Customer-Facing Business Intelligence in Wholesale Distribution

Transcription

1 Customer-Facing Business Intelligence in Wholesale Distribution September 3, 2012 In partnership with one of our premier IT wholesale distribution customers, I completed a Benchmarking Study on Software-as-a-Service Business Intelligence (SaaS BI). The research objective was to determine the efficacy and value in leveraging distributor relationships to jumpstart business intelligence programs for Value-added Reseller (VARs). Key Findings Software as a Servce (SaaS) Business Intelligence implementations have the most momentum within line of business and/or private cloud deployments. The complexity of conventional tools and internal IT service limitations are the primary drivers for a SaaS based solution 1. SaaS BI enables business users particularly SMBs and enterprise departments to quickly and easily implement solutions. Lower startup costs, easier support without an IT contribution and easier deployments, rather than sophisticated functionality, are driving adoption. 2 Off-the-shelf solutions are narrowly scoped and require significant investment for data integration, application customization, licenses and overall management 3. Upfront startup costs for data preparation and data integration range from $12,000 to $20,000. Monthly application license costs range from $5,000 to $15,000 per month. Most providers require a minimum of between 20 and 100 users per contract. In this scenario, average per-user, per-month cost is $2504. Distributors are identifying new ways to add value in the supply chain. Value Added Resellers (VARs) can gain access to cost effective, scalable alternatives made available to them through partner-facing business intelligence and analytics programs. These Supply Chain programs leverage and extend significant investments in people, processes and technology. Best of breed functionality and can be deployed faster, cheaper and more customized to specific partner needs. Agile and rapid prototyping accelerate time to value and improve awareness and adoption of BI. 1 Fast, Affordable, Agile: The Case for SaaS BI. Aberdeen Group, (2011) 2 Hype Cycle for Business Intelligence. Bitterer, A. Gartner, (2012) 3 Gassman, B (April 2011). Interview with Gartner 4 Sallam, R. (March 2012). Interview with Gartner 1

2 Methodology and Benchmarks For the study, I assembled a steering committee of subject matter experts from a diverse industry base including: Wholesale Distribution, Computer Software and Information Technology. In September 2011, the team launched a series of interviews with analysts from industry analyst firms: Gartner, IDC and OVUM/Data Monitor. Complementary to the primary research, the team also conducted secondary research on Cloud Architectures, Business Analytics, SaaS BI and Enterprise Performance Management. The objective of the research was to determine the efficacy and value in leveraging Wholesale Distributor customer-facing analytics. The scope of the study focused on four key domains of the market: Key "Pure-play" SaaS BI vendors Price Models Deployment Scope Risk Definition Value Propositions Cost of Entry Considerations Time to Value Considerations Information Security Information Management Assumptions & Key Considerations 1) Value-added Resellers (VARs) have established Wholesale Distributors invested in Customer-facing Business Analytics capabilities 2) Market conditions require Wholesalers to identify news ways to compete 5 : Low capital intensity Increasing price competition and the movement of manufacturers toward direct sales models Technology change centered on transaction efficiency and inventory control Reliant on labor rather than capital to sell goods. Functions cannot be outsourced. Firms must use new technology or improve staff training to increase revenue growth Wholesale bypass threatens revenue growth, increases revenue volatility Declining margins, increasing competition 5 Computer & Packaged Software Wholesaling in the US, IBIS World (2012) 2

3 Key Pure play SaaS BI Vendors Our program scope focused on pure-play SaaS BI vendors; those firms that focus exclusively on web-based, multi-tenant solutions. These firms made up our benchmark group. The table below references market position and value propositions of some benchmark firms 6 : Vendor Birst PivotLink mydials Oco / Deloitte Value Proposition Birst offers SaaS-based end-to-end BI and data integration platform. It provides customers with the option of either uploading data to Birst or leaving data locally, with only the analysis happening in the cloud. The practice secures organizations from any risk of data security or vendor lockins PivotLink analytic platform uses a proprietary columnar data structure, allowing granular data to be stored to support extensive analysis of KPIs. Its open platform integration strategy that will allow its clients to access data now stored in its system and combine it with other data in the enterprise for combined analysis and reporting mydials offers built-in business user-oriented statistical capabilities for identifying trends, forecasts with error ranges, and patterns with support for drilling into the data while context is maintained to identify the root cause of a problem. Moreover, users can perform real-time what-if analysis to determine the impact of various scenarios, while alerts are shown based on variance from goals or best practice The Oco product is used to augment installed BI capabilities already in place. The company has designed an innovative data model that supports standard analysis for supply chain, sales, marketing, customer and finance operations, but will also work with clients to build out customized analytic applications tailored to their needs. 6 What is BI on Cloud?, Tata Consultancy Services (2011) and Team Analysis 3

