Business Intelligence Sysco

Business Intelligence Software at SYSCO 1 Case Overview SYSCO is a large food service company in the US Distribute food and related supplies to restaurants, schools, Highly decentralized company with many operating divisions Company has BI software in divisions already Case centers on the process related to a new BI software for the entire company, how much to buy, and the implementation of the new software 2 Case Objectives What is BI software? What are the business benefits of BI software? What are the two alternatives for buying BI software at SYSCO? What are some implementation pitfalls of BI software at SYSCO?

How should SYSCO judge the success of its BI software implementation? Is BI likely to provide SYSCO with a competitive advantage? Sustained competitive advantage? 3 What is BI Software? What is BI software? Statistical analysis Data mining Ad hoc queries Other features Why did SYSCO need/want it? Make better use of available information Understand their customers better Possible competitive advantage? 4 What is BI Software? (cont. ) What kind of companies benefit from BI software? In general, large and small Don’t have to buy everything Appropriate IT infrastructure is crucial, however BI Alternatives at SYSCO Buy minimum to address specific, current business needs? Buy more than the minimum up front to take advantage of price discounts? Which approach do you recommend? 6 Analysis of Alternatives Advantages and disadvantages – buy all now Save money by buying everything now Most likely will need modules in the long run Integration could be easier sooner than later Business need not identified Time frames unclear Greater risk due to the operating companies’ resistance and having to pay for something unknown and unneeded as of now Other things????? Analysis of Alternatives (cont. ) Other advantages and disadvantages Identification of two questions up front presents a clear business case Dealing with these questions satisfactorily will demonstrate SW capabilities to users Users may naturally ask for “what else can BI software do? ” 8 Implementation Issues What are the main challenges to implementation? Necessary interfaces to corporate data sources Operating companies may resist cost assessments Operating companies already have some BI software already 9 Implementation Issues (cont. Could SYSCO have made it optional for operating companies to participate? Is Business Objects’ approach to support a positive? If so, could it be used to mitigate possible negative feelings from among the operating companies? Does SYSCO seem to have the appropriate infrastructure in place? From the operating companies’ perspective? 10 Judge Success with BI Software Parts of judging success somewhat easy, some not Number of sites with BI installed Number of training sessions completed Subjective assessments, e. g. satisfaction, attitude Nature of participation in design process Type and amount of use of BI software If sales and customer retention rates go up, is this because of BI, another development within SYSCO, or something else? 10 patents for Business Objects as of April 2007 Nature of support provided by Business Objects Use of support by operating companies 11 BI and Competitive Advantage Can IT provide a competitive advantage? Can BI provide a competitive advantage? Can BI provide a sustained competitive advantage? Can SYSCO’s competition do the same thing? 12