission, SSA deployed its SSA Unified Measurement System (SUMS) to provide critical information across its workflows and systems. “It’s all about the data, and that was perhaps our greatest challenge,” Simermeyer said, recalling SSA’s inflexible reports and lack of infrastructure across the organization. “So, we created a business intelligence repository and focused on data integration.”
Business intelligence helps “inform SSA’s strategic decisions affecting American taxpayers,” he said.
“We are using business intelligence to transform data to information to knowledge to action, and it’s having a positive impact on our business outcomes,” he said. “We’ve improved decision-making and transparency, and drastically reduced the amount of data reconciliation efforts we go through.” He noted that with business intelligence, SSA has gone from multiple sources of data to a single source.
Simermeyer said that business intelligence also, “improved the timeliness, accuracy and measurement of work. Prior to business intelligence adoption, we were reactive by nature. Now we are proactive.”
So what’s next for SSA’s business intelligence initiatives? Simermeyer said the agency plans to integrate its remaining work into the system to retire legacy systems and enhance its information infrastructure.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Business Intelligence Trends for 2009
By Mark Brousseau
Even in a weak economy, demand continues for enterprise business intelligence, Vickie Farrell (vickie.farrell@hp.com), manager, Neoview market strategy & development, software division, at HP said today during a presentation at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 in Washington, D.C.
“IT spending has dropped precipitously in this economy,” Farrell noted. “But studies show business intelligence should grow by 7 percent this year, off from 8.6 percent growth in 2008. Business intelligence remains strong.”
Farrell thinks businesses will be well served by their business intelligence investments. “Businesses that maintain and build analytic capability will survive and thrive when the economy improves,” she said.
Farrell made her comments during an afternoon presentation in the HP Solutions Theater on the emerging macro and business intelligence trends for 2009. Among the trends she presented:
… The consumerization of IT. IT technology innovation is shifting from the enterprise and the military to consumer technology, spawning a new wave of IT adoption, Farrell said. The impact on business intelligence is increased visualization, greater collaboration, and new sources of data. Farrell believes that social networking will increasingly dictate information delivery and use.
… Business intelligence is increasing in importance. Farrell cited a Computerworld survey finding that 42 percent of respondents expected overall expenditures for business intelligence tools and solutions to increase from 2008 to 2009. And the economic crisis may actually drive some of this growth as more organizations realize that analyzing data can help them better deal with new government regulations, understand and manage their business, decrease their risks, and enhance their ability to compete.
… Business intelligence buyers are much more scrutinizing. Farrell said organizations are dealing with stricter requirements for clearly-defined business objectives and quantified value. Farrell also is seeing requirements for shorter payback periods and self-funding business intelligence initiatives.
… The market is demanding lower business intelligence complexity.
… Analytics are moving to the front office. Advanced analytics are top initiatives at many companies, Farrell said, noting that organizations with a culture and infrastructure for analytics and fact-based decision-making are better poised to compete and grow.
… Data integration is gaining momentum. Surveys show this to be a top business intelligence project challenge and key IT initiative, Farrell said. “As enterprises recognize data as a corporate asset, data management becomes a strategy corporate capability,” she explained.
… Structured and unstructured data are converging. “Integration of unstructured data increases the accuracy of business intelligence analysis,” Farrell said, noting that recent technology advances enable text mining and queries.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
Even in a weak economy, demand continues for enterprise business intelligence, Vickie Farrell (vickie.farrell@hp.com), manager, Neoview market strategy & development, software division, at HP said today during a presentation at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 in Washington, D.C.
“IT spending has dropped precipitously in this economy,” Farrell noted. “But studies show business intelligence should grow by 7 percent this year, off from 8.6 percent growth in 2008. Business intelligence remains strong.”
Farrell thinks businesses will be well served by their business intelligence investments. “Businesses that maintain and build analytic capability will survive and thrive when the economy improves,” she said.