4 Price Models: Cost of Entry Considerations The benchmark costs associated with SaaS BI deployments were quite surprising and, have led some industry analysts to question the long-term value of SaaS based deployments 7. Our subject matter experts were very forthcoming in their assessment of cost models behind pureplay SaaS BI firms. Sources referenced case-studies of actual deployments to help us better understand cost and management dynamics. Making the case for SaaS BI deployments is a complex endeavor. The analyst community points out many unforeseen costs associated with these programs. The major cost elements identified from analysis include 8 : 1) Data integration: According to analysts, the average start-up cost within the benchmark group is between $12,000 and $17,000. So what if your data was prepackaged, Pre integrated? And what if it's prepackaged reintegrated data was the 80% solution effective for usability and providing highly enriched baseline to work from? 2) User Licenses: Most vendors in the benchmark group had seat minimums for annual service contracts. Minimum requirements of twenty users upwards of 100 as a contractual requirement. Considering these contractual requirements cost per license hovered around $250 per user per month. 3) Data Management: This category contains elements of data security, data updates and data governance. Every service provider in the benchmark group has policies and $400 $350 $300 $250 $200 $150 $100 $50 $0 Pure-play SaaS BI Annual Cost Comparisons ($k) Supply Chain Program User Licenses App. Customization Data Integration Data Management Figure 1: Average pure-play SaaS BI cost model according to analyst Rita Sallam at Gartner. procedures in place for data updates and data security. Out of scope is data stewardship and governance; how the quality and consistency of data is integrated in the applications. Supply chain programs offer significant value in data management and allow VARs to offset costs associated with data stewardship and quality control. 4) Application Customization: Most of the benchmark group offers out-of-the-box features that I had limited customization features. Customizing applications for specific user or business needs is costly and time consuming. Distributor application feature sets are more purpose-built and, cheaper to customize. 7 Sallam, R. (March 2012). Interview with Gartner 8 Team Analysis 4

5 Deployment Scope: Time to Value Considerations Make vs. Buy? Outsource vs. insource? These are the two key questions when deciding what to do about your line of business analytics capability. According to the Aberdeen Group internal BI tools are too complex and, not well managed. IT led programs are lengthy, costly and the outcomes often do not align with business needs. But what if IT resources and investments in BI infrastructure could be leveraged from a distributor? Distributors are always looking for new ways to justify margin beyond pick/pack/ship, financing and order processing. Access to these types of resources lowers implementation cost and accelerates time to value. We ve highlighted some primary benefits associated with leveraging your supply chain relationships to fast-track BI deployments: 1) Immediate access to pre-packaged, enriched data 2) Access to applications that are purpose-built for your supply chain 3) Data collected, managed and maintained by your distributor 4) Information security is a shared responsibility The table below illustrates considerable differences in leveraging a distributor vs. going to the open market for a line of business BI deployment 9 : Figure 2: Scope and scale comparisons between traditional Pure-play SaaS BI program and a Supply Chain Program. 9 Team Analysis 5

6 Risks The steering committee outlined the following domains requiring inspection for any analytics deployment (on-prem/hybrid/pure-play cloud): Infrastructure Network Application Information Governance & Management Compute Store Encrypt Trasport Authentication & Authorization Presentation Quality Control Ownership Disposition Gartner research has identified some leading implementation concerns pertaining to cloud business analytics 10 : How is data transferred to the cloud (tagging, FTP through the firewall, Web service calls, etc.)? How is account management handled? How does the internal security model about data access and logging access extend to the cloud services? How is data brought back from the cloud? Who owns the data? How do you ensure data quality in the cloud? How are migrations done when switching cloud vendors? 10 Popkin, J.(2012) Business Analytics in the Cloud, Gartner, Inc. Feb (p. 19) G

7 Conclusions International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts that business analytics market will continue to grow at a 9.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2016 to reach $50.7 billion 11. According to a recent MIT Sloan study, companies experienced in analytics are increasingly gaining competitive advantage 12. According to a Wharton research study, companies that compete with analytics earn a 2.95% higher return on assets and a 5.14% higher return on equity 13. How can VARs get started quickly and inexpensively? Applying analytics begins with senior executive sponsorship and a skilled team. Enterprise metrics must be established and managed-to through an efficient exchange, consumption and analysis of information. Partnership must be nurtured between IT and the business. Insights must be evangelized and business processes transformed. SaaS BI vendors have compelling value propositions and innovative, stable products. Wholesale Distributors are quickly emerging as value-added providers of pre-packaged data aggregations and purpose-built applications. High-level comparisons between an off-the-shelf SaaS BI deployment and a Supply Chain Program 14 : Pure-play SaaS BI Supply Chain Program Cloud at-scale Line of business specific Integration required Plug and play Higher Entry Cost Lower Entry Cost through Distributor Economies of scale Business Led / IT Managed Business Managed Value Added Resellers can capitalize on valuable Wholesale Distribution Analytics programs in the following manner: Access to pre-packaged enriched, industry-specific data Purpose-built analytics apps (supply chain optimized) Access to new analytical applications Limited IT involvement Faster time to value Reasonable cost and payback Increased adoption Participating in distributor-led programs gives VARs immediate scale and allows them to leverage large investments in IT infrastructure at nominal cost compared with an off-the-shelf solution. Distributors are investing in customer-facing analytics programs as a way to provide differentiated value and mitigate wholesale bypass. 11 (2012) IDC Corporation, 12 Creating Business Value with Analytics, Kiron, D., Shockley, R. MIT Sloan (2011) 13 Smith, M (March 2011) Interview with Gartner analyst 14 Team Analysis 7