1. Business Analytics
IBM Software Electronics
Client profile
Qualcomm is based in San Diego, California, generated $14 billion in
annual revenues for Fiscal Year 2011, and employs more than 21,200
people. The company engages in the development, design, manufacture
and marketing of digital wireless telecommunications products and
services. The company is recognized as a pioneering innovator in
the wireless telecommunications industry, and is the acknowledged
world leader in next-generation mobile technologies. The majority
of Qualcomm’s revenue is generated by two main businesess: chipset
sales and technology licensing. The chip business develops and supplies
integrated circuits and system software for wireless voice and data
communications, while Qualcomm’s licensing business drives the
organization’s horizontal market strategy by granting licenses to use
its intellectual property portfolio to manufacture and sell wireless
products.
The opportunity
The wireless industry is massive and continues to grow at a rapid
pace, stemming from consumers’ insatiable appetite for mobility and
instant access to people, social networks and information. In 2010, the
number of wireless connections exceeded five billion globally, and is
expected to grow almost 50 percent by the end of 2014. Given the pace
of technological change and an increasingly diverse and demanding
customer base, Qualcomm views business analytics as a key ingredient
in helping it maintain its position at the forefront of the wireless sector.
Walking the fine line
between growth and
competitive advantage
Qualcomm and IBM Business Analytics
Overview
Business challenge
Qualcomm found that the rapid
growth and highly competitive nature
of its business made it imperative
to synchronize all its divisions and
associated functions. It was therefore
paramount to create a business analytics
platform that would support planning,
forecasting, analysis and reporting
seamlessly across the enterprise, and
would allow business users to take control
– a highly self-service oriented model that
was a departure from the past.
Solution
Qualcomm has a long-standing
relationship with IBM, stretching back
to late 1999 when the company started
using IBM®
Cognos®
software. The
company then migrated to IBM Cognos
Planning and early versions of IBM
Cognos Business Intelligence. In 2010,
Qualcomm upgraded to IBM Business
Analytics solutions that fully meet its
complex requirements, including the
latest versions of IBM Cognos TM1®
and
IBM Cognos Business Intelligence.
2. Business Analytics
IBM Software Electronics
2
Leveraging analytics to drive business value
and innovation
This case study outlines how Qualcomm combined a deep-seated
belief in business analytics with an innovative leadership team focused
on continued market leadership, growth and performance to drive
business value across the organization. Within the finance department,
Qualcomm’s mission around supporting cross-company integrated
performance management systems centers on continuous process
innovation and enhancing the cost-effectiveness of all systems that are
central to supporting Qualcomm’s finance and business teams.
In the beginning, Qualcomm was focused on deploying standardized
planning and forecasting tools, enabling seamless data-flow between
functional groups, building a centralized data repository, and providing
a shared web-based reporting solution for all of Qualcomm’s business
groups.
Several business groups requested an application that could help
calculate product line financials, build multiple interconnected data
models, document current data process flows and provide a consistent
view of data across the entire organization, with the added ability
to input and share data across multiple business areas within the
organization. Qualcomm business groups also wanted to deliver the
solution based on a phased approach instead of a “big bang”, thereby
ensuring quick individual business wins and a more likely buy-in from
each business function.
Detail of the deployments
Rolling out an enterprise data warehouse
In 2010, Qualcomm implemented a new data warehouse that focused
on achieving the following outcomes: reducing data redundancy and
providing one version of the truth; creating common data definitions
across the organization; automating report reconciliations; and
providing process-based, automated report updates and event-based
warehouse updates. This project was a key phase in the creation
of a self-service, analytics-based management reporting solution
leveraging IBM Cognos TM1 and IBM Cognos Business Intelligence.
The outcomes from this TM1-based management reporting
system included: introducing self-service dimension and attribute
Business objectives
• Develop a standardized and integrated
approach to planning and forecasting
across Qualcomm that could address the
unique nature of its different businesses,
and simultaneously provide a standard
view of the enterprise.
