The unit also owns some 50 smaller, ‘pre-mix plants’, where products are made in response to specific customer needs. These custom mixes are comprised of special ingredients and are produced using non-standard processes. Due to the number of different business units and application systems involved, Roche was unable to accurately determine product profitability. Furthermore, reliable information was not readily available to insure profitable price quotations for these special orders. They needed a way to more accurately price these custom orders and analyze their profitability. .

THE CHALLENGE

The company’s logistics & manufacturing data was maintained in SAP, customer & sales data resided in Siebel and financial data was keep in spreadsheets. The data was further disbursed as operating units in some countries used their own instances of applications & spreadsheets. Decision makers in Sales, Product Management, and Finance were relying on inconsistent and inaccurate data to run a significant part of their business. The company realized they needed to integrate this information across the organization to provide accurate price quotes and better understand product profitability in order to determine product continuance.

THE SOLUTION

Roche partnered with Enterprise Integration Partners (EIP) to design and deliver a solution. A small team of EIP professionals, together with key client staff, architected and designed a stage 3 (ETL-DW-BI) information integration solution to provide a single version of the truth. Data cleansing, ETL and BI reporting tools were evaluated against client needs. Tools from Ascential and Cognos were recommended and selected. Within 3 months a multi-national team, led by the client, captured and cleansed the necessary data. During the next 3 months a data warehouse was built by EIP to centralize product related data and key reports were developed. The EIP team then provided training sessions and customized materials that allowed users to write their own reports against the product data warehouse.

THE BENEFITS

EIP delivered a scalable, user-friendly business intelligence system that provided Roche increased visibility into their business. The following benefits were realized as a result of this project:

- Timely and profitable price quotations
- Accurate analysis of product profitability
- Improved customer service
- Higher profit margins
- A ROI of 300%
- Empowered users who can write their own reports

ABOUT ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION PARTNERS (EIP)

Founded in 1996, Enterprise Integration Partner’s mission is “to help enterprises unlock the hidden Value of their existing IT Investments through effective Information Management.” From strategy through implementation, EIP leverages it’s focused expertise, proprietary processes, and best practices together with best-of-class tools & technologies to assure their clients successful deployment of Business Intelligence solutions. For further information about EIP, visit their website at www.eip.com