Kingspan Insulation, a manufacturer of building materials, is using business intelligence (BI) software to increase the productivity of its sales force and improve strategic planning.

Kingspan deployed Cognos software more than six years ago after identifying problems with using Excel spreadsheets.

‘People were using Excel to make reports, but the information was collected at different times. The business was making decisions on data not from a single certified source,’ says Peter Smith, business systems manager at Kingspan.

The company decided to build a data warehouse using SQL Server with the BI software.

‘It gave employees the ability to build reports in real time using data generated on a nightly basis, so people were using the same data source for one version of the truth,’ says Smith. ‘Users can get what they want quickly without having to wait in an IT queue, which means they are more productive.’

Smith says BI tools give employees information they need to do their job more effectively.

‘We do not want them tinkering around with data. We want them to have the information they need to concentrate on their job, which is selling,’ he says.

Smith also has plans to promote the use of BI in the purchasing department.

One of the benefits of BI software is that people can see the advantage of joining up systems to deliver valuable information.

For example, reports on what materials are used in production have helped with traceability issues over the last six months. And with the spiralling cost of transport, information can be made available on the cost of distributing goods.

‘The company can look at that information to help with strategic decisions on whether to manufacture a bulky product locally,’ says Smith. ‘Good business

intelligence around transport costs will help us decide on the location of a production plant and save the business money.’

His department includes an IT systems trainer and a developer who work together to spread best practice on using the software.

‘Each business area will have people writing and creating their own reports and saving them, which means that in two years’ time there will be an enormous amount of work done creating a lot of data,’ says Smith.

He envisages a representative from each business area who controls creation and access.

‘Unless there are some controls, there is a risk of duplication of effort which is not efficient,’ he says.

Smith has a vision of how BI tools should be deployed in the future. ‘A lot of people use handheld computers on the road, and we would like reports to be tailored for these devices, so that reports could, for example, be emailed to a salesperson about a customer whom he is going to visit,’ he says.

Further reading:

Intelligence quotient

Computing roundtable on business intelligence

BI case study: Newell Rubbermaid