Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
1 Exadata replaced
2 large UNIX servers
and 2 storage racks.
oracle.com/exadata
4
Ways
to align it
With business
strategy
Focus on:
POwER
sustainability
“WE ARE mUCH bETTER PREPARED
fOR ANSWERING THE NEED fOR
RELIAbLE AND TRANSPARENT
PLAYER
DATA IN A RAPIDLy GROWING
INTERNATIONAL COmPANy WITH
AN INCREASINGLy COmPLEX
COmPANy STRUCTURE. IT’S A
COmPLETELy NEW WORLD.”
—NIELS STRANGE PEULICkE-
ANDERSEN, DONG ENERGy Oracle systems help Bord Gáis become a force in
Ireland’s newly open energy markets
Ashling Cunningham,
CIO, Bord Gáis
Together.
Winning teams are the ones who rack up all the awards. And this year, we’re happy to
add even more Oracle Titan and Oracle Global awards to our list. Our award-winning
track record makes us proud because behind every award, there is a successful client.
Here’s to another great year of valued partnership and to giving our clients more.
As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see
www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.
Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.
FEATURE STORY
18 IT Power Players
Ireland’s electricity market opened to broad competition
in 2005 after years of government control. To meet new
market opportunities, Irish utility Bord Gáis began a multi-
year IT transformation based on Oracle technology. Today,
managers enjoy improved operational efficiencies and
compliance with new regulatory mandates, and provide
excellent customer service for 425,000 new residential
electricity customers. —By Tony Kontzer
p r o f i t : t h e e x e c u t i v e ’s g u i d e t o o r a c l e a p p l i c ations 1
e di t or ia l
p u bl i sh i n g
adv e rt i si n g sa l e s
s ub sc ript ion s or ac l e p ro du c t s
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2 M aY 2 0 1 1
Vertex and Oracle. The perfect complement.
When it comes to transaction tax software, nothing complements Oracle better than Vertex. With
over 15 years of integration experience and over 1,000 satisfied clients, our experts understand the
intricacies of Oracle. Vertex tax technology seamlessly integrates with Oracle E-Business Suite 11i
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Other Highlights
Creating Effective Collaboration: Mythics Advances Data Consolidation with Oracle Exadata
Q&A with Author Mehrdad Baghai Oracle partner Mythics recently launched a practice working
Globalization and technology have made it easier than with customers focused on implementing Oracle Exadata
ever to work together to create new solutions and reach Database Machine as a way to consolidate datacenter
new customers. However, the rapidly changing way we do operations. This strategic move has led Mythics to be one of
business also demands executives develop new strategies for the first Oracle partners to achieve Oracle PartnerNetwork
successful collaboration. Profit recently spoke with Mehrdad Specialized status in Oracle Exadata.
Baghai, managing director of Alchemy Growth Partners and oracle.com/us/corporate/profit/partners/022311-mythics-
one of the authors of As One (Penguin Group, 2011), which 323987.html
outlines eight different archetypes for collective leadership.
Five Ideas: The Way We Work Now
Learn why hierarchy still matters and how identifying your own
As executives prepare for an economic recovery, many are
management archetype can shape your technology strategy.
unsure of how to invest in new IT endeavors—from enterprise
oracle.com/us/corporate/profit/opinion/021611-mbaghai-
resource planning tools to Enterprise 2.0 technologies. Here,
321118.html
get expert insight into choosing technology that helps you
Oracle Exalogic: The One-Day Installation Challenge collaborate better and get projects done. Plus, see how you can
Ram Sivaram, product development engineer at Oracle, has keep yourself from burning out as the economy accelerates.
been unboxing and installing Oracle Exalogic machines in oracle.com/us/corporate/profit/features/5ideas-exadata-
rapid time. Today he unboxed a brand-new machine and had it 144061.html
running and ready for production in just 10 hours.
Follow Profit on Twitter @OracleProfit
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Master Data Management Deployment Tips and get daily updates of news, video, events, and blogs—all
Oracle Senior Director David Butler makes the case that the from the editorial staff of Profit.
modern IT application landscape is fragmented. This leaves
critical data domains such as customer, product, site, and
supplier created and managed differently within each of the Subscribe
many applications. Butler draws on his experience with master Profit Online Executive Strategy Newsletters
data management (MDM) to propose solutions for fixing the S u bsc r i be to P r of i t O nl i ne ’s t w o r eg u la r n e ws l e tt er s : th e
data fragmentation problems that plague businesses today, Ex ecu t i v e S t r a t egy We e k l y bu l l et i n f o r t he b e st new co n te n t
arguing that a sound MDM strategy can “measurably assist a nd t he Ex ec u t i v e S t r at eg y Mo nt h l y f or i nt e r v ie w s , po d c a sts ,
organizations across a wide variety of top IT initiatives.” a nd f ea t ur es o n t od ay ’s ho t te st en te r p r is e t r e nds .
oracle.com/us/corporate/profit/opinion/020911-dbutler- or a cle .c om / ne ws le tt e r s
310287.html
4 M aY 2 0 1 1
EDITOR’S NOTE
around in my head as the editorial staff researched and wrote the stories contained
Maybe it’s because I’m a child of that era, but edicts to reduce, reuse, and recycle
have defined my view of environmental responsibility. And while there are many
sustainability programs, the simple waste hierarchy still offers a good framework for
Reduce. From what I learned this issue, reduce is pretty much synonymous with “improving efficiency”—
and represents the fastest path to mitigating a company’s environmental impact. For example, managers can
reduce the energy associated with logistics by using technology to optimize shipments (see “Shipping More with
Less,” page 11). Or, they can switch from paper-based reporting to a cloud-based solution and eliminate tons of
printed material from existing processes (see “Expert Reporting,” page 25). In either case, reduce requires smart
Reuse. This insight comes from an unexpected mind-set: looking at existing enterprise systems and tuning
them to do the work of sustainability. Jon Chorley, vice president of supply chain and sustainability product
strategy at Oracle, shares his systems reuse strategy in his interview (see “Within Your Power,” page 52), and
Denmark’s DONG Energy put that plan into action by tuning Oracle Hyperion financial management applica-
tions to track greenhouse gas emissions (see “Sustainable Energy,” page 28). While some may “greenwash” enter-
prise solutions to capture attention, many sustainability tracking and management functions are already built
into core enterprise IT functions.
Replace. While it might differ from what to do with your empty soda cans, replace makes more sense for the
enterprise. It means supplanting outmoded systems and processes with modern, efficient solutions. IT-driven
businesses might look to swap outdated servers in the datacenter for newer, less-power-hungry machines. Oracle’s
“Cash for Clunkers” program was designed for just that reason: to help customers scrap costly and inefficient
Reduce. Reuse. Replace. It’s about more than altruism—it’s about smart business.
BoB Adler
Best,
Aaron Lazenby
Editor in Chief, Profit
aaron.lazenby@oracle.com
SMART Steps
How tecHnology can create a SuStainability Footprint For manuFacturing
If building a sustainable enterprise was a the sustainability impact of products across the entire life-
fashionable trend five years ago, today it is cycle, from design and manufacturing to transportation. With
a strategic differentiator. According to the standardized measures, the drivers of sustainability can be
nonprofit organizations the Climate Group modeled, analyzed, and optimized globally.
and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative Monitor. Organizations can use technology to link and make
(GeSI), transforming the way people and sustainability goals and outcomes visible, as well as to
businesses use technology could reduce monitor statistics such as energy use across the value chain.
annual man-made global emissions by 15 percent by 2020, This step involves ensuring that the monitoring is consistent
and deliver energy efficiency savings of more than US$800 throughout the company and processes, implementing
billion to global businesses. monitoring devices and tools for power management, and
Indeed, recent breakthroughs in the technology industry— applying remote monitoring and control of systems
primarily in computation and communications—have pro- wherever appropriate.
vided unprecedented capabilities in capturing the promise of Account. Technology-driven monitoring of statistics such as
sustainability. In the manufacturing industry, the benefits span materials and energy usage creates accountability across the
the entire lifecycle and value chain organization, driving and aiding
of any product, including incep-
tion, design, manufacture, sales,
Applying technology within managers who must make decisions
and create sustainability goals.
and service, as well as supporting the SMART framework Rethink. In time, business environ-
services for each of these business ments will change, and sustain-
functions. In today’s global economy,
allows for a closed-loop ability goals will need to be refined.
where the mantra is “design any- view of the value chain. Technology drives this process
where, make anywhere, and sell by offering tools that can develop
anywhere,” manufacturers continue to leverage efficiently alternative, updated scenarios and processes. The informa-
coordinated global capabilities. The impact of technology- tion will enable industry leaders to rethink their own opera-
driven sustainability spans the entire value chain by allowing tions and product development for materials, cost, and
for global design team collaboration; global manufacturing energy reductions.
coordination; and low-cost, energy-efficient supply chain and Transform. Technology allows for the scaling of optimized
logistics execution. sustainability-enabling tools and practices across the value
But how do organizations go about leveraging technol- chain on a global scale. As with any other initiative, a “think
ogy to complete this transformation? The Climate Group and big, start small, and scale rapidly” cadence will allow for
GeSI recommend managers use a framework to standardize, global sustainability transformation.
monitor, account, rethink, and transform (SMART) their busi- Manufacturing companies that focus on technology-
nesses to “optimize for energy efficiency and how we live, enabled sustainability are expected to gain a dual edge on
work, and play in a low-carbon world.” This approach will the competition: a “green edge” that comes with being an
be successful when low-carbon business models become the environmental leader, and a financial edge gained by captur-
norm and proliferate across all industries and economies. ing and leveraging that reputation in the market. Using the
For manufacturing companies, applying technology within SMART framework allows companies to monitor and trans-
the SMART framework allows for a closed-loop view of the form value chain activities—which, in addition to reducing
value chain, enabling the ongoing review, optimization, and emissions, optimizes results and reduces costs across the
transformation of the organization to capture sustainability board. Over time, these benefits are truly strategic advan-
tages, driving both the top and bottom lines. <>
Shailja Khatri
6 M ay 2011
FORWARDTHINKING
NEWS A ND I NFOR MATIO N FRO M ARO UN D TH E GLO BE
SMART SUSTAINABILITY
Creating an environmental policy that works for your company
Eco-advantage was a novel idea five years ago when environ- going to be opportunities to become more efficient with other
mental strategist Daniel C. Esty coauthored the first edition of the products—whether that’s water or the materials that go into
business book Green to Gold (Yale University Press, 2006). something they’re manufacturing.
