SIEMENS
DISTRIBUTING TRAVEL REPORTS ON A CORPORATE INTRANET USING OLAP, IIS, AND POWERPLAY SERVER WEB EDITION
The US company of multinational electronics giant Siemens AG has 25,000
frequent travelers distributed among its 22 divisions. As you can imagine,
tracking these travelers and the company's travel expenditures is a big job. Trend-mapping the travel data is also important for planning future needs.
Historically, Siemens had distributed travel data in monthly paper reports to the appropriate managers. However, in late 1994, the Siemens Travel Management group realized it needed more comprehensive and exact travel expenditure data than the present system provided. Stephan Meyer, Siemens' manager of IT tools - travel and fleet services, explained that the standard paper travel report didn't always answer users' questions, and the paper-based
system lacked speed and flexibility. As travel markets began shifting to the
sellers' advantage, the need to quickly provide managers with the appropriate
travel reports became even more crucial so managers didn't have to extract the
data they wanted from a static paper report.
Although the company recognized the need for a new means of data
distribution in 1994, the project has taken a while to come to fruition. Siemens
needed a high-quality system to track the cost and functionality of the
company's travel resources. The company initially considered using a data mart
to distribute the travel data to appropri-ate managers. However, Siemens didn't
consider the idea of distributing this information using other means than paper
reports until summer 1996. Beginning in 1997, the project began to get off the
ground. Siemens management committed to create a data warehouse project and
allocated funding. By this time, the company had already developed most of the
necessary concepts, so Meyer's team could start on the project immediately. By
October 1997, the data warehouse structure was complete, and users began
accessing the online travel data in February 1998.
To make the project work, Meyer's team receives a Zip disk every month from
each of its suppliers with travel data for the previous month (e.g., who
traveled where, how much the travel cost, what airline and hotel the traveler
used, the length of the trip). The team uses Cognos' PowerPlay Server Web
Edition to assemble this travel information into a multidimensional online
analytical processing (OLAP) cube to let users create the necessary travel
reports. Because the travel data comes from several sources, the final
collection is more complete than information the company collects from any one
source. After the team formats the travel data, it places the information on a
companywide intranet server running Windows NT and Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 for viewing. Managers can query the database to
create the exact reports they need without having to worry about extraneous
data.
One of the biggest challenges Siemens faced in collecting and presenting
all the data for the travel reports was the inconsistent quality of the raw data
the company received from the various sources. Specifically, the data sources
weren't complete because no one source could supply all the information the
managers required. To overcome this problem, Siemens focused on developing a
sophisticated data staging process that checks, cleans, and consolidates the
different data sources. Additionally, Siemens management continues to work with
the suppliers to improve the data source quality and ensure that the company
receives the information it needs.
Another problem Siemens has had to address is a function of its size and
diversity. As Meyer explained, "Theoretically, all operating companies
connect to the corporate intranet, but every company uses a slightly different
means to connect, which caused some communications problems when we started to
roll out the system." However, in a joint effort with the MIS departments
of the operating companies, Meyer's team once and for all overcame these
problems. Since then, connectivity has not been an issue.
Siemens hasn't limited the online database to providing travel data to the
20 or so members of the US Travel Management group. The database can also
provide other types of information (e.g., corporate travel policies and travel
advisories) that management and travelers need. Future plans for the database
include implementing additional analytical tools that travel management has
requested and providing a greater variety of travel information (e.g., car and
fleet) and other purchasing data (e.g., purchasing card) after the company irons
out some of its data quality problems. The system is already a great improvement
over the paper reports. According to Meyer, any large heterogeneous company that
takes travel management seriously can benefit from this system.