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Hermann Wimmer,
Teradata EMEA's vice president |
Setting the course in Europe
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
by Jack Yeatts
As Teradata's vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) since January 2004, Hermann Wimmer is in a unique position to evaluate data warehouse trends in Europe. While differences between countries and continents are to be expected, you might be surprised at the way businesses the world over face the same issues.
Wimmer believes that, although Europe is unique, its broad range of industries and business activities is similar to those you might find in the United States or elsewhere. "The market is so global, there's no real difference," he explains. "If you look from Poland to Spain, all the countries are different, but in the end, the business drivers are more or less the same."
Common ground
One of those business drivers is corporate governance, a key issue on both sides of the Atlantic. With data warehousing becoming a critical component of enterprise management, companies are rethinking how they use their data.
"A topic of enormous relevance to the companies here in EMEA is the new Basel Capital Accord (Basel II)," says Wimmer, who notes that the accord provides government oversight to the financial industry. "It will have major implications for information management systems within banks and other financial institutions. The availability and the quality of the data that is used to support risk management will have to improve, and there will be a clear line of sight between this data and its associated business value. So data quality is an issue, and data mart consolidation along with it."
This new emphasis on data quality has become a critical selling point in Europe, where customers have a strong interest in Teradata's data quality program and tools like Teradata Warehouse Miner 4.0 and Teradata Profiler. "These programs automate the most difficult and resource-intensive tasks of analyzing and preparing data for quality assessments," he explains. "We know from experience that this is one of the most time-consuming aspects of data warehousing implementations." One way to streamline the process is to simplify it. Like their U.S. counterparts, European businesses want to increase standardization and decrease the number of vendors they use to develop their IT environments. "They want fewer suppliers, and they want to reduce the complexity of their IT staff," says Wimmer. "It's also becoming more important that Teradata fully understand their business needs."
Another business driver is cost reduction, and many companies around the world are working to consolidate their IT infrastructures to meet this goal. "Public healthcare systems are good examples of this trend toward unifying information assets," Wimmer notes. "Healthcare insurance companies across Europe, in particular, are beginning to realize significant benefits by enhancing their ability to leverage customer data."
Closely connected to the trend toward IT consolidation is the introduction of "e-health" initiatives in Europe. While the United Kingdom has already launched a healthcare card system, other markets are just beginning to turn to this method of capturing, consolidating and analyzing customer information. Wimmer believes the move toward this type of data analysis will be fundamental to reaching the primary goals of cost reduction and enhanced efficiency in healthcare.
Future strategies
Wimmer sees two main incentives for data warehouse growth in Europe.
"The first is cost efficiency, because it's much cheaper than having 50 or 100 data marts," he says. "The second, which is a big driver for additional business, is the need to better understand the customer and have all the customer data in one integrated system."
He predicts Teradata will continue to see strong growth in Europe in the areas of retail, telecommunications, finances, travel and transportation, even though the average European Teradata Warehouse is smaller than in the U.S. That's simply a matter of geography, according to Wimmer.
"Each business's home market is much smaller than the home market in the U.S.," he says. "This can change. A few big ones, such as Vodafone, are even larger than most of the installations we have in the U.S."
The keys to driving further growth in Teradata's business will be industry and geographic expansion. "We're increasing our business consulting and solution architecture headcount to pursue new accounts in strategic areas," Wimmer says. "We're also pushing into new markets such as in Russia, where the telecommunications sector is especially interesting for us. Additionally, we are now promoting our manufacturing solutions in countries with the largest opportunities, starting with Germany, the U.K., France and Italy."
Wimmer's task in Europe-to increase
Teradata's market share-won't necessarily
be easy. However, the time is right
for the company to leverage its unique
products and services in an area of
the world that is ready for change. T
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U.S. and European businesses weigh in on the issues
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The United States and Europe may be separated by an ocean, but they are sometimes described as worlds apart. Are they really that different in their corporate views?
To find out, Teradata surveyed 516 executives in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany from November 2003 through May 2004. The survey participants represented a diverse group of industries and a broad range of functional roles (such as IT, general management, marketing, sales, R&D and product development). They represented companies with revenues of at least $500 million/500 million euros.
Cultural divide
Among the differences, 65% of U.S. respondents described their organizations as "productive" vs. 48% of Europeans, and 24% of the Europeans chose the word "disparate" to refer to their organizations|vs. only 5% in the U.S. However, nearly 60% of the Europeans characterized their organizations as "one step ahead" vs. 27% of the U.S. respondents. Similar gaps were revealed in questions relating to corporate vision. When asked whether the "CEO sets the vision, communicates it and reinforces it regularly," 77% of U.S. respondents answered yes, while only 36% in Europe agreed. Corporate vision is reinforced more by e-mail and voice mail in the U.S. than in Europe (63% vs. 42%) and more by team meetings and leadership meetings in Europe than in the United States (77% vs. 65%).
If you assume that cost cutting is a driving force in U.S.-based IT departments, you might be surprised to learn that only 27% of U.S. respondents cited cost reductions as the main focus for corporate IT, as opposed to 46% in Europe.
Global agreement
While the differences are interesting, there are also many points of agreement to consider. About 70% of the respondents from each group said that "efficient management of information" and an "internal push for creative new products/services" have a strong impact on their competitive position.
Approximately 60% of respondents from both regions said the CEO sets the standard on information sharing and that individual departments have access to information across the organization. (However, one-third of European and 45% of U.S. participants reported that they personally do not have access to shared information.)
Although globalization has tended to smooth out many of the corporate differences among cultures, it's important not to lose sight of the differences that remain. Understanding those differences as well as the common concerns can help businesses know more about their own cultural biases-and compete more effectively in the global marketplace.
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Jack Yeatts has written extensively about the use of technology in business.
© Teradata Magazine-September
2004
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