“There were just a handful of companies that had begun to Profit: How can companies use technology to become more
realize the value of bringing an environment or sustainability efficient?
focus to corporate strategy,” Esty recalls. “Today, a very large Esty: One of the big areas of opportunity for companies that are
number of companies understand this logic, and the challenge in any way information technology intensive is to really pursue a
has turned out to be not just that you should green IT agenda that, again, cuts costs and
do it, but what to do.” improves results at the same time. A lot of
THE
That’s where Esty’s new book, coauthored companies have realized you can improve
by Corporate Eco Forum Chair P.J. Simmons, the efficiency of operations, cut the electric
comes in. “Green to Gold was basically about bill, and reduce emissions if you embrace
why it makes sense to bring environment and some of these new opportunities like cloud
sustainability focus into core business strat- computing and virtualization as a strategy.
egy,” he says. “The Green to Gold Business Profit: What about compliance and regulation?
Playbook [Wiley, 2011] tells how to do this.” Esty: It certainly makes sense to keep an
Here, he lets Profit readers in on the secrets eye on the unfolding environmental issue set.
to shaping a smart sustainability strategy. HOW TO Companies managing that with a clear focus
Profit: What do businesses need to know IMPLEMENT SUSTAINABILITY are more likely to spot issues early and figure
PRACTICES FOR BOTTOM-LINE RESULTS
about going green? IN EVERY BUSINESS FUNCTION out how to become compliant with the law
Esty: It turns out that the environment and DANIEL C. ESTY A N D P.J. SIMMONS
in the lowest-cost way. They may in fact get
sustainability agenda has lots of pieces. themselves advantage in the marketplace
Not every green initiative will pay off, and while the competition is still floundering.
there will be a certain process of trial and error. It makes sense Profit: You just started working as the commissioner of
to expect some success and some things not to work out. Connecticut’s new Department of Energy and Environmental
Companies should do more of the things that are paying off—and Protection. What’s exciting about the new job?
end those things that are not, so they can try something else. Esty: It gives me a chance to put into the policy realm the work
It’s important for companies to pick some initial priorities to I’ve been doing over 20 years on a more business-oriented
focus on, and then move on to other issues. Recognize which approach to environmental protection. I’ve tried to argue that
initiatives will pay off—and pay off biggest—and focus on the best path forward toward a clean energy future and a world
those first. that’s going to make environmental protection central to how
Profit: What are some easy initial wins? we do business is to get beyond the narrow focus of command,
Esty: Almost every company is going to find opportunities to cut control regulation, and figure out a broader portfolio of incentives
their energy spend, which will both reduce emissions and bring that engage the private sector in delivering solutions to our range
down costs. And for a good number of companies, there are of environmental challenges.
From Here
THE SOLAR OLYMPICS to Eternity in
Cyberspace
Contestants in the
Solar Decathlon are
challenged to design
and build houses When you die, will your blog live on?
that are powered As we live more aspects of our lives
exclusively by the online, there’s a growing concern about
sun. Sponsored by just what happens to all those tweets,
the U.S. Department e-mails, photos, and accounts—not to
of Energy, the con- mention social network pages—that
test brings together we’ve created dur-
20 teams from engi- ing our lifetimes.
neering and architecture schools around the world. “It’s a hard
The students spend almost two years designing, subject for people
building, analyzing, and testing their solar-powered to get their heads
houses to ensure that they can provide all the comfort around,” says
of modern conveniences. The teams are judged in 10 Evan Carroll,
contests to determine which house best blends afford- interaction design
ability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with expert and coauthor, with interaction
optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. designer John Romano, of the Website
“It’s the education of a lifetime,” says Richard King, thedigitalbeyond.com and the book
Stefano Paltera/U.S. DePartment of energy Solar Decathlon
director of the Solar Decathlon. “Students want to Top: Sun screens and a gray Your Digital Afterlife (New Riders Press,
find a way to live sustainably. Over the years, they water filtration system reflect 2010). The book is a how-to primer for
the sun off the solar-powered
have been very inspired by this challenge and get Virginia Tech house at the 2009 securing digital assets for your loved
U.S. Department of Energy
passionate about it.” Solar Decathlon on the National
ones and, perhaps, posterity. Internet
Since the first Solar Decathlon was held in 2002, Mall in Washington DC. service providers like Facebook, Yahoo!,
72 solar houses have been built. The 2011 competi- Bottom: Team Boston member and Twitter have widely different
Clay Larsen installs a rainwater-
tion will be held on September 23 through October 2, capturing sculpture that will regulations governing access to the
2011, in Washington DC. To learn more about renew- deliver water to a fish pond. accounts of deceased members.
able energy in action, go to solardecathlon.gov. Carroll and Romano suggest making
an inventory of your online assets and
giving it to someone, along with pass-
REAd MY FACE: dRInk THIS words and instructions for what you’d
like done with them. “It takes just 15
In Tokyo’s Shinagawa Station there are vending machines that minutes, and it will save your loved ones
use facial recognition cameras to scan customers and link their untold hours of agony, wrestling through
faces to a database of demographic facial characteristics. By passwords and service agreements. A
identifying a person’s age and gender, the machine then makes a list and a conversation can help people
personalized drink recommendation. secure the things that are important to
The appeal of facial recognition technology is that while it is very accurate, it’s them,” recommends Romano.
not as intrusive as other biometric methods such as DNA testing. Japan is also Digital estate planning also includes
embracing digital billboards that use facial recognition technology for tailored which blog posts, photos, or online mus-
advertising, as well as pilot projects that employ walk-through facial scanning ings are worth passing on. To learn more,
instead of passwords or fingerprints for access. go to thedigitalbeyond.com.
8 M ay 2 0 1 1
HigH-TecH PeT DeTecTives
Pet recovery experts Annalisa Berns and Landa Coldiron use in the event that they’ve become injured or separated—or
skills and tools that go far beyond posting missing-pet fliers on have found the missing pet.
telephone poles. Their methods include crime scene investiga- Fortunately many pets are reunited with their owners, often
tion techniques, legwork, signage, low-tech capture nets, and within the first 72 hours. In the sad event that pets aren’t
the skills of highly trained scent dogs. recovered, forensic science can help provide closure. If a
Berns and Coldiron also employ an array of high-tech tools— search dog picks up the scent of blood or fur, the remains can
including satellite mapping, night vision be tested to determine a DNA match.
goggles, wildlife cameras, and snake “Pets help us all sustain a sense of
cameras—turning pet recovery into well being, so our number one goal
a hard science that produces results. is to help people get their pets back
These gadgets provide images of quickly,” says Berns. Coldiron adds,
the animal activity in any given area, “When you’re dealing with animals
helping determine where to place and their sometimes erratic behavior,
feeding stations and humane traps. your best line of defense is to get a
GPS collars and handheld tracking plan in place quickly.”
Landa CoLdiron
seconD cHances
New and innovative design products are conserving precious resources like water and breathing new life into everyday items that
would otherwise find their way into landfill. From high artistry to a highly intelligent approach to conservation, these are some of the
more-interesting offerings Profit editors have found:
The latest release offers improved fleet tures or other handling requirements. benefit with a direct environmental
management, load management, rail The load configuration feature even impact benefit.” <>
BoB Adler
Governance, Risk, and Compliance new features to quickly migrate Microsoft right experts within an organization for
Applications Suite provides a graphical, Excel–based solutions and author proper corrective action. Furthermore,
news briefs
PeoPleSoft IntegratIon wIth cial and resource manage- between these disciplines disparate project manage-
PrImavera P6 aPPlIcatIonS ment applications. have been manual and not ment tools onto a standard
In another This integrated solution integrated,” says Kristy Tan enterprise platform, lower IT
move to help helps IT and project-driven Neckowicz, vice president for integration costs, and accel-
customers reap organizations align project Primavera product strategy at erate the communication of
the rewards of investments with strategic Oracle. “With this new integra- project progress among key
project port- initiatives and overcome tion, there is traceability and stakeholders,” concurs Mark
folio management, Oracle’s fragmented processes that improved governance, con- Rosenberg, senior director of
Primavera P6 Enterprise can hinder managers’ ability necting back-office financial PeopleSoft product manage-
Project Portfolio Management to monitor resource needs. systems with projects man- ment at Oracle.
