2015 Readers' Choice Survey: Business Intelligence

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The job of business intelligence (BI) tools and techniques has always been a complicated task. Yet, the proliferation of data sources that is happening today is putting BI to the ultimate test. Are BI providers able to adapt to a rapidly changing data-scape? John M. Rossi, General Manager & Global Head –  Consumer Goods Consulting for Wipro Technologies, shares his expertise to predict the future requirements of BI.

Can you comment on this list?
Rossi: First, we should thank all of the BI-related companies for helping the consumer goods (CG) industry better know the retailer, household, shopper and consumer. We continue through the evolution of becoming more shopper-centric. This year’s survey created a few surprises. We have many of the highly respected and repeat companies in the listing (Oracle, SAP, Teradata), but a typical provider with usually high rankings didn’t make this year’s list – IRI.  

Is it a disruptive shift whereas many consumer foods companies are getting direct feeds from their retail partners? Is it a short-term change and we’ll see them and Nielsen regain top 10 rankings? Do syndicated providers need to provide better global reach? Time will tell, but it seems like a shift in philosophies. Many are now getting direct POS feeds and layering in their own analytics, to drive insights. Even if CG companies are taking some of these areas “in house”, syndicated providers are still useful.

Let’s also welcome two “newcomers” to the rankings — Microsoft and Salient. Add BI to the enterprise areas where Microsoft is making industry inroads. Salient has built industry-specific scenarios for merchandising, category management, product mix and supply chain efficiency. It is a company that is “blurring the line” between being a horizontal tool provider and delivering industry-specific models. Expect more companies to provide these CG-specific models and scenarios to their BI solutions.

Are new sources of data or new data types being incorporated into BI methodologies?
Rossi: The biggest sources for new data are from the shopper and consumer. CG companies must learn to incorporate digital, social and mobile data into their insights. For many, this type of information resides in its own silo, but that must change. The shopper and consumer create a multitude of touch points that are intertwined.  

CG companies who have an analytics group separated from their digital analytics capabilities are losing valuable insights. Mobile, social and digital information is becoming the prevalent means of information. Are you incorporating this valuable data into your predictive analytics and insights thought process? Many are not.

Mindsets and models that are prebuilt don’t always incorporate the digital information into trade promotion, market mix or category scenarios, thus not providing the complete picture. This must change. Digital information needs to be a key part of overall analytics and insights capabilities.