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With this challenging economy...will customers use BI to track customers?

RichBlumberg
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
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QUESTION: Are faculty (e.g., professors, lecturers) teaching BI to students centered around customers data?

Hi! With this challenging global and regional economy...

It's always good to look at what customers and the marketplace will invest in as a top priority in 2009!

With business intelligence centered around customers...

Faculty (e.g., professors, lecturers, reseachers) can benefit through their thought leadership and of course, preparing students (graduate and undergraduate) for meaningful careers and jobs (which will help pay for student loans!:-)

So one segment of interest within Business Intelligence is to better track customers which leads to better decisions, better customer support, better insights, better opportunities!

What are the biggest gaps that you see that businesses and organizations face when tracking (analyzing) customers' trends?

How much of the customer information needs to be tracked inside the walls of the business or organization and how much outside the boundaries? For example, suppliers, distributers, partners, retailers may have information about the customers that would help a great deal! This information may be outside the organization that needs it most!

Also, how much of this customer information is stuctured vs. un-structured? How much is predictable data and how much is ad-hoc? If it's ad-hoc and thus lost, how does this effect the "single version" of the truth in respect to customers?

Should students learn about how organizations address business intelligence in respect to customer data? Now much of this type of knowledge is being exchanged on campus (face-to-face and e-learning)?

Best regards,

Richard

Edited by: Richard Blumberg on Feb 3, 2009 6:43 PM

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

Former Member
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Hi Richard,

To be honest there's quite a creative 'intended' use of BI / BOBJ with my local members anyway because only those universities teaching general strategic management or business analytics or competitive analysis are using BI in that fashion. The other half are using BI tools as a means to visually and intuitively illustrate problems in demand forecasting demand scheduling, materials tracking and so on.

Another smaller group are using BI mainly to show how visual data is so much easier and more effective than having to read many pages of printed materials or numerical data. So partly there has I guess been an interest because of the recession driving down resources and needing to be efficient and universities have recognised this, but also because I think the recession pointed out to some universities that actually a lot of companes out there would take days to reach a decision and may even end up making the wrong decision if they don't have an effective dashboarding tool for example.

So the efficiencies aren't only in business management per se but in driving down time spent in a) finding and b) interpreting data as well ultimately as c) avoiding making a gigantic mistake through misinterpretation when these days that could mean simply not surviving as a business entity.

All the best

Martin Gollogly

Director, University Alliances

United Kingdom, Ireland and Benelux

Answers (2)

Answers (2)

Former Member
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Hi,

Customer data is certainly relevant. Business Intelligence is capable to capture and analyze quantitative data very well and certainly one of the useful tools to detect trends and uncover opportunities...

Nevertheless, most companies leverage CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions to track the most relevant data regarding their customers. In the SAP world, this functionality is supported by SAP CRM. SAP CRM collects information about Marketing (Marketing Campaigns, Segmentation, Leads...), E-Commerce, Channel Management, Sales (Opportunities, Quotations, Orders...), Interaction Center, Service and Field Applications based on core data like Business Partners (not only customers) or Product Master Data, which can be integrated with the ERP-System.

In the SAP world this data from SAP CRM can be analyzed within SAP CRM or can be analyzed using CRM Analytics, which leverages the functionality of SAP Business Intelligence. This integration of special purpose systems supports the maximum leverage of the information available.

We, at Hochschule Ansbach, see the benefit of demonstrating this integration to our students. We have found a business partner to sponsor our curriculum development and will teach the first integrated SAP BI - SAP CRM - SAP ERP course this spring.

For more details visit [http://www.profheesen.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=140:crm-partnership&catid=1:news&Itemid=50]

If you are interested, feel free to contact me in Charlotte at the UA meeting or via email.

All the best,

Bernd

RichBlumberg
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
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Bernd,

Hi! Thank you for your reply! Clearly we both see the critical importance of tracking customer data! Your approach with integrating the first curricula between SAP BI, CRM, and ERP is very interesting. One of my colleagues will touch base with you on this development!

Also, I would ask you if you have accounted for "structured" and "un-structured" customer data. Often organizations focus too much on the first but not the latter. Also, it would be interesting to share views on establishing the entire platform for the solution vs. doing a program like this ...one small disparate piece at a time! As you know, both of these points are 2 examples where these projects can either succeed or fail!

Let's keep our lines open in that we are "birds of feather" who see the vast importance of this key topic. It's nice to know that your students will benefit from this curricula which will definitely position them for a career both in this global/regional challenging economy ---and beyond!

Best regards,

Richard

Edited by: Richard Blumberg on Feb 26, 2009 5:35 PM

Former Member
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Hi Richard,

you are correct about quantitative data being used intensively in Customer Analytics. Once this information is available it is "easy" to be leveraged. Qualitative information is collected in SAP CRM as well and this information adds to the analytical support for the Sales Manager, Sales Representative, Interaction Center Agent, Lead Manager, Campaign Manager, Service Manager ... . They are capable to access the CRM Analytics reports and from within they are able to view detailed information regarding the customer like the account information, customer contacts with relationship details, interaction history with remarks (e.g. e-mails, phone call summaries), planned activities, opportunities incl. the explanatory text, sales-, service- and marketing documents, ... .

Linking the quantitative information with the qualitative information provides a robust integrated information network for anyone who deals with the customer.

Yes, I agree, that the benefits of the SAP solutions become the most transparent by establishing an integrated learning environment. Instead of just lecturing about SAP BI, or just lecturing about SAP ECC or just SAP CRM, ... the benefits become most obvious when demonstrating the integration of systems. Obviously it may be beneficial to have learned the basic functions of SAP BI, SAP ECC, SAP CRM also, if the academic program has the luxury of offering many courses on these topics.

In my opinion, the integration of systems is the reality in the business world. Universities do themselves a favour to reflect this in their curriculum design.

Like always. The first step is the recognition of a "problem". The next step is to find a cure... Work has started...

Great to have a community to share these ideas.

Bernd

Former Member
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Hi

Even in these challenging times, companies are still choosing to implement/upgrade their BI systems. This goes to show the importance that forward-looking companies are placing on BI.

Recently, Wisconsin-based healthcare provider Marshfield Clinic has implemented SAP Business Objects XI to help their doctors track and analyze the medical history of their patients going back 30 years!

According to the recent press release, Marshfield Clinic now uses reporting, query and analysis, dashboards and visualizations, intuitive discovery and even advanced predictive analytics to deliver more effective diagnoses and treatments for patients.

For more details, please see http://www.sap.com/about/newsroom/topic-rooms/business-objects/press.epx?pressid=10896