Procter & Gamble (P&G) is one of the biggest consumer goods companies in the world, with 127,000 employees across 180 countries, 300 brands, and $82 billion in revenues in 2011. P&G is regularly ranked near the top of lists of “most admired companies” for its ability to create, market, and sell major consumer product brands. A major reason for P&G’s success has been its robust information technology and willingness to pursue new IT innovations to maintain a competitive advantage in its industry.

To that end, P&G has made it its goal to digitize its processes from end to end and to fundamentally change the way it gathers, reports, and interprets data. While P&G is trimming costs from other areas of the business, its Global Business Services division is building analytics expertise and undertaking new analytical solutions such as Business Sufficiency, Business Sphere, and Decision Cockpits.

These solutions eliminate time spent debating different data sets, and instead use a system that allows leaders to focus on immediate business decisions using the most accurate data available at that precise moment.

The solutions are based on a transformation in the way P&G uses data for decision making across the company, from executives, to brand managers, to lower-level employees. P&G’s old decision-making model was to figure out what reports people wanted, capture the data, and then deliver them to the key decision makers days or weeks later. The new model is more instantaneous, with people huddling together in person or via video and pulling in the right experts to fix a problem the moment it arises.

More real-time data and analytics expertise are required.

The Business Sufficiency program, launched in 2010, furnishes executives with predictions about P&G market share and other key performance metrics six months to one year into the future. It is based on a series of analytic models showing what’s occurring in the business right now (shipments, sales, market share), why it’s happening, and what actions P&G can take.........

1. What management, organization, and technology issues had to be addressed when implementing Business Sufficiency, Business Sphere, and Decision Cockpits?
2. How did these decision-making tools change the way the company ran its business? How effective are they? Why?

3. How are these systems related to P&G’s business strategy?