1. Business Intelligence Software
BI Case Study
MIS 2502

2. SYSCO Corporation A large food distributor founded in 1969.
Over 45,000 employees and 420,000 customers.
83 regional operations and 62 specialty companies.
Revenue in 2003: 26 Billion (Net income: 778 M)
Before 2003, ERP and many information systems have been adopted and deployed. The effectiveness of these systems are well perceived.
What are the problems of using these IT systems?

3. Business Objects A leading BI vender Provide BI => Service Roadmap:
Founded in 1990 in France
In 2003, revenue $500M
24,000 customers
Provide BI =>
Service Roadmap:
Scope, Design, Build, Deploy and Evolve

4. Deal SYSCO completed the data warehouse
Business Objects invested a lot of time to learn about SYSCO and its needs before any contract was signed. (Is that stupid? Why don’t other companies do that?)
SYSCO decided to initially only configure the BI software and train employees to address only a limited set of questions. (when did SYSCO decide? Why only address two questions?)

5. More Questions Why did SYSCO need across-firm level BI?
What is BI software? What are the business benefits of BI software?
What are the two alternatives for buying BI software at SYSCO?
What are some implementation pitfalls of BI software at SYSCO?
Why choose Business Objects?
Why did SYSCO build warehouse by own?
How about small firms?
How to evaluate the success of this purchase if you are the CEO of SYSCO?
How do competitors react?
If you are the sales manager of Business Objects, how to persuade SYSCO to purchase more?