Medtronic Business Objects Case Study
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Medtronic implemented a business intelligence (BI) solution from Business Objects to replace its outdated 10-year-old reporting system. The BI solution provides consolidated reporting on critical data from various sources and allows secure access to reports over the web for its 5,000+ employees. This enables more timely decision-making across departments like sales, marketing, and finance. Employees can now track KPIs like inventories, costs, and sales more easily from any location. As a result, Medtronic is making better business decisions.
Medtronic Business Objects Case Study
- 1. 106 Medtronic “The best benefit so far is our ability to share and view reports over the web. This allows us to track inventories, shipping costs, sales, and financial data—basically all important corporate data—more easily. We’re making better business decisions as a result.” Suresh Lokghnadhan, System Administrator, Medtronic 10-Year-Old Reporting System Needed Updating Medtronic currently offers products, therapies, and services that enhance or extend the lives of over 5 million people. Each year, these 5 million patients benefit from Medtronic's technologies—which treat conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, neurological disorders, and vascular illnesses. Its products range from diagnostic equipment to therapies that manage serious long-term conditions. With employees and customers scattered around the world, Medtronic’s ability to consolidate and report on critical business information is no easy task. Previously, to report on important sales and financial figures, the company used a multidimensional database developed with Pilot Lightship. While this complex system was in place at Medtronic for over 10 years, IT staff more recently recognized that sales and finance staff across the globe needed a more user-friendly program—one that would allow them to run reports without enlisting IT staff for help. “We wanted to use one solution across the board, and we couldn’t standardize on Pilot,” says Lokghnadhan. The company also needed a reporting solution that could work seamlessly with various data sources—including its Oracle databases and SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. With BI, 400 Reports Run Daily Medtronic chose to standardize on a business intelligence (BI) solution from Business Objects, which included Crystal Reports, BusinessObjects, and BusinessObjects Web Intelligence. Starting with the sales team, the BI solution was quickly deployed enterprisewide and now includes the supply- chain management, inventory, shipping, finance, administration, marketing, and operations departments. CHALLENGE 1 Data contained in disparate data sources 1 Reporting system was over 10 years old SOLUTION 1 Web-based features helped employees access data easier than ever before BENEFITS 1 Enabled more timely decision-making 1 Allowed access to reports over the web—from any location BI STANDARDIZATION United States of America
- 2. 107PHAR MACEUTICAL/HEALTHCARE Medtronic wanted a BI solution that could offer security at the individual employee level, based on job function. For example, the company builds specific reports using BusinessObjects for operations, sales management, and finance. However, Medtronic did not want to give every employee access to these reports as they contained valuable business data. According to Lokghnadhan, “Only certain employees need to view these reports. BusinessObjects worked with the security settings we initially set up on the Oracle side. Now we can ensure that only the finance team, for example, has access to financial reports that contain sensitive corporate information.” Currently, about 5,130 Medtronic employees use BusinessObjects. Over 2,100 users are designing their own custom reports, and another 20 users are using Web Intelligence to distribute reports via the web to a mass corporate audience. Medtronic now runs 800 scheduled reports using BusinessObjects —with 400 reports running on a daily basis. Global Access to Data, 24/7 With BusinessObjects, several teams across the company—including sales, marketing, shipping, and operations—now have critical business information at their fingertips. For example, sales representatives around the world can view their individual or team’s progress on a day-to-day basis. This allows the sales force to quickly identify any problems and make better sales decisions on the go. Moreover, the supply- chain management and shipping departments can track how fast customers are receiving their products. And the shipping department can drill down into the reports to view which carrier or shipping method is most cost-effective. Medtronic’s marketing department uses BI from Business Objects to measure the success of its marketing campaigns. The marketing team can also view how a particular product has sold over the past five or 10 years more easily than before and adjust its go-to-market strategy accordingly. “The information they need is all in one place. They just go and run a query based on the specific product and timeframe they want to evaluate,” adds Lokghnadhan. The best benefit so far is our ability to share and view reports over the web. This allows us to track inventories, shipping costs, sales, and financial data—basically all important corporate data— more easily. We’re making better business decisions as a result. About Medtronic 1 Activity: Medical technology 1 Date founded: 1949 Founded in 1949 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Medtronic is now the world leader in medical technology—providing therapy and technology solutions for people with chronic diseases. Medtronic currently offers products, therapies, and services that enhance or extend the lives of over 5 million people. “ ”