David Kane of Microsoft on Business Intelligence
Consumer goods (CG) manufacturers have long relied on technology to improve business processes and increase visibility across the value chain. Companies are reinvesting in IT infrastructures to integrate disparate systems, creating better environments to analyze data across all operational areas in real time, getting a single view of truth and making on-demand business decisions. David Kane, industry solutions specialist, consumer goods manufacturing at Microsoft Corporation, gives his take on the technologies that are playing a critical role in driving manufacturing success.
What technologies are having an increased impact in the consumer goods industry?
Kane: We keep hearing two things from our customers, and that's the continued need for rock-solid business intelligence and collaboration tools. The CG industry, like any industry, knows that to meet customer demands they need to operate at peak efficiency day in and day out. To maintain this high level of operational performance requires accurate planning and forecasting. To address this need, Microsoft's CG customers are implementing solutions that push information from their plant floors and supply chains into the hands of employees and partners.
The technologies that are having the biggest impact in the CG industry are those that give employees the ability to work with and understand the data they are seeing. For example, Energizer improved its ability to analyze and adjust to market trends quickly with Microsoft solutions. The company needed to review more than 13 million possible forecast entries quickly and accurately. However, without using technology to create a common framework for its employees to input, distribute and summarize information, there would be no way to do this in a timely manner. Energizer employees are now able to evaluate and deliver planning, budgeting and forecasting, scorecard worksheets, along with full-featured analytical charts and summaries. This has enabled Energizer to build a corporate culture founded on information-based decision making.
In addition to analytics and reporting, CG manufacturers are focused on improving collaboration among their work groups. In today's global business environment, products can be developed by several sets of teams that are scattered across continents. To bring these engineers together, companies need a single, integrated location where employees can efficiently collaborate with team members 24/7. This empowers teams through collaborative workspaces, connects business units through portals, sets up communities with social computing tools, and reduces cost and complexity with an integrated platform.
This translates to the ability to streamline product development and ensures innovative products hit store shelves on time with reduced overhead costs. At Microsoft, our mantra is to empower people at all levels of the enterprise to make informed business decisions. To accomplish this, companies have to provide their employees with accurate, real-time information and foster a collaborative environment.
How is technology changing the way that CG manufacturing executives make business decisions?
Kane: Technology is having a profound impact on decision making. A great example of this is the addition of mobility in the enterprise. By giving employees access to e-mail, corporate intranets and enterprise applications through mobile devices, companies are enabling their employees to be more productive.
For instance, a sales representative no longer has to go out into the field, collect data, return to the office and enter the information into a database before being able to analyze it. Instead, with mobile tools, the same employee can enter the information in real time using a handheld device, analyze the data in the field and make accurate real-time decisions. This allows companies to act quickly to changing consumer needs, verify a product is available for shipment, and implement an on-site sales promotion to meet customer demands.
More importantly, companies want to ensure their employees have a single view of the truth to make operational decisions. The global marketplace is growing increasingly competitive and if employees are trying to compile data from various, non-integrated sources, it slows down the responsiveness required to succeed. It's imperative for employees to have a single access point to view performance information across a company. To make on-demand business decisions, employees need one thing - access to accurate, up-to-date information in a single integrated dashboard. We work every day to meet this need and give companies the tools to increase visibility across the value chain and connect the plant floor to the back office.
Can you explain how both business intelligence and collaboration tools can help CG manufacturers?
Kane: Business intelligence software is providing CG manufacturers the means to store and analyze data quickly and accurately. However, there is another layer to data availability and that is having the tools to disseminate and analyze downstream data, often from various different sources. Having every source of information on hand to make decisions based on consumer needs and wants is critical to CG companies' success. As the marketplace fluctuates and seasons change, so do consumers' moods. To stay ahead of these changes, it's important to have real-time and historical data available for assessment. By combining a business intelligence application with a collaboration platform, CG manufacturers are creating a platform where employees are able to work in a unified environment. This type of environment increases employee productivity by reducing the time it takes to find accurate information and share with coworkers. It also gives decision makers the ability to dive deep into business performance data or get a snap-shot from a dashboard.
Another vital component for our customers is visibility across their value chain. It's imperative for decision makers to have direct access to supply chain information. This allows them to meet customer demands on the fly. To ensure a precise forecast, a company has to have real-time accurate information and the ability to share it with critical business partners and suppliers. This is exactly what business intelligence and collaboration software together delivers.
What does 2008 hold for technology in the CG industry?
Kane: As CG companies begin to integrate their business process solutions into enterprise analytics and collaborative environments, we are going to see a strong focus on digital marketing. Consumers today want an emotional attachment to the products they are buying. Since CG manufacturers, in most cases, are one-step removed from the consumer, technology is going to play an important role in connecting manufacturers to their customers in creating a memorable shopping experience. The industry saw this recently with this year's Super Bowl ads asking viewers to visit product manufacturers' Web sites. At Microsoft, we have focused a lot on developing applications and tools to address these needs. It's going to be an exciting year for consumers and manufacturers as the CG industry starts to leverage mobile technology, and add dynamic content such as video, animation and interactive media.