Farrell made her comments during an afternoon presentation in the HP Solutions Theater on the emerging macro and business intelligence trends for 2009. Among the trends she presented:
… The consumerization of IT. IT technology innovation is shifting from the enterprise and the military to consumer technology, spawning a new wave of IT adoption, Farrell said. The impact on business intelligence is increased visualization, greater collaboration, and new sources of data. Farrell believes that social networking will increasingly dictate information delivery and use.
… Business intelligence is increasing in importance. Farrell cited a Computerworld survey finding that 42 percent of respondents expected overall expenditures for business intelligence tools and solutions to increase from 2008 to 2009. And the economic crisis may actually drive some of this growth as more organizations realize that analyzing data can help them better deal with new government regulations, understand and manage their business, decrease their risks, and enhance their ability to compete.
… Business intelligence buyers are much more scrutinizing. Farrell said organizations are dealing with stricter requirements for clearly-defined business objectives and quantified value. Farrell also is seeing requirements for shorter payback periods and self-funding business intelligence initiatives.
… The market is demanding lower business intelligence complexity.
… Analytics are moving to the front office. Advanced analytics are top initiatives at many companies, Farrell said, noting that organizations with a culture and infrastructure for analytics and fact-based decision-making are better poised to compete and grow.
… Data integration is gaining momentum. Surveys show this to be a top business intelligence project challenge and key IT initiative, Farrell said. “As enterprises recognize data as a corporate asset, data management becomes a strategy corporate capability,” she explained.
… Structured and unstructured data are converging. “Integration of unstructured data increases the accuracy of business intelligence analysis,” Farrell said, noting that recent technology advances enable text mining and queries.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
The Case for Business Intelligence
By Mark Brousseau
Wondering about the cost justification for business intelligence initiatives? Brian Ng, field enablement leader in the business intelligence solutions group at HP (www.hp.com), told attendees at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 that business intelligence provides several key benefits:
… Enhanced decision making
… Improved insight
… Reduced risk
… Lower costs
… Improved efficiency
Ng noted that many companies already are using business intelligence to help monitor and measure their business and to make key decisions (e.g. driving supply chain management or CRM systems).
What do you think? Post your comment below.
Wondering about the cost justification for business intelligence initiatives? Brian Ng, field enablement leader in the business intelligence solutions group at HP (www.hp.com), told attendees at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 that business intelligence provides several key benefits:
… Enhanced decision making
… Improved insight
… Reduced risk
… Lower costs
… Improved efficiency
Ng noted that many companies already are using business intelligence to help monitor and measure their business and to make key decisions (e.g. driving supply chain management or CRM systems).
What do you think? Post your comment below.
Know Your Customer, Grow Your Business
By Mark Brousseau
The business intelligence that used to be confined to marketing is now spreading as organizations align themselves around a common vision, John Santaferraro, director, industry solutions, HP said during a presentation today at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 in Washington, D.C.
“Customers are so bombarded by messages that what worked to attract them seven or 10 years ago, no longer is effective,” Santaferraro told attendees. “How we are getting customers’ attention is very different. And it changes the way that we look at business intelligence, and the way that we look at customers. Historically, most business intelligence has been in marketing. But the strategies and product plans that companies put together must also leverage business intelligence. Companies need to figure out how to harness everything they know to differentiate themselves from the competition.”
The challenge, Santaferraro said, is that both customer data and customer business intelligence exist in silos at most companies. To solve this, a lot of companies are launching customer data integration projects that unify information across the boundaries of an organization. “They are looking at using unified business intelligence across all departments to drive performance,” Santaferraro said. “This is completely different from the way that most corporate systems are architected today.”
“This connected intelligence opens the door for new customer innovation. It also connects front-office decisions with back-office operations. And it connects a business to new opportunities,” Santaferraro said. Leveraging business intelligence in this way will have far greater impact on a company, he added.
What do you think? Post your comment below.
The business intelligence that used to be confined to marketing is now spreading as organizations align themselves around a common vision, John Santaferraro, director, industry solutions, HP said during a presentation today at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 in Washington, D.C.