• Develop a data management strategy
that would create a single, enterprise data
warehouse to act as “one version of the
truth” across Qualcomm.
• Build intuitive planning and forecasting
processes for business users to ensure
high adoption.
• Embed self-service reporting and
analytics into key business areas across
Qualcomm, focused on a simple,
customizable, user-specific approach.
• Deploy a solution that could grow with
Qualcomm’s rapidly expanding business
within the highly complex, evolving
marketplace that it serves – and is actively
helping to shape.
“We’ve been able to
accomplish one of my
biggest goals within IT
in terms of supporting
our varied business users:
migration from an
IT-centric reporting and
analysis framework to one
based on end-user self-
service.”
— Norm Fjeldheim, CIO, Qualcomm
3. Business Analytics
IBM Software Electronics
3
management; providing the ability to execute multiple versions and
complex scenario planning; automating a previously manual process
for restatements and data loads; offering self-service backups to the
data warehouse; and providing self-service application- and object-level
security, which help to reduce the pressure on IT to support business
analytics
Leveraging TM1 for enterprise planning and forecasting
Qualcomm decided to transition from its existing IBM Cognos
Planning solution to IBM Cognos TM1, which enhances the company’s
planning, budgeting and analysis procedures. This implementation is
unusual in that it doesn’t just deploy TM1 as a planning and forecasting
tool, but rather fully integrates the planning/forecasting process with
reporting and analytics for decision-making.
There are numerous benefits that have emerged from the deployment
of TM1, including fully integrated planning and reporting across
Qualcomm; real-time data movement between applications with
no need to perform interim ‘publish’ steps; powerful multicurrency
functionality, which replaces a previously manual process; simplified
planning and forecasting cycles; automated dimension updates;
minimal downtime from automation of data loads, data publishing
and dimension updates; easy access to prior versions in the future; and
cross-Qualcomm visibility into headcount, labor and other direct costs.
Leveraging TM1 for reporting
The deployment of TM1 replaced IBM Cognos Analysis Studio,
and delivered several enhancements to the organization’s reporting
processes. Qualcomm is able to combine any number of dimensions in
the same report, such as headcount and expenses; report filters are easy
to manage, flexible and customizable as specific analytic needs dictate;
it is simple to change the level of detail of data that is being analyzed
and reported; completing complex custom sets is straightforward; there
is tight integration with Microsoft Excel, and updates to Excel can be
completed in seconds; and fully interactive multi-cube reporting is very
simple.
Best practice
• Self-service analysis and reporting for end
users – reducing reliance on IT support
• Project design – heavy involvement of end
users and experienced business advisors
within the business
• One version of the truth – development of
an enterprise data warehouse
• Center of excellence – creating a
dedicated capability within IT and finance
to support global deployments, project
prioritization, data standards, model
build-outs, etc.
• Single analytics platform – one
enterprise data warehouse and a suite
of IBM Cognos technology solutions
have streamlined processes, reduced
uncertainty, and eliminated many risks
inherent in spreadsheet-based and other
non-integrated enterprise solutions.
“Through our streamlined
processes and the Cognos
platform, it is relatively
easy to integrate new
businesses into our
business analytics
framework.”
— Robert Loreto, Senior Director, IT Finance,
Qualcomm
4. Business Analytics
IBM Software Electronics
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The IBM Business Analytics solution has become a hub for all
aspects of planning, forecasting and reporting, both internally and
externally. With the deployment of Cognos TM1 and Cognos Business
Intelligence, Qualcomm has been able to consolidate three separate
solutions into one, and has seen other significant benefits around time
savings: the time taken to load actuals has been reduced from ten hours
to one, and reporting updates can now be performed hourly on demand
instead of only twice daily.
Other application areas
As success within the finance department accelerated, there was a
concerted effort to migrate the solution into other groups, including
procurement, engineering, and sales. These deployments were
undertaken to meet the specific needs of individual business groups,
but through shared ideas, access to cross-functional data and a focus
on broader Qualcomm goals, they have ultimately resulted in a tightly
integrated system. Qualcomm’s integrated IBM Business Analytics
platform allows multiple business areas to produce more accurate
forecasts that contribute to achieving overall corporate objectives, while
also giving users a greater sense of ownership.