What technologies are having an increased impact in the consumer goods industry?
Kane: We keep hearing two things from our customers, and that's the continued need for rock-solid business intelligence and collaboration tools. The CG industry, like any industry, knows that to meet customer demands they need to operate at peak efficiency day in and day out. To maintain this high level of operational performance requires accurate planning and forecasting. To address this need, Microsoft's CG customers are implementing solutions that push information from their plant floors and supply chains into the hands of employees and partners.
The technologies that are having the biggest impact in the CG industry are those that give employees the ability to work with and understand the data they are seeing. For example, Energizer improved its ability to analyze and adjust to market trends quickly with Microsoft solutions. The company needed to review more than 13 million possible forecast entries quickly and accurately. However, without using technology to create a common framework for its employees to input, distribute and summarize information, there would be no way to do this in a timely manner. Energizer employees are now able to evaluate and deliver planning, budgeting and forecasting, scorecard worksheets, along with full-featured analytical charts and summaries. This has enabled Energizer to build a corporate culture founded on information-based decision making.
In addition to analytics and reporting, CG manufacturers are focused on improving collaboration among their work groups. In today's global business environment, products can be developed by several sets of teams that are scattered across continents. To bring these engineers together, companies need a single, integrated location where employees can efficiently collaborate with team members 24/7. This empowers teams through collaborative workspaces, connects business units through portals, sets up communities with social computing tools, and reduces cost and complexity with an integrated platform.
This translates to the ability to streamline product development and ensures innovative products hit store shelves on time with reduced overhead costs. At Microsoft, our mantra is to empower people at all levels of the enterprise to make informed business decisions. To accomplish this, companies have to provide their employees with accurate, real-time information and foster a collaborative environment.
How is technology changing the way that CG manufacturing executives make business decisions?
Kane: Technology is having a profound impact on decision making. A great example of this is the addition of mobility in the enterprise. By giving employees access to e-mail, corporate intranets and enterprise applications through mobile devices, companies are enabling their employees to be more productive.
For instance, a sales representative no longer has to go out into the field, collect data, return to the office and enter the information into a database before being able to analyze it. Instead, with mobile tools, the same employee can enter the information in real time using a handheld device, analyze the data in the field and make accurate real-time decisions. This allows companies to act quickly to changing consumer needs, verify a product is available for shipment, and implement an on-site sales promotion to meet customer demands.
More importantly, companies want to ensure their employees have a single view of the truth to make operational decisions. The global marketplace is growing increasingly competitive and if employees are trying to compile data from various, non-integrated sources, it slows down the responsiveness required to succeed. It's imperative for employees to have a single access point to view performance information across a company. To make on-demand business decisions, employees need one thing - access to accurate, up-to-date information in a single integrated dashboard. We work every day to meet this need and give companies the tools to increase visibility across the value chain and connect the plant floor to the back office.
Can you explain how both business intelligence and collaboration tools can help CG manufacturers?
Kane: Business intelligence software is providing CG manufacturers the means to store and analyze data quickly and accurately. However, there is another layer to data availability and that is having the tools to disseminate and analyze downstream data, often from various different sources. Having every source of information on hand to make decisions based on consumer needs and wants is critical to CG companies' success. As the marketplace fluctuates and seasons change, so do consumers' moods. To stay ahead of these changes, it's important to have real-time and historical data available for assessment. By combining a business intelligence application with a collaboration platform, CG manufacturers are creating a platform where employees are able to work in a unified environment. This type of environment increases employee productivity by reducing the time it takes to find accurate information and share with coworkers. It also gives decision makers the ability to dive deep into business performance data or get a snap-shot from a dashboard.
Another vital component for our customers is visibility across their value chain. It's imperative for decision makers to have direct access to supply chain information. This allows them to meet customer demands on the fly. To ensure a precise forecast, a company has to have real-time accurate information and the ability to share it with critical business partners and suppliers. This is exactly what business intelligence and collaboration software together delivers.
What does 2008 hold for technology in the CG industry?
Kane: As CG companies begin to integrate their business process solutions into enterprise analytics and collaborative environments, we are going to see a strong focus on digital marketing. Consumers today want an emotional attachment to the products they are buying. Since CG manufacturers, in most cases, are one-step removed from the consumer, technology is going to play an important role in connecting manufacturers to their customers in creating a memorable shopping experience. The industry saw this recently with this year's Super Bowl ads asking viewers to visit product manufacturers' Web sites. At Microsoft, we have focused a lot on developing applications and tools to address these needs. It's going to be an exciting year for consumers and manufacturers as the CG industry starts to leverage mobile technology, and add dynamic content such as video, animation and interactive media.