is now integrated with The integration also helps aged in Primavera applica-
Oracle’s PeopleSoft program improve project governance tions. The integration helps new oracle aPPlIcatIon
management and project by increasing visibility into eliminate human errors, and IntegratIon archItecture 3.1
costing applications. This project team assignments, the combined end-to-end ProceSS IntegratIon PackS
new integration, announced in milestones, and financial system provides a holistic Oracle Application Integration
March 2011, gives Primavera progress that have a direct view of project investments.” Architecture 3.1, introduced
applications users the abil- impact on cash flow. “With this scalable solu- in February 2011, is a com-
ity to combine the portfolio, “Until now, many custom- tion that rapidly configures prehensive
resource, and schedule ers have used Primavera P6 to the unique business flows update of
management capabilities of for project management and of professional services, IT, prebuilt
Chris strACh
Primavera P6 with the power PeopleSoft for costing and and capital projects, our cus- integrations
of PeopleSoft’s project finan- budgeting, but the processes tomers can consolidate their designed
12 M AY 2011
the extensibility framework of Oracle nies achieve their performance goals Applications Suite 8.6 includes signifi-
Governance, Risk, and Compliance Suite by making it simple to incorporate risk cant enhancements that help companies
8.6 enables companies to tap into multiple intelligence and continuously monitor quickly deploy targeted, role-based
Oracle and third-party business applica- business controls in their existing IT GRC solutions driven by the needs of
tions at the same time. environment,” Sinha says. “Oracle the business user community within a
“We’ve focused on helping compa- Governance, Risk, and Compliance unified GRC application.” <>
to reduce integration costs tion with current and future that makes it an excellent rearchitected
for all Oracle customers. planning applications in option for handling an organi- desktop
The release features prebuilt Oracle E-Business Suite and zation’s document visualization deployment
integrations across all major provides PeopleSoft supply requirements on a single plat- platform for
Oracle applications and chain management integra- form. Now, AutoVue can func- desktop users.
includes nine cross-industry tion with Demantra Demand tion for both enterprisewide Enterprise users can benefit
process integration packs Management. Now, JD visualization and collaboration from a variety of enhance-
(PIPs), eight vertical PIPs, Edwards EnterpriseOne and within applications and as a ments such as hotspot
and two direct integrations PeopleSoft users can have personal productivity tool for links, which allow particular
that are certified for Oracle access to a wider variety desktop users. areas on a drawing or docu-
Fusion Middleware. of tools for their advanced The new release of Oracle’s ment to trigger actions or
One PIP garnering atten- planning systems, thanks AutoVue enterprise visualiza- launch pages within other
tion is the newly enhanced to integration with Oracle tion applications includes applications. Among other
Oracle Value Chain Planning E-Business Suite value chain important improvements to improvements are AutoVue’s
Integration Base Pack. The planning applications. performance, reliability, and document print services,
PIP already delivers prebuilt stability, which are critical as which enable users to pro-
integration from Oracle’s JD oracle’S autovue enterPrISe more organizations consider vide high-volume printing,
Edwards EnterpriseOne to vISualIzatIon aPPlIcatIonS moving visualization capa- and AutoVue’s text extraction
Oracle’s value chain plan- Oracle’s AutoVue enterprise bilities beyond application in Web service APIs, which have
ning and Demantra Demand visualization applications single departments for use been extended to include
Chris straCh
Management applications. release 20.1.0 offer an updated throughout an enterprise. The support for MicroSoft Office
It also offers direct integra- enterprise-class architecture new release also includes a document types.
LeAding StrAtegieS
hen Gina Tomlinson joined the San Francisco Department land, the environment, and the culture, my goal became how to get
of Technology as chief technology officer in 2010, she was San Francisco to a level of technical standards to compete with other
surprised by what she found. This golden gateway to Silicon Valley cities within the state,” she says.
was suffering from many of the same ills thwarting less-renowned Profit spoke to Tomlinson about the challenges she faces as she
municipalities—antiquated systems, antiquated processes, and consolidates and modernizes the city’s enterprise IT infrastructure,
limited technical skill sets. expands the city services available to citizens, and manages IT for
Peter Stember
But Tomlinson, with IT experience in both the public and private one of the most tech-literate cities in the United States.
sectors, is determined to bring one of California’s oldest cities into Profit: When you arrived in your current position of
the twenty-first century. “When I came here and I got the lay of the CTO, you found IT structure, processes, and procedures you
14 M ay 2011
describe as being well below
what you expected. How do
“Taxpayers fund us, so we want to They each have systems and
data sets that they use to do
you begin to tackle that as an make sure we are implementing their day-to-day work.
IT executive? Right now, with the dis-
Tomlinson: It’s a tough path.
solutions that our constituents parate systems, it can be a
The first thing we did was a very can truly use day to day.” challenge to understand if an
accurate, very detailed deep dive offender has a case somewhere
into the infrastructure—into the —Gina Tomlinson, CTO, City and County of San Francisco in the sheriff’s department or
belly of the city—to see where has a case somewhere in the
the vulnerabilities and the holes were, identify opportunities public defender’s. That information isn’t as readily available
for us to bolster the infrastructure, and insert technology to across the board as it should be.
improve processes. We’re really combining all the data sets from those criminal
We went to various city agencies and business units to learn justice areas and pulling them into an Oracle back end, so each
about their business. We visited all 60 agencies in the city to of those criminal justice agencies can have the same accurate,
learn what they do and how their infrastructure works, and updated information. So if an offender has multiple offenses,
to understand their dependencies on the city’s core datacenter that information is readily available to all criminal justice sites
and core systems. So, the first thing I did was understand the and agencies, as needed.
business—understand the lay of the land. It’s a huge opportunity for us to leverage Oracle in a very
One of the things we’re working on now is relocating from customer-facing way, ensuring for the citizens of the City and
our old datacenter. This is a huge culture shift and a departure County of San Francisco that if an offender is arrested or has
from the norm for the city. So, the first task was to relocate our an interaction with any of our criminal justice agencies, each
data—our core, the heart of the city—and move that into a agency has an appropriate awareness of that offender. Our plan
structurally sound, secure, highly rated datacenter facility. is to have this system officially up and running by 2012.
That’s a huge feat. Any organization will attest that it’s kind Profit: The data sets you are working with must be quite large.
of like a heart transplant. Tomlinson: Yes, lots of data! For example, we have Oracle
Profit: Is it important for you to understand the end user, implementations at our Metropolitan Transportation Authority
whether it’s a citizen or a city employee? [MTA]. They’re using Oracle as a back-end data warehouse for
Tomlinson: Absolutely. I think for many technologists, we a lot of the parking and metering data from the smart meters
only think about the technical feasibility of what we’re imple- around the city. The parking meters are one of the biggest
menting. We often struggle to grasp how viable a solution is revenue points for the MTA.
for the customer or the user. We’re only considering whether a That data warehousing back end at the MTA allows the
project is a very good technical thing to do. department to leverage the entire business intelligence suite of
The mind shift we had to take here at the Department of tools that Oracle provides to do dashboards, trend analysis, and
Technology for the city was to not implement technology just other data mining. Also, they can export that data into other
for the sake of implementing technology. For several reasons, tools—other MTA business systems and systems that could be
we really needed to touch the business—talk to the business. used in other areas of the city.
The primary reason for this is that the taxpayers fund us, so We also have an initiative called DataSF that mirrors the
we want to make sure we are implementing solutions that our Obama administration’s OpenGov initiative of open govern-
constituents can truly use day to day. ment and access to data. We literally
There is no glory in implementing peel the lid off, so to speak, of many
technology no one uses. data systems and data sets in the city
Profit: How does centralizing IT help >>snAPsHoT that are deemed most of interest to
the city and citizens of San Francisco? The City and County of san Francisco the citizens: for example, bus sched-
Tomlinson: As an example, right sfgov.org ule information, library information,
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
now we are working with an Oracle city hall information. Citizens are
industry: Public sector
solution for our criminal justice system able to download the data sets, and
here in the city. Currently, there are Gina Tomlinson, Chief Technology we’ve found that they are being inno-
several disparate criminal justice officer vative and creating all kinds of apps
length of tenure: 1 year
systems. There’s the San Francisco for the Android smartphones and the
Education: BS in computer science
Police Department, the sheriff’s office, Personal quote: “Stay true to yourself,
iPhone. They’re using that to develop
the district attorney’s office, emergency and all else will take care of itself!” their own systems and applications,
management offices, and so forth. do their own development, and later
generate revenue out of those sites. the right things and have tangible evidence of how we’re using
Profit: Does that reflect the tech-literate population of San their funds. I feel strongly about that.
Francisco? How do you formulate your IT strategy with them Again, I think it’s critical that IT managers in local govern-
in mind? ments understand the needs of the core agencies that run the
Tomlinson: Absolutely. By some accounts, San Francisco city, so in the process of implementing technology they work to
is the number one social-networking city in the country. San fine-tune and cut some of the fat.
