It all started with the cancellation of a major initiative to replace the core transportation systems that we use at Pitt Ohio Express. Pitt Ohio Express moves approximately 12.5 million pounds of freight with over 9,000 shipments every night for more than 2,500 customers in the mid-Atlantic region. Before I joined the company in May 2001, a decision had been made to replace its existing core transportation system with a single integrated ERP product that could handle the transportation system and billing operations. Chuck Hammel, owner and CEO, explained to me that the reason for the replacement was to improve our ability to leverage customer data, which involved upgrading our infrastructure to access customer data via a relational database.

After a year of trying to implement this new system, however, I realized it was not going to satisfy Pitt Ohio Express’s needs. The system required too many software modifications that would take an excessively long time, and we had doubts about its overall technical performance. So I elected to cancel the project during the testing of the first release. However, I realized that a number of side projects initiated to support the implementation didn’t have to go to waste. For instance, as part of the ERP project, we had started a data-cleansing process that was going to be used to convert customer data in the new product. I figured we could use this data-cleansing process as a first step to building a customer database without replacing our core systems.

As I laid out my plan to Chuck Hammel and our CFO, Raymond Johnson, I explained how we could move forward in leveraging our existing customer data through the use of business intelligence (BI) tools. These tools could help us measure customer activity on a regular basis and rank them based on their value to the company. And it could be done through a single-user interface or portal so that client information would no longer be scattered among various letters, e-mails and spreadsheets.

I also explained why we needed a senior-level business sponsor who would work with IT and help us redefine the company’s business processes regarding the use of customer information. As we were discussing the various options, it dawned on us that Ray had both an engineering and finance background and would be just the right person to sponsor this initiative. We could leverage his engineering background in redefining the business processes and dealing with the IT developers on a day-to-day basis. And his finance background would be helpful in convincing the sales department of the importance of using customer data to drive business results.