Chapter 8 Real World Case 5: Schneider National: The Business Value of Business Intelligence

1. Chapter 8 Real World Case 5: Schneider National: The Business Value of Business Intelligence Presented by Group 2 • Luke Duffner • Ashley Elinburg • Eric Gosselin • Dirk Lange • Charlotte Prévost • Muhammad Zeeshan Ali

2. Schneider NationalHistory – Al Schneider bought a truck with money earned from selling the family car1938 – Schneider bought Bins Transfer & Storage and changed the name to Schneider Transport & Storage1962 – The company dropped “Storage” from its name to become Schneider Transport1988 – Schneider became the first trucking company to install a satellite tracking system in its trucks

3. 1991 – Moved into Canada and Mexico • 1997 – Moved into Europe • 2002 – Christopher Lofgren promoted to CEO – First person outside the founding family to lead Schneider National

4. Mergers & Acquisitions 1964 – Schneider Transport merged with Packer City Transport 1968 – Merged with Garrison Transport and added to Schneider’s Operating Authority 1971 – Purchased Transnational Truck (TNT) 1984 – Purchased International Transport, Inc. 1985 – Schneider National Carriers is formed by joining all of the separate businesses purchased through the 70’s and 80’s

5. Competitors

6. Schneider Products and Services: • First provider of transportation, logistics and related services. • Serves more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE 500® companies. • Offers the broadest portfolio of services in the industry. • Schneider National’s transportation solutions include: One-Way Van, Dedicated, Expedited, Intermodal, Brokerage, Bulk and Specialized. • Fleet of 14,000 tractors and 40,000 trailers, combined with more than 6,500 carrier partners. • Schneider Logistics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Schneider National, provides supply chain management technology, managed services, engineering services and freight payment.

7. KEY Numbers

8. Case Summary • Review of Schneider: • Used to rent out the family-owned, pumpkin-colored trucks • Today – largest transportation and logistics company in North America • Sends goods by truck, rail, and sea all over the world • Brokers freight to other carriers • Provides financial services • Provides logistics services • Handles freight payments • Coordinates shipments

9. Problems with business data • Tons of data was collected, but nothing sorted into useful information; no organization – Bill Braddy brought on board in 1998 to find a way to harness the data so it could be used efficiently • Solution • Installed business intelligence software from Cognos in 1999 – main attraction was a product in the Cognos suite called PowerPlay – seemed to offer most advanced data-analysis capabilities • Presents key data to regular people in a way that is easy to understand • Makes it easy for these people to analyze the data that is presented in depth

10. The installation was complete five months after choosing the software – went smoothly because of two years of planning and overhauling existing databases • Savings in one area of business (reimbursements owed to Schneider) were great enough to recover the entire cost of the software and installation

11. Question 1: what problems was Schneider National having with their business data? How did business intelligence software solve such problems? • Schneider National was overwhelmed with data but did not succeed in extracting valuable information from this data. • Business intelligence software solved this problem by: • Organizing the data – the massive amounts of data from eight different databases was organized and presented to ordinary people in a way that makes sense; it was also presented in a consistent manner where everybody, no matter where they were in the organization could see the same things; the data was also easy to access.

12. Speed of the data analysis • By exploiting PowerPlay’s advanced data-analysis capabilities end users were able to quickly and efficiently utilize data to increase efficiency, locate lost reimbursements, and improve day-to-day operations.

13. 2. What are the benefits and limitations of business intelligence software as demonstrated by Schneider National? • Benefits: • The software increase the companies efficiency. For instance, using the software the user can find and solve problems with deliveries in less than 10 minutes. • BI software allows to extract important information from huge amounts of data.  manager could make the best decision. • Locate lost reimbursements • Advanced data-analysis capabilities

14. Limitations: • relatively high costs for such software and its implementation • from installation to run this software well, it took 5 months • To find the right BI software is not easy • required data for the BI software must be standardized

15. Question 3. Visit the Cognos website at www.cognos.com. What is the business value of business intelligence as defined by Cognos and illustrated in this case. Companies able to make better decisions. Business intelligence takes the volume of data your organization collects and stores, and turns it into meaningful information that people can use in their day-to-day activities. Business intelligence gives the user “visibility into performance to make the best decisions”.

16. QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?