• Operating expense – This process is focused on using IBM Cognos
TM1 to manage corporate operating expenses, including headcount
planning. This process is tightly integrated with the enterprise data
warehouse, and addresses a number of prior problems surrounding
headcount forecasting:
–– Headcount planning – Headcount planning was previously
done on a person-by-person basis – which was time-consuming,
fraught with mistakes when keeping track of specific people
especially where transfers were involved, error-prone due to
complex rules on pay increases, bonuses and promotions, and
surrounded with the need for the utmost security of data. The
process is now managed using resource codes that designate the
type of person in a role. This allows position codes and averages
to be used instead of specific people and salaries.
“We’ve been able, in a
fairly short period of
time, to migrate our key
business processes onto one
single platform, thereby
reducing complexity,
improving cross-
Qualcomm collaboration,
and engaging our
business teams in the
strategic and operational
management of our
business.”
— Robert Loreto, Senior Director, IT Finance,
Qualcomm
5. Business Analytics
IBM Software Electronics
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• Customer forecasting – A complex business solution that models
the forecast on a customer-by-customer basis. In the past, this was
done using Cognos Finance and was a highly complex process.
Due to limitations it was impossible to deal with the complexity of
individual customer pricing. This meant any kind of scenario planning
was nearly impossible without days of preparation, and changes or
‘what if’ scenarios were difficult at best. With its new IBM Cognos
TM1 solution, Qualcomm has merged all pricing inputs into TM1,
standardized all rebate deal calculations and business rules across
all customers and products, scheduled net pricing imports and
calculations to run daily, and created a single consolidated TM1
pricing cube for all reporting and analysis. Today this complex process
is easy to manage, able to deal with rapidly-changing programs and
complexity across a vast array of customers, and provides an important
data point.
• Five-year cost models and capacity planning – This solution
uses built-in IBM Business Analytics capabilities to support two key
processes: first, a fully integrated long run supplier wafer forecast to
help determine the necessary level of wafer and test capacity required
for Qualcomm’s business. Second, detailed cost models per device
which incorporate wafer, test, and package costs by key assumptions.
These integrated tools are critical to help analyze future spends and
areas where cost reduction opportunities either in the short or long run
should be focused. As an example, the package and test engineering
department will allocate resources to invest in lowering test times
based on areas where it has identified the largest opportunities to drive
payback against the resource investment.
• Engineering reporting – ‘Engineering Compute’ is a global IT
organization dedicated to supporting the success of Qualcomm
Engineering. It employs several thousand hardware, software,
product and test engineers. Their goal is simple: to provide focused
information and analysis to ensure that Qualcomm Engineering
delivers products in a timely, cost-effective manner. The objectives
of its projects are wide and varied, and include workflow automation,
enablement of grid computing to effectively manage scarce and
expensive hardware resources, and the optimization of design and test
programs across storage systems, among others. In support of these
initiatives, the engineering reporting project leverages IBM Cognos
“We knew the business,
and we had a good
process in place; but we
lacked a tool that could
integrate and support
the multiple variables
of all the different
business groups. Once we
embarked on our Cognos
journey, Qualcomm was
able to create a system
that improved the process
and assured the overall
integrity of the planning
data.”
— Sanjay Mehta, Senior Vice President,
Qualcomm Finance
6. Business Analytics
IBM Software Electronics
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Business Intelligence and extract, transform and load (ETL) tools to
collect, standardize and consolidate key engineering metrics that are
used to drive operational decisions. It uses an easy-to-navigate portal
called Q-EDGE, and provides engineering teams with access to all
relevant data and information as well as key metrics, analytical tools,
and an executive dashboard supporting the grid engineering team.
Target areas include product design, product and test engineering,
intellectual property management, chip layout, physical design, and
verification, synthesis and analysis.
