Business intelligence and data warehousing – informatics expressions that are gradually being spoken of by everybody. So what is it all about, and above all: what does it have to with GW?

‘Business intelligence’ (BI) represents the systematic collection, evaluation and representation of electronically-available company data. A data warehouse is the core of such a BI solution: the central data collection that harvests content from various sources. “The data warehouse provides employees with information, so that they can carry out well-founded decisions in order to further develop their business operatively and strategically,” says Ivo Engstler from the Finance, Accounting and Controlling division.

Managers become controllers

At GW, the idea of BI has been running around many people’s heads since a while back. As part of the joint project management between Ivo Engstler (Corporate Controlling) and Markus Hölzl (IT Services) the start took place in 2007 for a project that would implement a BI solution within the organisation. Markus Hölzl is convinced: “Uniting the countless information that is contained within such corporate applications as CIEL, SAP, Applix etc. indicates great potential.”

For the purposes of evaluation and reporting, information was previously manually retrieved from the respective systems manually and linked either on a PC or mentally. “It is particularly within Central Controlling that we have variously spent a lot of time on data modelling,” says Ivo Engstler, speaking from experience.
With the introduction of a data warehouse that would be changed and for managers the actual classical concept of controlling would be brought to the fore again.

Customer statistics as a milestone

Because of its complexity, the project is separated into three phases with various project teams to some extent. At the moment, during phase one, an attempt is being made to “tap in” to the sources SAP, CIEL and ELK for the Accounting, Surface Transport, Air & Sea and Warehouse Logistics divisions. The conclusion of phase one is planned for early 2009, with the entire project concluding in 2011. “Evaluations from CIEL will probably be available from the end of 2008, those from ELK from the beginning of 2009,” says Markus Hölzl, presenting the timescale. The first milestone is scheduled for the summer of 2008. In order to prove the possibilities of BI and give users an idea, the project team plans to prepare the annual customer statistics. According to the project managers, the exciting aspect is that it would be possible to work across the entire organisation. “For us it is a correspondingly large challenge to carry out the accompanying training sessions in compliance with quality and deadline requirements.”

Only as strong as the weakest link

Since all data sources in the organisation are accessed by the data warehouse, the success of the BI solution will finally depend upon every single employee. “Every piece of data input, each keystroke, each barcode scan will have an effect upon the reliable control of the organisation,” as the project managers summarise. “This means that the more precisely that each and every one of us works, the more precisely we can plan and control our new direction.”

Yet more business intelligence