Francisco is a very mobile city. Mobility is critical to a lot of Profit: How does improved IT efficiency impact the work-
citizens here. We needed to ensure that many of the services force of the city?
people utilize every day—city hall, the library, and other city Tomlinson: I think the initial shock of implementing new
agencies—are made available online. technology does give people fodder for thinking that it replaces
To do that, we need to develop a robust infrastructure people. But for a city like San Francisco, which as I said is very
to port current “in-person” types of transactions to online people conscious, we cannot implement a technology that takes
transactions and decrease a lot of paper and process we have the position of abandoning the worker.
today. So we knew we had to lay the foundation by develop- With the technology we implement, we want to make sure
ing and building a strong core datacenter to enable these it’s technology that uplifts the city employee, teaches them
new services. new skill sets, gives them an opportunity to learn a whole new
We now have that core datacenter, and we have the core work methodology or a whole new way of thinking. That’s
foundation. We can do things like increasing access to online often a challenge.
forms and services. So, we’ve really set ourselves up with a San Francisco is a city that embraces history. We embrace
framework to build on, and we did that at the behest of many our historic buildings. We embrace the historic cable car.
of our citizens here in the city. They wanted more availability We embrace the old Victorian homes. So it’s a delicate dance
and accessibility of services online, and we’re beginning to do between embracing and respecting history while still trying to
that. This is a huge first step for us. drive us forward into new technology. We want to re-engineer
Profit: How has the recession and budget crunch impacted the way a city worker works—the way they do their job every
the way you run your organization? day. We don’t want to eliminate that job; we want to repurpose
Tomlinson: Certainly in the past three or four years, the it into something more strategic, something that will grow
recession has driven many changes in strategy and process. I workers’ technical maturity and skill set. <>
think innovation and productivity comes from strife and hard
times. When we have to be more focused, more stringent, and AAron LAzenby is the editor in chief of Profit.
more disciplined, we find more-creative ways to do things. This
is one of those times.
In San Francisco—which has a very socially and politically
>> For more inFormation
conscious citizen base—citizens want to see where and how Oracle Solutions for the Public Sector
oracle.com/us/industries/public-sector
their taxpayer money is being spent. They don’t sometimes
Oracle Solutions for Smart Cities
mind spending the money, as long as they see a return on that oracle.com/us/industries/public-sector/smart-cities.htm
investment. So we really need to make sure that we are doing
16 M ay 2 0 1 1
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Ashling Cunningham, CIO, Bord Gáis
By Tony KonTzer
IT Power Players
enTerprise Technology helps ireland’s Bord gáis
capiTalize on energy deregulaTion.
20 M ay 2011
The DeploymenT paTh The deployment of the Oracle Utilities customer care and
By the fall of 2006, Bord Gáis started the implementation. billing solution went live in November 2008 with Bord Gáis’
The Oracle Utilities customer care and billing solution was residential gas customers, who were moved into the new system
being installed, database schemes were being built to match in batches until all 650,000 customers had been migrated.
Bord Gáis’ billing processes to the technology, and Bord Gáis’
development team was feverishly building customizations. elecTric iT
The initial plan was to have the new Oracle system up and Over the ensuing three months, the project team worked
running by November 2007. feverishly again to ensure that the system’s electricity billing
But by November 2007, it was becoming clear that the functionality was ready to take on new customers. In February
project was off to a false start. According to Bunworth, the 2009, Bord Gáis entered the deregulated residential electricity
company’s customer billing database simply wasn’t clean market, marking the beginning of what the company states has
enough to ensure a good installation, and there were quality been the most successful utility switching campaign in history.
issues with the software. It started small, as the company tested the system by estab-
Bord Gáis management made the difficult decision to lishing its 1,100 employees as the first electricity customers.
halt the project completely and begin again with a rebuilt With that success, Bord Gáis started marketing to existing gas
database. It would delay the project several months, yet it customers, promoting a process that would allow them to switch
turned out to be exactly the right move (see sidebar, “When from their existing electricity provider in a few clicks online.
to Restart an IT Project”). The program was then extended to new customers.
In February 2008, Bord Gáis executives signed off on a clean, Cunningham says management expected to add 80,000 elec-
stable billing system that was ready to be built upon. Over the tricity customers in the first year but reached that number in
following nine months, the project team focused its efforts on less than six weeks. “From an IT perspective, we weren’t antici-
another 20 to 30 customizations that were needed—some still pating these numbers,” says Cunningham. “We had to ramp up
in design, others in development, and a handful in testing. Most really quickly, both in IT and in the business, to deal with the
of the development was completed by August 2008, with the volumes of customers that we were taking on.”
remaining months devoted to acceptance processes. All told, Bord Gáis has now accumulated some 425,000
22 M ay 2011
screens to get to such information. It was confounding for a call and mobile devices, and billing in smaller-than-ever increments.
center staff that’s increasingly young and has grown up in the With Bord Gáis moving beyond a decades-old legacy system,
point-and-click internet era; the new system falls much more in management is now in a position to deliver next-generation
these employees’ comfort zone. service that can compete for more-informed, and thus more-
“They were configuring their own screens within weeks,” says demanding, customers.
Tony Bridgeman, who as business transformation manager in The years-long effort to update its billing and customer care
Bord Gáis’ energy business answered directly to Bunworth and platform to a modern, Web-friendly system has done more than
was the person charged with delivering the new billing system. allow Bord Gáis to capitalize on a deregulated residential elec-
The Oracle platform also has enabled Bord Gáis to start tricity market. Managers are providing modern products and
delving into customer segmentation for the first time. The services, including smart meters, remote energy management,
old legacy system provided almost no insight into customers, and interval billing.
preventing the company from analyzing its interactions with Bord Gáis’ experiments with smart meters have been limited
customers based on their relative value. A customer that spent to fewer than 20,000 of its 1 million customers, but feedback
€20,000 a year was treated no differently than one who spent suggests potential for a wide acceptance of the new technol-
€4,000. Now, the company can ogy. The company has run
offer customers tailored services “I need intelligence. I need a two pilots—one for residential
and rewards. gas customers and a smaller
The company plans to build system to effectively tell me a lot one for its fast-growing roster
on its newfound customer rela- of residential electricity cus-
tionship management (CRM)
more about my customer.” tomers. With the new billing
foundation by bolstering the —John Mullins, CEO, Bord Gáis system in place, the company is
system to take its relation- already capable of calling data
ship with customers to another level. Last year, Bunworth from and sending it to smart meters with pinpoint accuracy, and
and Bridgeman attended the Oracle OpenWorld conference that’s allowing it to display energy usage data in new ways using
and were impressed by new functionality that’s likely to spur the internet.
Bord Gáis to upgrade the system in another 12 to 18 months “The feedback has been very positive,” says Cunningham.
so they can take advantage of new customer-facing capabili- “People love the graphics, and they love being able to see the day-
ties. As Bunworth notes, Bord Gáis is essentially a billing by-day consumption and where the demand is during the day.”
company, and utility bills aren’t exactly tools for forging Meanwhile, Bord Gáis is charging steadily ahead in an
bonds with customers. But new Web-based features soon to effort to provide interval billing and remote energy manage-
be introduced will enable the company to leverage its emerg- ment. Cunningham says Bord Gáis’ new billing system is fully
ing online interface to do exactly that. capable of billing residential customers’ energy usage in 15-
“It’s about getting them to be able to manage their energy or 30-minute increments, much like the company has been
and to interact with them more than to say, ‘You owe us doing for complex commercial customers—thus allowing for
€2,147.37,’” Bunworth says. “It’s about the whole management more-precise charges and more-granular use of energy. It’s an
of that relationship with the customer. What we now know we approach to consumption that’s increasingly of interest to cus-
have is an accurate on-time billing system, but it will develop tomers and is expected to become common practice over the
into a more CRM-based one.” next several years.
CEO John Mullins, to whom Cunningham reports, says such Additionally, Bunworth says a prototype product that
insight is critical if Bord Gáis is to maintain its hold on electric- enables remote management of energy resources—for instance,
ity customers and remain competitive for the long term, espe- being able to adjust your home’s heating while away on vaca-
cially now that the ESB is free to set its own prices. tion—should be ready for use within the next year.
“I’d like to understand why Mrs. Smith in Dublin or Mrs. With so many unrealized benefits on the horizon for Bord
Jones in Galway doesn’t want to stay with us,” he says. “I can Gáis, that Pasteur quote needs an update if it’s still to apply:
only do that in the context of transactions on the billing site. “Chance favors only the prepared—and visionary—mind.” <>
I need intelligence. I need a system to effectively tell me a lot
more about my customer.” TONY KONTZER is a freelance writer based in Albany, California, and a regular
contributor to Profit.
Next-GeNeratioN Service
What’s more, Mullins wants to be able to tap that insight to
reach out to customers in new and innovative ways.
>> For more inFormation
Future success in the utility market won’t be achieved simply Oracle Solutions for Utilities
oracle.com/us/industries/utilities
through efficient energy service and billing. Utilities like Bord
Oracle Applications for Customer Care and Billing
Gáis are also preparing for an onslaught of customer data about oracle.com/us/industries/utilities/046909.html
energy use, sharing that data with customers via the internet
Trade in any HP Superdome for 50% off the list purchase price of a Sun M8000/M9000 server.
