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Unlocking the Power of Cloud AnalyticsExecutive Summary

IntroductionCloud analytics is transforming the business landscape.

By providing companies with unprecedented insights into

everything from market conditions to consumer behaviour,

they are leading to the creation of new, more customer-

centric business models.

But what impact are these changes having on the roles of

the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Financial Officer

(CFO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)? And how can

businesses exploit cloud analytics to gain a competitive

advantage? To explore these questions, CorporateLeaders

in partnership with IBM recently hosted an Executive

Roundtable Meeting on “Unlocking the Power of Cloud

Analytics”.

Held in Groot-Bijgaarden, just outside Brussels, this

exclusive meeting brought together CIOs, CFOs and CMOs

from leading companies to share experiences and discuss

the impact of cloud analytics on their roles and functions.

The agenda was built around cross-functional networking

and included an exclusive wine tasting session linked to

analytics. In addition, participants also heard keynote

presentations from:

Cedric Mulier,

Analytics Country Manager

at IBM Belux, on the

benefits of analytics

Geert Hallemeesch,

Partner at Deloitte Belgium,

about how cloud analytics

drive competitive advantage

Stefaan Claes,

International CRM & Digital

Marketing Director at Kinepolis,

on unlocking the power of

analytics in marketing

Analytics in the cloud: the art of the possible

The Internet of Things is one of the most hyped up technologies of recent years. But the business impact of this network of smart products could end up even bigger than all the hype suggests, according to Cedric Mulier, Analytics Country Manager at IBM Belux. Kicking off his presentation, Mulier pointed out that there are currently around nine billion connected devices in the world, mostly mobile phones and tablets. But technology research firms Forrester and IDC expect this number to increase tenfold over the next 10 yeas as more and more physical objects are embedded with sensors that enable them to collect and exchange data.

“IDC also estimates that this revolution of the Internet of Things is going to represent €6 billion of new business a year. So we are talking about big business, we are talking about big money,” Mulier said.

He gave several examples of how companies are exploiting data transmitted through sensors towards the Cloud. They include Whirlpool, which has equipped all its industrial washing machines with sensors that alert technicians to any malfunction before it occurs. By ensuring that the right technical support is provided at the right time, this initiative is expected to save Whirlpool €250 million a year.

On a bigger scale, IBM announced a key partnership with the Weather Company, which has two billion sensors providing 10 billion weather forecasts a day across the world.

IBM will leverage all this data through its analytics portfolio and cloud services to allow companies and public institutions to better react and anticipate severe weather conditions.

“The real game changer is the flexibility cloud offers - cloud technology allows users to access as much or as little analytics capacity as they need.”

As a result, farmers, for example, will be able to decide exactly when to use pesticides or insecticides without taking the risk that rain will wash them away.

The Internet of Things is generating what Mulier described as an “explosion of data”. The challenge for companies is to analyze this mass of data to gain insights that can in turn lead to better decision-making. Building analytics capabilities in-house calls for significant investment in both infrastructure and technical skills, which is why a growing number of business leaders are turning to cloud technology.

While many businesses move to the cloud for financial reasons, Mulier stressed that the real game changer is the flexibility the cloud offers - cloud technology allows users to access as much or as little analytics capacity as they need - as well as having the possibility to reduce the time in production and thus getting into action mode.

“That is why we consider that analytics and the cloud together are the art of the possible,” he said.

“The world is going so fast that we need to start today, not think about what we are going to do.”

Cloud analytics drive competitive advantage

Cloud analytics give businesses an edge over their competitors. “That’s a certainty,” Geert Hallemeesch, Partner at Deloitte Belgium, told the roundtable meeting.

But while 84 per cent of businesses responding to a Deloitte survey reported that analytics had improved their organizations’ competitive positioning, they now need to maintain this advantage. And that means responding to the rapid evolution of analytics.

Focusing on the drivers behind this evolution, Hallemeesch suggested that the classic business intelligence platforms many companies had invested in are here to stay, however, they need to be enriched with new ways of exploiting and consuming information. “The same information can be presented in different ways depending on who is consuming it, which is where cloud analytics can potentially play an important role,” he said.

Changes in the business environment are also driving the growing sophistication of analytics. “More advanced analytics allow us to take a look forward, instead of looking backwards on historical information. And that is being driven by changing market dynamics and the economic situations,” said Hallemeesch, adding: “We need to better understand what’s going on to be able to take decisions.”

Other trends influencing the evolution of analytics include the growing focus on data security, the quest for accuracy and the rise of open source, which will deliver new capabilities to people working with data.

But companies need to decide how they are going to deal with the massive amounts of data hitting them from all directions. Do they really want to invest in all the skills needed to run the technical parts of their analytics’ environment? Or do they leave this to the specialist providers of cloud platforms while they themselves focus on the content generated on these platforms?

Hallemeesch foresees a hybrid future. “If you have an ERP within your walls and you need to do your financial reporting, the chances are that you will keep on doing this within your own analytics’ environment,” he said. “But once you start exploiting all the new pieces of data that can be leveraged by your company, you will probably use cloud platforms and cloud software to attack that data.”

The combination of cloud technology and analytics drives competitive advantage for a number of reasons. “First, it delivers the platforms, the capabilities, the scalability that we need for analytics,” said Hallemeesch. “The world is going so fast that we need to start today, not think about what we are going to do. We need to get at it today – and this is exactly what the cloud is delivering for us.”

available from sources like the IMDb online movie database, but supplemented with data that Kinepolis collects itself about every film it screens. Then there is customer data that goes beyond traditional social demographic information to include profiles based on questionnaires completed by individual customers. Finally, there is transactional and other “rough” data that is sent through a profiling engine to create information about the customer.

