The digital management of business information – listening exercise
In November 2009 the French firm Pernod Ricard won the Oracle® Innovation Award 2009 for its «Business Intelligence et Enterprise Performance Management System». This is a case-study on how business intelligence systems are being managed and used to improve business performance.
In the recording Stephen Pritchard interviews the person responsible for Pernod Ricard ‘s prize-winning system, Vincent Meunier. You need to listen to most of the recording, stopping at about 6.23.
1 Peter Whitehead, the editor of Digital Business, opens the recording with a challenging question. Can you write down what it is?
2 What adjective is used to describe the challenges that the Pernod Ricard business has tackled?
3 How many subsidiaries around the world does the company have?
4 What is Vincent Meunier’s job title?
5 Vincent Meunier explains one of the key strategy directions the firm has undertaken is to go for ‘more premiumisation’. Does this mean they a) focus on continuing to sell their full range of products or b) increase their supply of local brands or c) concentrate on their range of goods that are the most profitable ones?
6 Which three specific business groups does Mr Meunier cite as requiring business intelligence systems or information ("some BI stuff’) to enable them to review the performance of the brand on the market?
7 What example is given of the kind of decision this business intelligence helps management to make?
8 Stephen Pritchard asks what type of data people need from the IT department. He mentions 4 different groups – can you name them?
9 Why is the data these cohorts receive so crucial?
10 When these two people use the term BI, what do they mean by this?
11 How does Stephen Pritchard describe the business intelligence system Mr Meunier has put in place?
12 What does Vincent Meunier say a common BI solution would ensure?
13 What two adjectives does Vincent Meunier use to describe his approach?
14 What word is used to mean customising a product for a specific purpose, market or person?
15 How does the interviewer express the solution to the problem of the the differences between markets?
16 How many people have access to these BI tools at present?
17 Which two large groups are currently making most use of this BI?
18 Stephen Pritchard states what Pernod Richard’s first challenge is. Can you write it down?
19 Vincent Meunier says that information already available in the IT world is sometimes overlooked, and so people put time-consuming effort into creating something that already exists. How does he put this comment about the IT world?
20 What implication does access to information on a good Web interface have for staff?
21 Which two groups in particular need to have an easy-to-use and easily accessible solution?