Miracle on Westgate Drive

Much to my surprise, it was the FedEx delivery person. How brilliant is that?

Cindi Howson, Founder, BI Scorecard

December 21, 2007

1 Min Read

I have a home office, so when someone pulled up in a Budget rental truck, my first thought was, "Wrong house. We're not moving." Much to my surprise, it was the FedEx delivery person. How brilliant is that?FedEx is in peak demand, trying to get all these Christmas presents to people, purchased in ever-increasing volumes online. How can shippers increase their delivery fleet only for the holiday season? FedEx acted on the predictive data to hire more delivery people and increase capacity in creative ways.

If you're one of those people desperately trying to find the Wii this year, you're probably wishing Ninento had better BI systems. Or maybe their BI solution is great, but decision-makers failed to act quickly on those early forecasts that it would be the hottest toy this year. Let's hope Santa's elves placed their orders early!

These are great reminders that good data is only the start of business intelligence. Successful business intelligence includes creativity and subsequent action.

Happy Holidays!I have a home office, so when someone pulled up in a Budget rental truck, my first thought was, "Wrong house. We're not moving." Much to my surprise, it was the FedEx delivery person. How brilliant is that?

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About the Author(s)

Cindi Howson

Founder, BI Scorecard

Cindi Howson is the founder of BI Scorecard, a resource for in-depth BI product reviews based on exclusive hands-on testing. She has been advising clients on BI tool strategies and selections for more than 20 years. She is the author of Successful Business Intelligence: Unlock the Value of BI and Big Data and SAP Business Objects BI 4.0: The Complete Reference. She is a faculty member of The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) and a contributing expert to InformationWeek. Before founding BI Scorecard, she was a manager at Deloitte & Touche and a BI standards leader for a Fortune 500 company. She has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, the Irish Times, Forbes, and Business Week. She has an MBA from Rice University.

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