[August 10, 2004] Unilever 'Sinfonia' Project Based on Kalido Software to Enable Single Views of Business Performance across 19 Countries BURLINGTON, Mass. & LONDON --(Business Wire)-- Aug. 10, 2004 -- Global Consumer Packaged Goods Giant Deploys Enterprise Data Warehouse from Kalido in Unprecedented Timescales to Improve Corporate Performance Management in Latin American Operations Kalido, the leading data warehouse lifecycle management (DWLM) software provider, announced that Unilever Latin America has rapidly completed the first half of its 19-country business intelligence and data warehouse implementation, 'Sinfonia,' installing Kalido DWLM software (KALIDO) at its core. The project is now live in five countries, including the largest and most complex deployment, Brazil. Sinfonia is expected to help Unilever Latin America create new economies of scale in the extended supply chain and to enable the business to capitalize on cross-border opportunities for significant savings in the manufacture and supply of consumer packaged goods (CPG). KALIDO already delivers adaptive enterprise data warehouses for Unilever around the world, and is now enabling the CPG giant to achieve a consistent, accurate view of performance across its Latin American operations. Like other KALIDO warehouse implementations for Unilever, the warehouse for the Sinfonia project provides high-quality data for business intelligence reporting and analysis during constant organizational change such as acquisitions and market consolidation. Sinfonia is giving business users fast access to accurate information across several business streams, helping them to answer complex questions on supply chain processes, customers, sales and marketing, and finance. The KALIDO-based solution will grow to provide consolidated views of data across the entire Unilever Latin America organization - 34 companies, 19 currencies, 5 times zones, in 3 languages - delivering to over 4,000 users by 8 am every day. The project is expected to encompass a database 12 Terabytes in size upon completion, anticipated to be one of the largest in the world. Unlike many custom-built or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) data warehouses, KALIDO automates data warehouse construction and maintenance through its business model-driven, adaptive warehouse design approach - a crucial consideration for a constantly evolving business such as Unilever. Its iterative approach allows IT to remain aligned with the changing needs of the business throughout the lifetime of a major project such as Sinfonia. Unilever, famous for some of the world's leading brands including Knorr, Dove and Lipton, has traditionally operated on a country-by-country basis in Latin America, with each country utilizing independent information and reporting systems. With multiple ERP and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and over 150 separate information systems and coding structures, it had previously been an expensive and lengthy process to get a clear view of the performance of Unilever's brands across the whole of the region. By replacing the 34 existing data warehouses with a single KALIDO enterprise-strength data warehouse, the solution is already delivering more accurate management information at higher speed where the solution is live, even though Sinfonia is still at mid-completion. Sinfonia is a crucial part of a much larger program known as 'Orchestra,' which also encompasses a complementary SAP R/3 implementation, and a leading edge CRM implementation. Orchestra is transforming the way Unilever is doing business in Latin America, enabling the company to better understand regional supply chain processes, brands and suppliers, and to negotiate with cross border customers on a regional basis. By allowing managers to monitor the business strategy from the regional perspective, Unilever Latin America management can now feed back into the corporate strategy, pinpointing areas of possible change and with cost-reduction potential. The Sinfonia business intelligence reporting tool element is provided by Cognos software, with information fed from the KALIDO data warehouse. Through the use of Business Objects extract, transform and load (ETL) tools, Sinfonia enables efficient information delivery from operational systems into the KALIDO data warehouse. Fernando Rocha, head of information management, Unilever Latin America, said: "The ability of the KALIDO enterprise data warehouse to adapt to change is very important. In our Latin America operations, the business changes frequently, and it is imperative from a strategic point of view to reflect these changes quickly in the information we deliver. A vital ingredient in our success is the 'building-block' approach - small steps, rapid deliverables. KALIDO supports this mindset, and its flexibility will accommodate the changing needs of business during the rollout period of Sinfonia." "The project is meeting all our expectations in terms of speed, budget and quality," he continued. "What's particularly impressive is the quality of information, the degree of stability, and the performance provided by KALIDO." Andy Hayler, founder and chief strategist, Kalido, added: "Unilever Latin America is dedicated to leading the consumer packaged goods sector by moving to a regional operational model. We are thrilled that KALIDO software has played a vital role in Unilever LA's major business intelligence and data warehousing initiative, allowing the company to understand their business and respond rapidly to customers and suppliers." About Unilever Latin America A leading consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturer, Unilever is the name behind many of the world's best-known brands such as Bertolli, Flora, Hellmann's, Knorr, Comfort, Dove, Lux and Ponds. In Latin America, Unilever's operating companies are country-based and organized into three lines of business: Home and Personal Care (HPC), Food, and Ice Cream. About Kalido Kalido is the leading data warehouse lifecycle management (DWLM) software provider. The KALIDO(R) DWLM Suite automates data warehouse creation and modification to provide business users with timely and consolidated management information throughout organizational change. This ability empowers IT and the business to become more closely aligned to help accelerate financial reporting and enhance performance management of key business entities such as customers, brands, sales, marketing, supply and logistics. The KALIDO DWLM Suite consists of adaptive data warehouse and master data management software. This software application portfolio allows users to rapidly build and maintain an enterprise data warehouse and its master data without the need for programming or operational system standardization. The software suite is designed upon UK-patented technology that enables the business model within the data warehouse to be easily modified to keep it continuously up to date with the business as it changes. Kalido's software reduces the creation and lifecycle maintenance staffing costs of data warehouses by 55 per cent or more compared to custom-built solutions according to an independently audited study. Kalido serves major companies in over 100 countries including Cadbury Schweppes, HBOS plc, Intelsat, Philips, Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies (Shell), and Unilever. A privately held software company, Kalido is headquartered in Burlington, Mass. and London, UK and has regional sales offices throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and France. Kalido works closely with technology partners and large system integrators for the deployment of Kalido data warehousing projects. More information about Kalido can be found at: http://www.kalido.com. About Data Warehouse Lifecycle Management Data Warehouse Lifecycle Management (DWLM) empowers organizations to effectively manage master data-aligned enterprise data warehouses from initial inception to operation, through maintenance and a lifetime of modification. Compared to traditional data warehousing approaches, DWLM delivers faster data warehouse implementations, allows faster adaptation to organizational change, and reduces backlogs of data warehouse change requests. These abilities ensure that data warehousing implementations remain in step with the business to dramatically improve the quality of management information and significantly reduce project risk. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]