September 17, 2003

12 That Get It

Taking the pulse of BI leadership, we highlight a dozen companies meeting success in BI implementation — and achieving business goals to become smarter, faster, and more profitable

by David Stodder

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KeyCorp/KeyBank

Data intelligence and integration are what sustain growth and profitability in banking and financial services. KeyCorp, and especially its KeyBank company, leads in making knowledge an integral element of customer relationships. KeyBank was a finalist in the 2003 RealWare Awards' (www.realwareawards.com/2003/2003winners2.shtml) "Best Customer Intelligence and Interaction" category based on its intelligent marketing using Unica Corp.'s Affinium suite. KeyBank successfully knit together a multilevel approach to satisfy program needs to reach customer, household, and account levels in a coordinated fashion.

KeyCorp itself is a sophisticated employer of BI technology. Using software from SAS and Cognos, the parent company has made major strides in managing the present and future business performance of its loan portfolio, credit, and related operations.

Maxtor Corp.

"Faster, cheaper, better": Nowhere is this mantra more urgent than in the hard disk drive business. After a painful lull, recent news suggests that business is picking up — just in time for the introduction of next-generation technology. In this competitive business, success will go to the company that manages its supply chain to meet every tick in customer demand.

To meet the challenge, Maxtor decided to improve its data smarts. Building on SAP's Sales and Distribution Module, Maxtor developed a Sales Fulfillment system that offers flexible, real-time visibility to global inventory and customer operations. On top, the company deployed Business Objects' BI and data integration technology to offer data access and analysis via a dashboard. Strategic decision makers can now respond quickly to supply chain issues around the globe.

Motorola Inc.

2003 RealWare Awards' "Best Business Performance Management Application" (www.realwareawards.com/2003/2003winners1.shtml) category winner Motorola improved its response to business change by gaining a holistic view of its supply chain. The foundation of this integrated communications and embedded electronic solutions provider's effort is the Global Supply Management Data Warehouse (GSMDW), which pulls in data from more than 30 sources worldwide, including from external manufacturing partners. This single repository drives strategic sourcing and supply-chain management. Informatica PowerCenter is the technology behind GSMDW.

The holistic view allows all those involved in purchasing decisions to "read off the same playbook," in Motorola's words, no matter where they are. Users access GSMDW via the Web, allowing them to perform functions on their own and thereby drive inefficiency out of the information supply chain.

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