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26 M ay 2011
dation of the reports distributed through the portal. This employees from all over the globe. That helps speed projects
ensures that no document is ever posted to the wrong place along when tests are performed or reports are written and
and that only the right people have access. reviewed in multiple locations. Better yet, it allows projects to
Customers also use the portal to reduce their own paper be routed away from overburdened locations to ones where
usage by giving their manufacturing partners access to needed engineers have fewer projects—increasing engineer utilization
information. Back in the paper world, a customer would receive in a human version of the process that makes cloud computing
one copy of a document but might have to distribute that infor- more efficient.
mation to multiple manufacturers who also needed to see it. The portal also helps efficiency by ensuring that everyone
Now they can set up a community of people who need to see working on a report is using the most up-to-date version of
the document within the portal. the listing or requirements. Put all these elements together,
With the new system, customers can access report data from and the efficiency gains are impressive: the average time to
a single online location, regardless of where the end user is produce a report has fallen from 25 days to 12 days. Thanks
sitting. For example, a large international company may have to Report Manager, Intertek now tells customers to expect
dozens of locations around the world, each engaging with a reports within 15 days—a powerful selling tool.
local Intertek office. But there may be one manager at a head- Siddiqui says that for Zodiac, one of three or four major
quarters location who wants to control and monitor all these manufacturers in the highly competitive swimming pool
activities and all the work equipment business, getting
Intertek performs. Because “Each little step, from when the reports quickly can make a
everyone at all locations can huge difference. Typically,
log in to the same portal, no document is first started to its swimming pool builders like
one is left out of the loop. issuance to the customer, is visible to start their season well
One of My TestCentral’s stocked with whatever they
biggest benefits is that it vastly now, and that’s huge for us.” might need to complete that
decreases the number of paper —Dean Davidson, Vice President, Intertek
season’s jobs. So they often
documents customers must do all their buying for the
store. Siddiqui recounts how after a product is certified by year at an industry show just before the season begins. Miss
Intertek, a field inspector may pay an unannounced visit to the that show, and those few preseason weeks, and you’ve lost all
Zodiac manufacturing facility to ensure that a product’s design, of that business.
construction, and quality are maintained. “Speed to market is absolutely critical, and the certification
When that happens, Zodiac is required to have the most listing is such an important element of bringing a new product
recent revision of certification files or listing reports available at to market that if it’s delayed by even a few weeks, it can cause
the facility, because that document describes how the product is us to lose an entire season,” says Siddiqui.
made. Now, staff members at Zodiac have immediate access to And that’s where the combined effect of Report Manager
these documents through My TestCentral and no longer need to and My TestCentral delivers a powerful benefit. “Seven or eight
retain a hard copy. years ago, once a product was tested, it might take several
“We used to have a room about 8 by 10 feet set aside just weeks to get an official report,” Siddiqui says. “We had an
for storing records,” Siddiqui says. “I still need an area to keep Intertek engineer here week before last, and within three or four
old files, but for the last five years I haven’t had to continue working days, I had the report.”
ordering filing cabinets every year, and I don’t have to keep “We’re extremely satisfied with the efficiency gains that
asking management for more physical space.” we’ve been able to deliver to our customers through My
TestCentral,“ Davidson says. “The substantial reduction in our
The Power of Tracking carbon footprint and the cost savings that we have realized are
After the success of My TestCentral, Intertek IT executives just icing on the cake.” <>
began wondering if there were more ways that Oracle Portal
could help cut down on paper. The result was Report Manager, Minda Zetlin is coauthor with Bill Pfleging of The Geek Gap: Why Business and
another custom-built portal, this one for internal use. This Technology Professionals Don’t Understand Each Other and Why They Need Each
solution not only allows Intertek employees to reduce paper Other to Survive (Prometheus Books, 2006).
usage, but it has dramatically improved efficiency—merely by
giving the workforce the means to track each report at every
stage of its creation.
“Now we have end-to-end tracking for every one of our
>> For more inFormation
reports through Report Manager. Each little step, from when Oracle Portal 11g
bit.ly/e0gOml
the document is first started to its issuance to the customer, is
Oracle On Demand
visible now, and that’s huge for us,” Davidson explains. oracle.com/us/products/ondemand
Report Manager also saves time by connecting Intertek
doNG ENErGy backS up cLEaN powEr ViSioN wiTh hard ENTErpriSE daTa.
nergy companies that have a largely coal-based power “I think many companies have visions for the sustain-
supply are in a unique position of being both the cause of ability or corporate social responsibility [CSR] work that they
and the answer to many of the world’s environmental prob- are doing, but if they are not converted into concrete goals
lems. Denmark-based DONG Energy is one such company. that you can measure, it’s very hard to know if it is just talk
Acknowledging its status as one of Denmark’s largest emitters of or if it’s also action,” says Niels Strange Peulicke-Andersen,
carbon dioxide (CO2), its leaders have committed to becoming common systems manager in the Quality, Health, Safety, and
part of the solution with aggressive sustainability goals that aim Environment group at DONG Energy.
to minimize the company’s environmental impact. The compa- In 2006, DONG Energy also became part of the Global
ny’s official policy is to cut its CO2 emissions per kilowatt-hour Reporting Initiative, which provides a universally accepted
by 50 percent between 2006 and 2020, and by 85 percent by framework for reporting nonfinancial sustainability data. The
2040. By the end of 2010, DONG Energy was already further company went a step further and brought in an external auditor
ahead in meeting its goals than anticipated. The company has to declare the data solid so it could be included in the com-
begun closing down coal-fired power-generating units and has pany’s annual CSR report.
shifted its focus to natural gas, biomass, offshore wind energy, Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.
and the development of second-generation bioethanol. “The first assurance statement we got wasn’t very good, actu-
The current incarnation of DONG Energy formed in 2006 ally,” Peulicke-Andersen recalls. “It said they could state that we
when a number of large Danish energy companies merged to are very good at adding numbers together on a company level,
become DONG Energy. From the outset, the company’s but we were not completely sure of the quality of data that we
decision-makers took environmental sustainability seriously, gather at that level. That’s when our department got the assign-
and that same year they joined the United Nations Global ment from the CEO that next year he wanted a very good assur-
Compact calling for voluntary adherence to 10 principles, ance statement from the external auditor.”
GinGer Lafayette
including three that are intended to protect the environment. These reporting problems are typical of enterprises just
But there’s no sense in setting goals if you can’t track prog- beginning their CSR journey and preparing their first CSR
ress toward them. reports, says Birgitte Mogensen, the PricewaterhouseCoopers
28 M ay 2011
auditor who performed DONG
Energy’s first nonfinancial data
“We are much better prepared for “When the external auditors
came to us, they said, ‘How do
audit. “When no consolidated answering the need for reliable you know that you get all the
CSR reports are prepared in an data from all the companies
enterprise, there is no need for
and transparent data.” into your accounts?’” Peulicke-
group accounting instructions, —Niels Strange Peulicke-Andersen, Manager, DONG Energy Andersen says. “They took the
and I often experience that this legal entity chart of DONG
is forgotten by those responsible for reporting at the group Energy. They just put their finger through a few of them and
level,” Mogensen says. said, ‘What is happening in that company? What kind of pro-
So the executives at DONG Energy turned to Oracle duction? What activity is happening? What data are you gather-
Hyperion Financial Management to replace a cumbersome ing from that specific entity?’ And it was a completely new way
and error-prone spreadsheet-based system for tracking sus- for us to look at the company.”
tainability data. In the process, they dramatically improved It became clear that Peulicke-Andersen and his team needed
data quality, gained visibility into every part of the business, to overhaul data gathering and reporting at DONG Energy. A
and created new appreciation for the company’s environment, spreadsheet wouldn’t cut it.
health, and safety goals. “We knew that we needed a database to put the data into,
instead of spreadsheets, and we knew that we had to import or
Finding the Right Solution use all of the basic principles of financial reporting,” Peulicke-
The first audit went poorly for several reasons. First, Andersen says. “We researched the market for suitable software
Peulicke-Andersen’s team was collecting data using a Microsoft solutions and asked around: what did other companies use?”
Excel spreadsheet. Every month, people in different business As it turned out, Peulicke-Andersen’s department wouldn’t
segments e-mailed their spreadsheets to Peulicke-Andersen’s need to invest in a new solution. The answer to its problem was
team, which copied and pasted the numbers into the master already within the organization.
spreadsheet. But spreadsheets are prone to human error; it’s
all too easy for someone to accidentally delete a formula in a RaiSing the BaR FoR data Quality
cell, overwrite someone else’s data, or overwrite an entire file Elsewhere in the company, complex reporting was already
version. The spreadsheet owners might never know that some- being done without a hitch every day: on the financial side.
thing was incorrect. When Peulicke-Andersen learned that the finance department
Even if users were careful to avoid breaking formulas used Oracle Hyperion Financial Management, he asked his col-
or overwriting data, the data itself was sometimes bad. For leagues in finance to show him how the tool worked.
example, the spreadsheet required users to record things such “I saw that it’s a very flexible tool,” he says. “You can specify
as “production” and “emission,” but those terms didn’t have your own accounts, so they don’t really have to be financial
universal meaning throughout the company. People were also accounts.” Using this approach, Oracle Hyperion Financial
using different conversion factors when entering data, resulting Management would let Peulicke-Andersen’s team track things
in apples-to-oranges comparisons. such as CO2 emissions or waste. He was intrigued, but the
“You can measure something at different points in the finance department wasn’t eager to open up its Oracle Hyperion
system,” Peulicke-Andersen says. “But you need to agree: is server to the nonfinancial side until Peulicke-Andersen and
it, for example, net or gross production? You have to have the his team could dramatically improve their data quality. So they
same definition of the data.” started with a separate database on a separate server. But one
In addition, DONG Energy’s current power generation thing that Peulicke-Andersen could use was the finance depart-
ownership structure is far more complex than it was in the past. ment’s in-house knowledge of the Oracle Hyperion solution and
For example, the data reporting must allow for partial owner- its map of the corporation’s complex structure.
ship of wind farms. If DONG Energy owns only a portion of The results came quickly. Oracle Hyperion Financial
a facility and partners own the rest, the spreadsheet would Management helped DONG Energy improve visibility into
need to indicate that the company is every area of the energy production
responsible and consolidate only a chain and spot where the greatest
portion of the facility’s production. >>SNAPSHOT improvements could be made. The
Finally, it was almost impossible DONG Energy Oracle Hyperion solution not only
to know whether all relevant data— dongenergy.com improved the quality of the non-
correct or incorrect—had even been Headquarters: Fredericia, Denmark financial data collected; it also gave
Employees: 6,000
collected. DONG Energy has more Peulicke-Andersen’s team the ability
Revenue: DKr 54,6 billion in 2010
than 160 legal entities, and some of Oracle products: Oracle Hyperion Financial
to look beyond raw numbers and
those entities were being overlooked Management understand the relationships
in the spreadsheet. between them.
