Enterprise BI Gives Mid-Size Burt's Bees Big-Company Capabilities



When Burt’s Bees, a leading maker of natural personal care products, decided to deploy BusinessObjects™ XI, its executives had a goal in mind: to turn their raw data into real knowledge. And with the help of experts from Dunn Solutions Group they achieved it.

Burt’s Bees makes its world-famous lip balm and more than 150 other products using natural ingredients such as beeswax, therapeutic herbs and botanical oils. Its products are sold in thousands of drug stores, boutiques and health foods stores throughout the United States and Canada.

Getting all that retail sales data was easy, but turning it into useful information was not. What the company needed was a bee’s eye view of their sales and other key performance indicators (KPIs).

"The data was in our ERP system, but it was behind a glass wall – we could see it but we couldn’t get to it," said Ted Hein, Director of Information Services (IS). "BusinessObjects XI has helped us break the glass and turn the data into the information we need to continue managing our company’s extraordinary growth." 

Building "Honeycomb" Enterprise Solution 

Dunn Solutions Group, a longtime Business Objects partner, used BusinessObjects Web Intelligence XI to build an enterprise solution – nicknamed "Honeycomb" – that offered Burt’s Bees the ability to compile and manage all its store- and chain-level sales data, as well as the sales info from BurtsBees.com, the company’s retail website.

Today, Burt’s Bees has virtually instant access to its important business information and, most important, is able to use that data to proactively manage its distribution channels.

Everyone from executives to "worker bees" uses XI’s user-friendly web interface to gather critical information, perform ad hoc analysis and create their own reports.

By shifting reporting tasks to its information consumers, the company’s IS department has slashed the time it spends generating reports. And even better, managers now are able to quickly obtain accurate, up-to-date numbers for near-real-time analysis.

Taking the Next Step: Dashboards and Performance Management 

With the first phase of the BI initiative completed, it is time to move forward. Working again with Dunn Solutions Group, Burt’s Bees plans to use BusinessObjects Dashboard Manager and BusinessObjects Performance Manager to deploy customized dashboards to top executives so they can see the latest key KPIs, including the sales forecast, inventory turns, production data and customer satisfaction.

"It’s not just Fortune 500 companies that get big benefits from a business intelligence solution," said Bill Dunn, president/CEO of Dunn Solutions Group. "With BusinessObjects XI and the custom reporting, analytics and query capabilities we created, Burt’s Bees can ask important questions and get the answers the company needs to make smart business decisions, optimize performance and achieve strategic goals.

"Plain and simple," Dunn continued, "BI gives medium-sized organizations like Burt’s Bees the same benefits and competitive edge as large companies."