For Alltech, delays in planning can throw off precisely synchronized production and delivery schedules, resulting in manufacturing backlogs, shipping confusion and dissatisfied customers. The Exact Business Analytics software allows Alltech managers to track trends in real time, rather than using statistics arriving monthly.

Piersol notes that the BI software enables company managers to evaluate exactly when and where products are produced and then compare that data to actual shipping dates. The information allows managers to throttle production schedules to match customer demands as closely as possible. By coordinating production schedules and delivery dates, the application helps Alltech deliver products just in time, further slashing inventory costs and improving operating efficiency. The company also uses the software to track the shelf life of products and adjust resources, when necessary, to avoid expiration deadlines.

Before You Swap
Dumping spreadsheets and switching to BI, with its powerful analysis capabilities, can breathe new life into stagnant employees, says Greg Todd, senior executive of information management services at Accenture. "You would be amazed at how many companies have dozens of people who do nothing but collect and aggregate information," he says. "BI can redirect those people into leveraging information rather than collecting it."

One caution: Although business intelligence tools generally provide more powerful analysis and planning capabilities than spreadsheets, they also require more preparation and fine-tuning. O'Bryan says she needed to deploy Hyperion Planning twice to get it to meet her expectations. "We set it up once, but we really didn't think it through properly," she notes. "We went back and redid the initial setup, and we got what we wanted the second time because by that point we really understood how the tool worked and its full potential."

"This isn't the sort of deployment you can hurry along," she says.

Piersol notes that BI helped Alltech break its managers' reliance on printed spreadsheets and reports. "Getting people to think digitally was a cultural shift for them, but once they got used to it they were fine," he says.

Interestingly, neither Piersol nor the other IT execs interviewed for this article reported any significant user pushback about switching from Excel to BI, though all advise serious prep work. "You have to ask yourself how users are going to adopt the solution," Piersol says.