“You need to be able to show the numbers in many different wants to double earnings in the meantime.
ways depending on the target group and the content that it’s Currently, DONG Energy uses Oracle Hyperion Financial
being used for,” says Peulicke-Andersen. “That’s why it’s very Management to consolidate data at the corporate level while the
good to have the data in a database where you can extract data business segments use their own software to gather the data ini-
in multiple ways. You can relate emission to production. You tially. In the near future, Peulicke-Andersen anticipates that the
can relate it to an index number. You can say, ‘Now I just want other segments will begin using the Oracle Hyperion solution
to look at the Danish part of the production.’” too. They also plan to streamline the processes by using auto-
Subsequent audits have proved the value of the new system. matic transfer of data from datasources into Oracle Hyperion
Mogensen says there are two ways to perform an audit: the Financial Management and to evolve further in the direction
auditors either test data themselves or they test the controls the of financial reporting by adjusting the procedures that define
company uses to collect data. In CSR reporting, she says, there who can input and alter data at what times, helping to ensure
is growing consensus that auditors should be testing controls, that data quality is maintained and numbers are thoroughly
not the data itself. vetted before being locked down and moving up the corporate
Mogensen says DONG Energy is at the leading edge in this approval chain.
regard. “I expect that in three to four years, our assurance will Peulicke-Andersen says the software’s flexibility and the
be based only on DONG Energy’s own controls being effective ability to use the entity-based company structure that the
for ensuring correct data for the CSR reporting.” financial department founded and maintains in the system has
changed everything.
From SuStainability to ProFitability “We got most of the data in before, but it’s nothing compared
Although the majority of DONG Energy is owned by the Danish to today, where we have implemented the financial principles
state, it operates as a company and must remain profitable to for reporting on financial data gathering. We are much better
stay in business. That means no matter how beneficial its CSR prepared for answering the need for reliable and transpar-
initiatives are for society, the environment, and end customers, ent data in a rapidly growing international company with an
they also must contribute to the bottom line. increasingly complex company structure,” he says. “It’s a com-
“I think the next step, when you have raised the quality pletely new world.” <>
of the nonfinancial data, will be that people will expect
companies like us to link the data closely together and help TARA SWORDS is a freelance writer based in Chicago, Illinois.
interpret for stakeholders what it means in terms of finan-
cial performance when the nonfinancial data is going up or
down, or vice versa,” Peulicke-Andersen says. DONG Energy >> For more inFormation
has put itself in a unique position in that regard, making the Oracle Hyperion Performance Management Applications
core of its business strategy to help solve society’s need for oracle.com/us/solutions/ent-performance-bi/
performance-management
reliable and clean energy—and to do so on a sound commer-
Oracle Solutions for Sustainability Reporting
cial basis. While DONG Energy aims to halve CO2 emissions oracle.com/us/products/applications/green/054217.html
per kilowatt-hour between 2006 and 2020, management also
30 M ay 2011
Barbara Magusin, Senior Vice
President of Human Resources,
Premera Blue Cross
By Alison Weiss
Barbara Magusin, senior vice president of human resources at Fortunately, Premera’s integrated PeopleSoft HCM solution
Premera. “Our company invests huge energy into finding the from Oracle has the depth and functionality to enable the
32 M ay 2011
needed to support the legacy paper-based system. Optimum came aboard for the project because it had played
“Since then, there’s been a focus on continuing to evolve our such an instrumental role in implementing the PeopleSoft
HCM and technical skill sets, and we’ve made our decisions on HCM foundation years earlier. “They understand our com-
how we implement very deliberately,” says Hill. “We listen to pany’s culture. Optimum was a natural choice to help us from
our end users, and we draw on our expertise to provide solu- a PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.1 perspective to assess and do the
tions that support our business.” actual upgrade,” says Hill.
With a very aggressive timeline starting in April 2010 and
Optimum SOlutiOn launching in November 2010, Optimum helped Premera use
Fast-forward to 2010. Once again, Premera’s management a “big bang” approach to deploy PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.1
wanted to expand the HCM system to include more system human capital management and financial management appli-
analysis functionality—with an emphasis on talent manage- cations, PeopleSoft Enterprise Learning Management, and
ment. “We wanted to enable better decision-making, as well as PeopleSoft Enterprise Applications Portal, as well as PeopleSoft
use data to drive action,” says Hill. “As HR professionals, it can PeopleTools 8.50—all at one time.
give us the ability to contribute to the success of the business by Premera has a tight integration between HCM and financials,
understanding what our workforce looks like and plan for the and needed to upgrade both suites at once to take advantage of
workforce we need.” design and testing efficiencies.
34 M ay 2011
By DaviD RosenBaum
A Singular Focus
Business anD iT have a shaReD vision aT eaTon’s vehicle GRoup souTh ameRica.
any companies have mission statements, found framed E-Business Suite in the century-old, US$2.5 billion Eaton Truck
and hung on cafeteria walls or lying on the desks of corpo- Group. This business serves major global truck, automobile, and
rate officers, their stretch goals and earnest promises etched into agricultural supply manufacturers such as GM, Ford, Mercedes-
Lucite knickknacks. Those statements, once written, are often Benz, John Deere, and Volkswagen, among others.
soon forgotten, the knickknacks buried under spreadsheets on
the executives’ desks. A Burning PlAtform for ChAnge
But not at Cleveland, Ohio–based Eaton Corporation. The The truck operations in Brazil were acknowledged to be a
70,000-employee, US$13.7 billion company is managed using potentially difficult step in this transformation due to size,
the Eaton Business System (EBS)—a shared set of values, a business complexity, and the significant number of localiza-
common philosophy, and a standard set of tools and processes tions required. But the Eaton Truck Group in Brazil represents
deployed throughout the highly diversified global power man- a significant portion of sales by the Eaton Vehicle Group,
agement enterprise. Eaton embeds the company’s core values in which also has responsibility for global automotive manufac-
every facet of executive decision-making. turing. Motivated by what Eaton executives called a “burning
Promoting customer focus and a culture that emphasizes con- platform for change,” leaders at the Valinhos, Brazil–based
tinuous improvement and the transfer of best practices and key Vehicle Group South America (VGSA) needed to rationalize
learning across the organization, the EBS is how Eaton works as their highly fragmented and customized IT environment by
Paulo Fridman
an integrated company. That same singleness of approach pro- integrating the multiple instances into a single Oracle instance
vided the philosophical platform that helped Eaton executives for the entire group.
pursue an intensive effort to achieve a single instance of Oracle The effort began in 2002 with the development of a “build
for Eaton to plan for shop floor focus, data analysis, and process
capacity. That led to stoppages and management provided the insight
of course made it hard to satisfy Mark Tudor, Vice President of IT, Eaton Aerospace Group necessary for the project to be
36 M ay 2011
successful. And the IT group “Business Insight, IT Execution.”)
agreed: “The leadership of the The result was a coordinated
project must be functional team that knew how to meet
people,” says Tudor. “IT partners Eaton’ s greater business goals—
with them. We do the technical aligning with the EBS and building
stuff like data conversions and enterprise IT that could support
code development, but the owner Eaton’ s vision of building anything,
of the project is the business.” anywhere. As Baccetto says, “The
It was equally critical to match beauty of this project was to build
Baccetto with IT support that a team composed of functional
understood information systems people, internal IT experts, and
must reflect and complement Oracle personnel. IT worked
business processes—not fight together with Oracle and built the
against them. Jesiele Lima, then functional needs into the system.”
the VGSA IT manager, was the “The knowledge Marcos
right person for this role and brought to the project from
joined Baccetto on the project. beginning to end—from the
Baccetto and Lima coordi- initial customer order coming in
nated the efforts of five groups: Jesiele Lima, IT Manager, Manufacturing Systems
until you do your receivables—
Order Management, Supply Implementation, Eaton EMEA Region—Electrical Sector was critical,” says Lima.
Chain Management, Engineering,
Finance, and Manufacturing. Over the 26-month project, they Build Anywhere
met daily with the team leaders, discussing the previous day’s The single-instance project was completed in 2009, and the ROI
progress and the mitigation of risks, among other things. They has been rolling in ever since. An April 2010 headline from a
met weekly to set the agenda for the next two weeks, and they Reuters financial report read: “Asia, Brazil Lift Eaton Profit Above
reported to the project steering committee, which included Forecasts.” According to Lima, the implementation of a single
Patrick Randrianarison, every month. IT instance of Oracle E-Business Suite for managing orders,
To improve communication between business and IT, Tudor scheduling, planning, production, supply chain, and shipping
trained his IT staff in Lean-Six Sigma manufacturing principles. delivered to executives the unified, global view of Eaton’s truck
“In my opinion,” says Tudor, “if IT doesn’t speak the language, business necessary to achieve that goal. That accurate single view
the business won’t listen to you . . . period. And one of the lan- of processes is in alignment with Eaton’s integrated operating
guages that manufacturing people speak is Lean.” (See sidebar, philosophy. Now, managers can configure customer orders more
Lima, then VGSA IT manager, Baccetto 4. Select resources properly. Have menters keep their cool—and the
and Eaton’s South American opera- functional people who can translate project moving forward.
tions team came to understand several business needs to IT and can influence 9. The sponsor’s commitment is
important principles of business and organizational change. critical. It is needed to support the
IT. Here he shares nine tips managers 5. Manage scope. Follow project truly difficult decisions.