“Customers are so bombarded by messages that what worked to attract them seven or 10 years ago, no longer is effective,” Santaferraro told attendees. “How we are getting customers’ attention is very different. And it changes the way that we look at business intelligence, and the way that we look at customers. Historically, most business intelligence has been in marketing. But the strategies and product plans that companies put together must also leverage business intelligence. Companies need to figure out how to harness everything they know to differentiate themselves from the competition.”
The challenge, Santaferraro said, is that both customer data and customer business intelligence exist in silos at most companies. To solve this, a lot of companies are launching customer data integration projects that unify information across the boundaries of an organization. “They are looking at using unified business intelligence across all departments to drive performance,” Santaferraro said. “This is completely different from the way that most corporate systems are architected today.”
“This connected intelligence opens the door for new customer innovation. It also connects front-office decisions with back-office operations. And it connects a business to new opportunities,” Santaferraro said. Leveraging business intelligence in this way will have far greater impact on a company, he added.
What do you think? Post your comment below.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Data Capture Drives Marketing
By Mark Brousseau
Desperate to build stronger, longer lasting relationships with their customers, companies are turning to one-to-one marketing, a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy that emphasizes personalized interactions with customers over mass marketing. And automated data capture can play a key role in ensuring the success of one-to-one marketing initiatives, says Bill Welling, an account director for CDS Global (bwelling@cds-global.com).
While the term itself is fairly new, Welling said one-to-one marketing is really a throwback to the days of the neighborhood store, where the owner made it a point to know your name, your likes and dislikes, your shopping habits and a few other things that made the relationship special, lasting and, yes, profitable. Welling said that as people’s lives become increasingly busy, the cookie cutter, ‘one size fits all’ sales model has quickly become outdated and ineffective.”
“What we are talking about here is Relationships 101,” Welling said. “And data capture helps organizations get at valuable customer information faster and cheaper. Using data capture, a company can know the return address on a customer’s check, who signs the checks – meaning, who likely makes the buying decisions – and the customer’s buying habits.” This type of information can then be used to tailor product offers to customers, he said.
“Data capture is a fact-finding tool that helps ensure that companies are providing the best customer service, in terms of the products they offer,” Welling said. “By capturing key data from customer remittances, companies can position themselves in the best possible light.” And with the move to one-to-one marketing, Welling said this is critical, as companies will increasingly focus on the quality of customer data, rather than the quantity of it.
How is data capture driving your marketing?
Post your comment below.
Desperate to build stronger, longer lasting relationships with their customers, companies are turning to one-to-one marketing, a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy that emphasizes personalized interactions with customers over mass marketing. And automated data capture can play a key role in ensuring the success of one-to-one marketing initiatives, says Bill Welling, an account director for CDS Global (bwelling@cds-global.com).
While the term itself is fairly new, Welling said one-to-one marketing is really a throwback to the days of the neighborhood store, where the owner made it a point to know your name, your likes and dislikes, your shopping habits and a few other things that made the relationship special, lasting and, yes, profitable. Welling said that as people’s lives become increasingly busy, the cookie cutter, ‘one size fits all’ sales model has quickly become outdated and ineffective.”
“What we are talking about here is Relationships 101,” Welling said. “And data capture helps organizations get at valuable customer information faster and cheaper. Using data capture, a company can know the return address on a customer’s check, who signs the checks – meaning, who likely makes the buying decisions – and the customer’s buying habits.” This type of information can then be used to tailor product offers to customers, he said.
“Data capture is a fact-finding tool that helps ensure that companies are providing the best customer service, in terms of the products they offer,” Welling said. “By capturing key data from customer remittances, companies can position themselves in the best possible light.” And with the move to one-to-one marketing, Welling said this is critical, as companies will increasingly focus on the quality of customer data, rather than the quantity of it.
How is data capture driving your marketing?
Post your comment below.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
