DaimlerChrysler extends role for BI

DaimlerChrysler in Germany is using add-on business intelligence software not only to support management but also improvement initiatives in its Passenger Car Development unit. Team leader Patrizia Sickinger says its Pilot Software system has been configured to provide a general and flexible analysis system suitable for users in its many different departments. “We have given them a flexible instrument to look for their own correlations and measurements,” she says. And she refers to financial measures, personnel, materials, project management and so on. Sickinger says she would also like to extend BI to provide analysis around performance, quality and customer feedback. “But we don’t have the right measurements: it’s difficult to measure soft parameters, and you need standards. Also, you have to be flexible in a development environment, especially a unit as large as this.” The Pilot system was originally implemented to provide user-friendly reporting from DaimlerChrysler’s SAP ERP system. It was chosen because of its Web Excel interface, which Sickinger says made it easy for departmental managers.