38 M ay 2011
Help Us Help the Polar Bear
oracle.com/goto/epm
or call 1.800.ORACLE.1
Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
By AlAn Joch
On Track
for Growth
UpgrAdes to orAcle e-BUsiness
sUite And orAcle’s peoplesoft
systems help csX ride the
eXpAnding rAilroAd indUstry.
42 M ay 2011
activities. “We’ve been able to clean up our records and stream- to track an employee throughout his or her career with the
line the whole process,” says Papa. company, even in the common instance that someone begins
In the past, a standalone master employee program main- as a contractor but is eventually hired as a full-timer. “We can
tained personnel records and sent updates to any CSX appli- look back to track all of their training and certifications over
cation that needed the information, which ranged from HR the years,” Hellstern adds.
applications to plant security systems. An ongoing challenge for Eventually, the person model will help CSX create a Web
CSX was the additional tracking required for outside contractors, service that feeds employee information to all the other appli-
retirees, and spouses receiving benefits from deceased former cations that now maintain separate records. “Our vision is to
employees, plus regular full-time create a portal for managers and
employees. In the past, CSX relied “The time had come to retire the employees that all connects back
on custom codes to distinguish to PeopleSoft,” Hellstern says.
each of these groups. Contractors
old system. . . . The upgrade laid That single source of truth
received a Z at the start of their the foundation for migrating off would support improvements
employee ID, for example. in two areas critical to HR man-
But when everybody is the mainframe and onto Oracle.” agers at CSX: talent manage-
lumped in the system as an —Tony Papa, Director of Applications Development, CSX ment and succession planning.
employee, a coding error might Facing a wave of retirements
mean that a spouse or contractor begins receiving checks in the next few years, executives at CSX need new tools to
from the payroll system. “With the person model, there is track the skills available in the workforce and identify where
no opportunity for somebody to get paid or get benefits that investments must be made for training and recruitment.
they’re not supposed to get,” says Michele Hellstern, direc- CSX’s HR department has created a plan to rotate younger
tor of human resources information systems and workforce managers into a variety of new positions to round out their
analytics at CSX. understanding of CSX’s operations and acquire skills to fill
With the new PeopleSoft implementation, software execu- vacancies as they open up. CSX is also re-evaluating its com-
tives can also readily create reports about any group in the pensation program, which relies heavily on manual process-
personnel database to see how many full-time employees ing of compensation plans and incentive bonuses. These
and contractors are working in a particular department, for activities may eventually be managed by PeopleSoft
example, without facing the onerous task of writing custom eCompensation Manager Desktop, which would eliminate
queries using unique codes. In a time of staff volatility the another custom application and the hard-to-maintain cus-
new system also enables CSX to use the same employee IDs tomizations that come with it.
44 M ay 2011
LEADERSHIP | IT STRATEGY
By Mark kuta Jr. project team must understand the company the way the CEO
does. Forget the divisional or product-level responsibilities for
alespeople know that their jobs depend on getting a cus- the time being, and get the information to analyze the company
tomer to sign on the dotted line. Successful salespeople from the aggregate level. The best place to start is the company’s
often approach this challenge by using tools that better align annual report. Many employees misplace this document when it
with the executive who has the checkbook. This means comes in the mail, but it is still possible to pick one up from the
presenting a clear business case and delivering a concise, shareholder relations department or download a digital record
compelling C-level message that will increase the chance of of the company’s financial results from the corporate Website.
making the sale. As a first step, the team should review the company’s
When significant investments that can run into the millions metrics, as well as those of several industry competitors.
of dollars are involved, utilizing this same approach can help What have revenues done over the past several years? Has the
an IT manager gain funding for an internal project. It can shift company kept up with the competition or exceeded it? Now
the focus of the IT department away from features and func- look at the gross margin, and see how the company compares.
tionality and toward strategic support of management’s core If the company’s gross margin is higher than the competition’s,
business goals. Approximately 80 percent of most IT budgets it’s either because the company is more productive or because
are for maintenance and it can sell its products at a
support of software, so the higher price. The trend of
competition for new invest- the gross margin is one of
ment is intense. Here are the telltale signs that execu-
four sales tips that can help tives look for. At this point,
enterprise techies and line-of- it would make sense to start
business managers close the looking at ways to drive gross
deal on essential IT projects. margin at the departmen-
tal level. If the company is
Step 1: FocuS on proFit lagging in the market, what
Bob Wood, a marketing direc- can be done to increase gross
tor for Sony PlayStation, says margins by a small amount
it is important to focus on every day?
profit while selling a project. Another great productivity
“Managers who don’t think measure that company execu-
profit are not likely to be tives consider is sales per
aligned with their CEO,” employee. A company that
Wood says. “While manag- is utilizing its resources in a
ers devote time to projects, productive manner has higher
processes, and managing sales per employee. How does
resources, this is not the same the company compare? IT
as thinking first and foremost, managers who couch invest-
‘How is what I am doing ment requests in terms of
driving profit?’” additional sales that full-time
Wendy Wahman
have a much greater opportunity to get the long-standing barriers and prejudices company facing a highly competitive
their project reviewed. that often define the relationship between sales environment in which revenues are
An excellent overall metric that brings IT and the business. To make a successful driven by capturing competitive market
to bear market realities on the impact pitch, technologists should trade in their share? Show the anticipated gross profit
of faster decision-making is called the TLAs (three-letter acronyms) for those impacts in terms of raising sales. Would
cash2cash cycle. Sometimes referred to as favored by their peers in the lines of busi- it be easier to drive sales an additional 2
the cash conversion cycle, this quantifies ness. This can show that IT has not only percent, or to fund the project?
how speed in decision-making affects the best interest of the business in mind
the cash required to run the business. but also the ability to match solutions Step 4: think Like Your ceo
For example, if a project will allow a with strategic business goals. All projects require ROI, but successfully
company to execute processes that will “In order to close sales with top execu- presenting the analysis in terms that dif-
let it collect cash from its sales three days tives, you must get inside their heads, ferentiate among the various projects and
sooner, the executive can easily see the understanding what they want, and—per- investment decisions will increase the
financial impact that this will drive. Make haps most important—what they worry chances of funding. It is a capital-budget
no mistake—senior executives know that about,” says John Rutledge, chairman of horse race, and the objective is to present
in today’s business, it’s all about speed, so Rutledge Capital, a private equity invest- the project as a winner in the style of
get to know this metric. ment firm that owns a portfolio of manu- Secretariat—rather than that famous
facturing companies. talking horse of the 1960s, Mr. Ed.
Step 2: Speak the Language of BuSineSS To do this, remember that the CEO,
To gain an advantage in getting the Step 3: aLign the project with the board, and senior executives are
project funded, everything should be Strategic oBjectiveS looking at not only returns but also
presented in the language of business, Every year, executives have to make deci- the risk associated with the project.
which is the language of the CEO. sions that economists call “the allocation Present the project in a way that both
Rather than use the term money, discuss of scarce resources.” To CIOs or CFOs, addresses the question of risk and takes
capital. The project won’t affect sales, but it simply means that they decide which it off the table. The best way to do this
rather will drive revenue. If the project projects to fund, and which will die by is to subject your project to a sensitivity
will increase profit, it’s best to outline the wayside. IT projects—as well as IT analysis that outlines the various risks
which type of profit it will drive. Gross careers—often depend on which projects involved with the implementation and
profit, as we discussed above, is gener- get funded. A software salesperson faces what those risks do to the returns.
ated by higher sales revenue or produc- this pressure all the time, and despite For example, if a project as outlined
tivity. Operating profit will increase if the how unappetizing it may seem, IT man- by the team shows a 125 percent IRR,
project drives productivity in the admin- agers pitching internal projects are often delay the anticipated returns by several
istrative functions. in the same boat as the salesperson. quarters and analyze how this affects the
On the spending side, costs are what However, there is one area where IRR. Do another analysis with the costs
are required to drive sales. Expenses gen- selling an internal project provides a dis- escalating beyond what the assump-
erally fall into the general and adminis- tinct advantage. The idea revolves around tions said. Think of the risk factors, and
trative groups. For example, reducing the one of the best ways to get momentum adjust the base model to see what the
requirement for parts that the company’s for an IT project—aligning it with the returns are. Then, during the presenta-
product requires is driving down costs. overall goals and profit strategies that tion, outline these risk factors that the
When it comes time to discuss the reason the CEO is driving. An outside salesper- team has quantified: “The project shows
for investing in an IT project, speak the son has to figure this out, while internal an IRR of 120 percent, but if the returns
language of business by speaking not just employees will have a much easier time are half as much as anticipated, the
in terms of ROI but of a specific metric. understanding this strategic direction. IRR drops to 75 percent. If the returns
For example, “This project will generate a Company meetings, divisional presenta- are half as much as anticipated and the
45 percent IRR [internal rate of return].” tions, and budget forecasts will prove to costs are double, the return drops to 40
Speaking the language of business will be a big help in this regard. percent, which is still twice our hurdle
allow you to effectively communicate the To increase the chance of getting rate.” This type of statement tells a much
message to senior management. the project funded, frame it in terms of different story than “the anticipated ROI
This is particularly important for how it supports these objectives. Does is 40 percent.”
technologists, who operate with their the company have a growth-through-
own mystifying and arcane language. acquisition strategy? If so, how does the the BYproduct: career acceLeration
Speaking the language of business will project drive cash generation and speed With the approach described here, team
align the project with the vernacular of information integration? (Remember that members associated with a project will
the CEO and will help dispel some of growth equals cash requirements.) Is the be viewed by both superiors and peers
46 M ay 2011
What Do CEOs Want?
