When it comes to your body’s health, exercise, diet, and proper rest are key to a productive life. The same may be said about getting the most out of your enterprise’s business intelligence (BI) systems.

About the company Shaklee

Shaklee, a 50+ year-old private company that makes nutrition, personal care, and eco-friendly household products, as well as water treatment systems, knows about this. The company operates through a network of more than 750,000 independent members and distributors in the US, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, and China.

Massive amount of data

With a large product portfolio, lots of R&D, and a growing sales force, the company generates a massive amount of data, as you might imagine.

Product and financial analysis

“We had implemented a data warehouse to conduct product and financial analysis, but it wasn’t simple for users and didn’t provide broad geographical access or real-time data,” says Ken Harris, Shaklee CIO and SVP.

SaaS BI tool

Instead, the company decided on a software-as-a-service-based BI tool to promote an overall view of its BI expenditure and avoid hidden, ongoing costs. For Shaklee and its members to be successful, the workforce needed access to relevant data, including marketing and research information.

Optimize BI software

The company was able to optimize its BI tools in several departments. The sales and marketing people use BI to evaluate the efficiency of promotional campaigns. Shaklee’s finance department uses the BI software for forecasting and to dig into data to improve management decisions.

Reduce BI costs

“The ability to reduce BI cost is predicated on far more than simply negotiating a good price on a package of seats. Leading companies maintain a close eye on the full spectrum of up-front, ongoing, and hidden costs to drive down their per-user spend,” says Michael Lock.

Great perspective on BI

Read the full article (C) Internet Evolution.