IT opens warehouses to external users

Computerworld - Corporate Express US Inc. this fall hopes to enable 1,000 of its largest customers to run reports and analyze purchasing patterns using data stored in the office supply company’s internal data warehouse.

The company is one of many that have turned to a variety of technologies over the past couple of years to let external users securely access selected corporate  data.

IT executives say such projects can improve customer service, streamline supply chains and let offsite employees access internal business intelligence (BI) applications.

Matt Schwartz, director of business analysis at Corporate Express, said the company moved quickly early this year to select a technology that can provide its top customers with access to purchasing data after its hand was forced by similar efforts at key rivals Office Depot Inc. and Staples Inc.
Customers started “coming to us and saying, ‘We want this. Your competitors are offering it, [and] for me to stay loyal to you, you need to offer this,’” he said.

The Broomfield, Colo.-based company decided earlier this year to use a data warehouse appliance that would allow 10,000 users at 1,000 customers to keep track of their purchases, Schwartz said.

Data warehouse appliances  bundle high-performance hardware, software and storage devices together in a device that is preconfigured to run a specific task, such as strategic analysis.

Corporate Express, which now uses an Oracle 10g-based enterprise data warehouse, plans to use Netezza Corp.’s Performance Server appliance to power a new data mart that will let customers run Web-based queries about their purchasing history, Schwartz said.

The company will continue to use the Oracle Corp. database internally as the company’s enterprise data warehouse, he noted.

The appliance from Framingham, Mass.-based Netezza will provide procurement information to customers through dashboards and standard reports, and by drilling down to transaction-level data, he said.

Schwartz said the company turned to the appliance technology for its ease of use features and performance capabilities.

“With our Oracle platform, the performance across thousands of customer wasn’t sufficient for sub-10-second response times,” he said.

Sales personnel at Corporate Express. which also uses business intelligence software from MicroStrategy Inc., are testing the Netezza appliance this summer. The software from MicroStrategy, in McLean, Va., authenticates the users and encrypts all the data to be presented outside the company’s firewall, he added.

The company hasn’t encountered any challenges yet in the testing process, he said.

The Hillman Group, a Cincinnati-based manufacturer and supplier of hardware like nuts, bolts and key engraving systems, took a different approach to providing salespeople working outside of the office with access to internal systems, said CIO Jim Honerkamp.

About two years ago the company created a so-called virtual data warehouse to let 800 remote employees access internal BI applications over the Web, he said.