as profit generators. By succeeding in negotiating. For example, as her team had, they were always on commis-
the competitive environment of capital members negotiate with suppliers, they sion. IT managers who can think like
projects, team members will find their do a complete analysis of their supplier senior executives will drive significant
newfound expertise in demand on the using the steps above and further out- value for their firm and have expanded
departmental or divisional level. This lined in my book Think Like a CEO (Flow opportunities in their careers. <>
expertise can lead to other initiatives and Publishing, 2007), and use what they
can generate more responsibility—fast. find out in the negotiations. Her team Mark kuta Jr. (mark.kuta@oracle.com) is a value
“The way that I have used these steps once uncovered that a potential supplier chain planning sales manager at Oracle and author of
to understand our suppliers has been a paid bills on average 20 days later than the award-winning book Think Like a CEO.
huge value generator for our business,” other similar suppliers. They realized
says Jo Fickes, procurement manager at that cash was a much more important
Ascent Healthcare Solutions. “We are also issue, and used this insight to drive price >> For more inFormation
able to understand the risks of purchas- concessions from the supplier for quicker The Oracle Insight Program
ing from different suppliers based on payment terms. oracle.com/us/corporate/insight
their business models. An added benefit Although IT managers and execu- Enterprise Performance
is that these steps help us in the negotia- tives may not earn commission, it is Management and Business
tion with those suppliers.” still their job to drive value for the Intelligence
oracle.com/us/solutions/
Fickes and her team are able to bring firm. A senior executive once said ent-performance-bi
in metrics that few others look at when that no matter what job his employees
Network Management
Middleware
oracle.com/goto/utilities
or call 1.800.275.4775
Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
DATA MANAGEMENT | SUSTAINABILITY
Getting to Green
THREE KEY STEPS FOR PREPARING ENTERPRISE DATA FOR SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING
facilities and locations to provide more- with operational metrics such as revenue, managers via standard reports or graphi-
granular detail regarding energy usage. head count, and production figures to cal dashboards, then a relational data mart
Social metrics such as workforce calculate key ratios such as emissions or warehouse can be a viable solution. If
diversity, compensation levels, and per employee. ETL and data quality tools managers want to perform more-complex
employee training and development working together with database systems types of comparative analysis, modeling,
programs may originate in HR systems. can usually perform the data collection, or forecasting of sustainability metrics,
And economic metrics needed for sus- transformation, and aggregations required then multidimensional OLAP server tech-
tainability reporting, such as spending to put the sustainability metrics in the nology will provide a more viable solution.
with local suppliers at significant loca- right context for user consumption. If the sustainability data will be used
tions of operation, will mostly originate for external reporting to key stakeholders
in financial applications. Data aggregation and may be exposed to external audit and
Key technologies required to collect Once the relevant data to support sus- assurance processes, then packaged EPM
the raw sustainability data from these tainability initiatives is identified and applications, such as financial consolida-
sources include extract, transform, and collected, it must be aggregated and tion and reporting applications, can be
load (ETL) and data quality tools, which organized for analysis and reporting leveraged. These applications integrate
directly pull the required metrics from purposes. This includes applying the sustainability metrics with financial
operational applications. The ability to required conversions and calculations to reporting and provide additional features
connect to remote sensors and meters support standard sustainability guidelines such as data validations and controls,
may also be required for more-granular or to create carbon equivalents. There workflow and process management, and
tracking of energy usage. In some cases, are a number of alternatives to consider, audit trails. The EPM applications can be
organizations are using spreadsheets, including relational databases, multi- used on their own or in conjunction with
surveys, and Web-based data entry tools dimensional online analytical process- a relational or multidimensional data mart
to collect sustainability metrics from ing (OLAP) servers, and purpose-built to support both internal and external sus-
managers in remote locations and load sustainability reporting applications that tainability reporting requirements.
them into the reporting database. leverage these technologies. Key factors Denmark-based DONG Energy
Locating and collecting the raw data to consider include whether the intended recently used Oracle EPM applications for
needed for sustainability reporting and audience for the data is internal or exter- such reporting. (See “Sustainable Energy,”
management is just the first step; the data nal, the level of analysis required, and the page 28.) Analysts previously used spread-
also needs to be contextualized. This may frequency and level of granularity needed sheets and e-mail to collect and report
include summarizing raw data into the for analysis. sustainability metrics—and the company
appropriate time frames—for example, If the reporting requirements are fairly received a poor audit report on the
hourly or daily electricity consumption— simple, such as internal delivery of energy quality of its data. Since managers were
and matching up sustainability metrics usage and greenhouse gas emissions to already using Oracle Hyperion Financial
50 M ay 2011
Management for financial consolidation reporting capabilities, and data mining, for internal purposes, such as cost reduc-
and reporting, they decided to extend planning, forecasting, and predictive mod- tion and raising awareness about sustain-
the application to address sustainability eling tools to perform forward-looking ability matters. For example, Fitness First,
reporting requirements. The company modeling and forecasting of energy and the largest global health club and gym
now has a single system that aligns its water usage and greenhouse gas emis- operator, implemented the Environmental
financial and nonfinancial/ Management and Measurement
sustainability reporting, which Application (EMMA) from
has earned a clean bill of health
“We can now identify the hotspots Oracle partner Knowledge
from auditors. in our work with sustainability, Global to automatically collect
“With Oracle Hyperion and report energy data from
Financial Management, we can where we can obtain maximum sensors and meters across 95
now identify the hotspots in change and results.” gyms in Australia. This data is
our work with sustainability, fed into a consolidated analytics
where we can obtain maximum —Niels Strange Peulicke-Andersen, Manager, DONG Energy dashboard, which establishes
change and results—and we accurate baselines, creates
can track progress in our work to achieve sions. Spreadsheets connected to relational benchmarks across facilities, measures
our goals,” says Niels Strange Peulicke- or OLAP servers can also be popular tools improvements, and helps forecast savings.
Andersen, common systems manager for performing ad hoc reporting and anal- This consolidation of energy data also sup-
in the Quality, Health, Safety, and ysis of sustainability data. For line manag- ports Fitness First’s mandatory greenhouse
Environment group at DONG Energy. ers and other casual users, production gas reporting to the Australian govern-
“We can also publish our results in line reporting tools with the ability to print or ment for the coming financial year.
with our financial results because our e-mail PDF reports may be sufficient. “The primary goal of Fitness First in
reporting is transparent and valid.” To report sustainability metrics to undertaking this project was to reduce
external stakeholders, organizations will our carbon footprint by lowering energy
Data analysis anD RepoRting need the ability to feed the metrics into consumption within our gyms,” says
Once sustainability data is collected, their published sustainability reports—or Michael Rose, procurement manager at
aggregated, and contextualized, it is ready into annual financial reports, if they are Fitness First Australia. “The vast amounts
for formatting and delivery to stake- taking a more integrated approach to of energy data consolidated in EMMA’s
holders. Internal stakeholders can include sustainability reporting. Alternatively, dashboard make complex analysis very
senior executives who are interested in some organizations are making sustain- straightforward but outstandingly valu-
tracking high-level trends and metrics ability information and metrics available able to Fitness First’s plans.”
against goals, facilities managers and ana- in an interactive format on their Websites Organizations can derive strategic
lysts who may want to perform ongoing using graphical BI dashboard technology. advantage by embracing sustainability
analysis and benchmarking of energy and Beyond publishing annual sustain- as part of the business and disclosing
water usage across departments and loca- ability reports on company Websites, the details of their sustainability efforts
tions, and staff who need standard reports some organizations are going further by to external stakeholders. The benefits
on a regular basis. External stakeholders updating and publishing sustainability include cost savings by limiting waste
may include regulators who require sus- goals and metrics on a more frequent and consumption of natural resources,
tainability reporting in a specific format. basis. SABMiller, the world’s second- enhanced brand value and reputation
But the broader audience includes inves- largest brewing company, provides a with customers and partners, better risk
tors, customers, suppliers, employees, and Sustainability Assessment Matrix (SAM) management, the ability to attract capital
others who want to access information reporting portal for external stakeholders. from green investors, and the opportu-
and metrics about sustainability initiatives The SAM reporting portal displays how nity to attract better staff by offering a
on the organization’s Website. the organization has performed against great place to work. <>
For senior executives and managers, its 10 sustainable development goals.
sustainability reporting data and metrics The site includes interactive reports and JOHN O’ROURKE is vice president of product market-
can be delivered via graphical BI dash- charts that allow stakeholders to view ing at Oracle.
boards or scorecards that highlight trends sustainability performance by region
over time and provide drill-down analysis and subsidiary. >> For more inFormation
and comparisons of sustainability metrics The Evolution of Enterprise Carbon
against predefined goals and initiatives. people, planet, anD pRofit and Energy Management Software
For managers and analysts who require Although sustainability reporting is mostly forrester.com/go?docid=56555
ad hoc analysis, the same dashboards and external in nature, this is not necessarily Oracle’s Solutions for Sustainability
Reporting
scorecards may provide a starting point. the end goal. The triple bottom line of http://bit.ly/hqTZav
But they may also need ad hoc query and people, planet, and profit also has merit
its products. While IBM seems to think Also, we’ve just acquired intellectual questions using the hashtag #askprofit. You’ll receive
the route to a “smarter planet” is through property from a company called Ndevr a 1 GB flash drive if your question is selected.
52 M ay 2011
Print. Digital. Mobile.
3G 9:41 AM