• IT service reporting – This IBM Cognos Business Intelligence-
based solution is critical to IT, providing the comprehensive, accurate
and timely reports and analyses needed to make informed decisions,
prioritize work, and gain visibility into projects and work areas that
are focused on dramatically improving IT efficiency and effectiveness.
Solution components include IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office,
Analysis Studio, Event Studio and Report Studio. Pagelets are pushed
to end customers via BSP MetaManager; daily and other reports
are delivered across IT using complex bursting rules; and extensive
reporting can be performed using multiple data sources within one
report. The team is focused on leveraging Active Reports and many
of the user-friendly visualization tools that are available in the new
Cognos 10 upgrade. There are also future plans to move into Cognos
Metric Studio to manage a wide array of KPIs across IT, and beginning
to explore mashups as a means of expanding into the area of web-based
data integration applications.
Solution overview
Qualcomm began its journey in the late 1990s with Cognos Finance,
then migrated to Cognos Planning and early versions of Cognos
Business Intelligence. Over 2010 and 2011, the company has fully
replaced its Cognos Planning solutions with IBM Cognos TM1 to
better leverage its enhanced capabilities – scalability, ease-of-use,
powerful analytics, 64-bit processing for speed, and write-back to allow
integration of the planning and reporting environments, among others.
This move is intended to further improve efficiency, allow more rapid
deployments in line with the company’s goal of providing a solution
within 90 days for all customers, and create tight integration between
reporting and planning/forecasting environments.
“We have full confidence
in Cognos. As we
move forward, we
will be looking at
even deeper analytics
capabilities to help us
leverage social media
and introduce ‘search’
functions to make
analytics even easier for
business users. Ultimately,
we aim to be able to
support greater levels
of product development
without an increase in
IT staffing, and build
world-class customer-
facing functions that will
further differentiate us in
this competitive, rapidly
evolving market.”
— Norm Fjeldheim, CIO, Qualcomm
7. Business Analytics
IBM Software Electronics
7
The future
Qualcomm is clearly seeing the benefits of a business analytics-centric
approach for managing its strategy and operational performance. The
approach enables the company to track results and understand how to
reallocate resources to tackle challenges or capitalize on opportunities.
Qualcomm’s plans include further expansion of the Cognos TM1
reporting solution by creating a series of sub-ledger data reporting
cubes, including accounts payable, all aspects of inventory, and
enterprise-wide project costs. This will enhance visibility into
operations and allow Qualcomm to drill deeper when a situation
demands more detailed understanding.
Qualcomm will also be embarking on a migration to IBM Cognos
Business Intelligence 10 to leverage the power of the new Business
Insight functionality, and will push more advanced visualization features
to its users. This aligns with the company’s strategy to put reporting
and business analytics into the hands of of the business community,
instead of having IT involved in those processes.
About IBM Business Analytics
IBM Business Analytics software delivers actionable insights decision-
makers need to achieve better business performance. IBM offers a
comprehensive, unified portfolio of business intelligence, predictive and
advanced analytics, financial performance and strategy management,
governance, risk and compliance and analytic applications.
With IBM software, companies can spot trends, patterns and
anomalies, compare “what if” scenarios, predict potential threats
and opportunities, identify and manage key business risks and plan,
budget and forecast resources. With these deep analytic capabilities
our customers around the world can better understand, anticipate and
shape business outcomes.
For more information
For further information please visit ibm.com/business-analytics.
Request a call
To request a call or to ask a question, go to
ibm.com/business-analytics/contactus. An IBM representative will
respond to your inquiry within two business days.
Solution Components
Software
• IBM®
Cognos®
Business Intelligence
• IBM Cognos Planning
• IBM Cognos TM1®
“Cognos allowed us to
implement a collaborative
planning application
for the global finance
community, including
key tools such as multi-
currency and driver-based
calculations that helped
streamline workflow and
improve process.”
— John Gilbert, Vice President, Qualcomm
Finance