All this information is fed into a “recommendation engine” that uses custom made algorithms to generate messages tailored to the preferences of individual customers. Both the algorithms and the messages themselves are constantly evolving as Kinepolis seeks to make its marketing communications less functional and more emotional. “We make small changes to the algorithms of the recommendation engine every month. So we’re still improving that part of the business,” said Claes. “But we are also trying to inject much more emotion into our communication because our product – movies – is about emotion, it’s about magic.”

“we are trying to inject much more emotion into our communication because our product – movies – is about emotion, it’s about magic.”

Unlocking the power of analytics in marketing

The Kinepolis Group has developed a new approach to marketing – one that puts the customer firmly in the driving seat. Thanks to a wealth of information about individual customers, Kinepolis has been able to make the journey from permission-based to preference-driven marketing and finally to communication as a service.

Permission-based marketing is about asking customers if you can send them information, typically by getting them to tick a box, explained Stefaan Claes, International CRM & Digital Marketing Director for the Group, which runs movie theaters across Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Switzerland. But Claes described this as a “very twentieth century” approach that risks overwhelming customers with information. So a few years ago Kinepolis switched to preference-driven marketing, asking customers what information they wanted from the group and then sending them messages related to those preferences.

Recently, Kinepolis decided to go a step further and offer customers “Communication as a Service”. The idea is that messages are so closely linked to customers’ individual interests that they are no longer seen as advertising but as a service provided by Kinepolis. For a big Woody Allen fan such as Claes himself, for example, any information about a new film by the director would be seen as a valued service.

So how can companies make sure they have the data needed to craft such highly targeted and relevant messages that customers value so much? Claes identified three key sources of data. The first is metadata for movies, much of it also

ConclusionCloud analytics is transforming the way companies are run, providing them with unprecedented insights into everything from market conditions to consumer behaviour which leads to the creation of new, more customer-centric business models. Technologies such as the Internet of Things are generating an explosion of data where the challenge for companies is to analyze this mass of data to gain insights that can in turn lead to better decision-making. Building analytics capabilities in-house calls for significant investments, which is why a growing number of business leaders are turning to cloud technology.

The combination of cloud technology and analytics drives competitive advantage but companies need to maintain this advantage by responding to the rapid evolution of analytics and understanding how business environment changes are affecting the sophistication of analytics. Cloud analytics delivers the platforms, the capabilities, and the scalability that companies need.

Thanks to data and analytics, companies such as Kinepolis are able to make the journey from permission-based to preference-driven marketing and finally to communication as a service leading to the customer-centric business model companies strive to be.

Cedric MulierAnalytics Country Manager, IBM Belux

Cedric has worked the last 20 years at SAP & IBM where he has held different sales and management positions in Belgium and Spain.

Since 2012, Cedric is leading the Analytic organization within IBM Belux supporting companies and organizations accelerating turning data into value.

Cedric is passionate about change, sustainability and contributing to any evolution.

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” Alan Watts.

Stefaan ClaesInternational CRM & Digital Marketing Director, Kinepolis

Stefaan Claes started working in advertising as a media strategy expert and ended that period as

the media director for McCann-Erickson Brussels, at that time the biggest advertising agency in Belgium. He had been on a number of very early digital projects during that period, but from 2000 on he focused completely on digital marketing and started working for General Motors as a CRM and digital marketing expert. The last 7 years of that period he was working in the Netherlands and was involved in a number of European and global digital projects for GM.

In 2010 Claes left the automotive industry and started working for Kinepolis as their international CRM and digital marketing director. He is leading a 50/50 mixed team of digital marketing specialists and IT experts. His team has the local marketing teams in Spain, France, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands as their internal customers.

Geert HallemeeschPartner, Deloitte Belgium

Geert is a Partner at Deloitte Belgium within Deloitte Analytics. As a trusted advisor in business intelligence and analytics, he advises

various clients in private and public sectors. For 20 years, Geert was focused on helping organizations become Insight Driven Organizations. Geert joined Deloitte in 2012 after the successful integration of Numius, a company which he co-founded and was specialized in business intelligence.

Geert drives the relationship between Deloitte and IBM within EMEA focused on technology and is responsible for Deloitte’s Cloud Analytics platform.

Jesper LillelundPartner & Co-Founder, CorporateLeaders

Jesper Lillelund has been engaged in building valuable business networks on the international scene for over 15 years. Jesper

combines his in depth industry knowledge, access to a wide network of business leaders, and market development skills focusing on making business transformation and corporate excellence part of the business agenda.

Prior to co-founding CorporateLeaders, Jesper was instrumental in building a leading independent business transformation association from an informal business community to a global player. He also served as the Marketing Director at The Wall Street Journal Europe where he was responsible for managing brand, direct and on-line marketing. In his career at the Journal Europe, Jesper was also responsible for developing new revenue generating businesses. Prior to the Journal Europe, Jesper held market analyst roles at MAN B&W Diesel and Danisco in Denmark.

Jesper holds an MBA in International Management from the University of Dallas and a BBA in Management and International Business from Baylor University in Texas.

Speakers

Hosts

IBM is the largest global technology and innovation company serving clients all over the world. IBM is making markets by transforming industries and professions with data. We are remaking enterprise IT for the era of cloud. We are enabling systems of engagement for enterprises. IBM offers a wide range of technology and consulting services; a broad portfolio of middleware and the world’s most advanced servers and supercomputers. IBM annually invests approximately $6 billion for R&D, focusing on high-growth, high-value opportunities.

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