Q: Just into the new millennium, can we say that the future of data warehousing has arrived? Is everyone looking at that single version of the truth?

Hurd: (laughs) Right now, only about 30% of corporate America is even in a position to get an enterprise view of data. And not even that 30% has a perfect view of their data.

Q: And the others?

Hurd: The 70% of companies that don't, typically have their information in silos-data marts. You may have heard them called 'data jails'. Whatever they're called, they're an outgrowth of the way technology has evolved, including both homegrown process applications and packaged applications for supply chain, finance, ERP and customer applications, deployed across most enterprises. But when people want to get analytics, there's really no enterprise approach, because the processes are themselves typically siloed. Your view of individual applications is bifurcated [or divided]. The ability to get an integrated view of your supply chain, your customer and your financials is in and of itself extremely difficult.

Q: How did this bifurcation come about?

Hurd: For one thing, a lot of money has been spent on process applications. Departments want quick analytics, so they create these individual data marts that are fast to set up. They fall underneath the radar screen in terms of capital spending. They're perceived to be less expensive-individually-and before you know it, a company could have hundreds of these individual and isolated views of information.

Q: And does that situation tend to reinforce itself? How do you change it?

Hurd: If you want to change that, you need leadership. If you want to tell people 'No more data marts - no more your version of the story', and tell them that the organization is going to one integrated version of the truth, then somebody in charge has got to say 'this is what we're doing'. The leader has to force collaborative process across the enterprise. When that happens, you can introduce the technology that allows you to get there.

Q: So it's not a technology initiative?

Hurd: It isn't technology at all - technology can do the job today. Technology alone is an enabler. It has much more to do with having the right leadership, and as a result having the right process. Then, you bring in the right technology.

Q: At any scale? For any size organization?

Hurd: No one has presented us a scale of data set that we can't deal with. Clearly the data sets are getting bigger, but I don't think anybody is talking about the size of data sets that are going to challenge us any time in the near future.

Q: How about the further future?

Hurd: The technology is perfectly positioned to do the job, whatever the future brings. We can put tens of thousands of concurrent users on the largest scale data set in the world and still give you absolutely precise answers to your questions in near real time.

Q: This requires leadership from the very top of the organization.

Hurd: That's my view. I'm not saying you can't have a savvy CIO or a clever business unit leader ... you can find visionaries at multiple altitudes in an organization. On the whole, though, my point is that if you don't get that leadership from the top of the company, it's difficult and time-consuming to get it done. That's the most expeditious way to seek change.

Q: A point, we assume, that you see in companies you've worked with.

Hurd: Right. Typically, there are two kinds of companies that do this faster than others. One is the great company that's always driving on innovation. They're paranoid about their market position, they're always leading [and] they're always looking to get ahead. Look at our customer list and you'll find some of the most admired companies in the world. The ones that have always wanted to be ahead.

Q: And the other type?

Hurd: The flip side is the company that's in trouble. The reason they undertake the transition is that they're willing to try something different in order to survive. They're willing to break any rules, change any process in order to do something different. They make decisions to make that happen.

Q: Which type offers you the best opportunity?

Hurd: The real issue and the opportunity for us is the bulk of the marketplace that has neither constraint. They say that this has to become the normal way that we do business.

Q: The enterprise view?

Hurd: Yes. Companies that use data management for driving growth and profitability will have a competitive advantage to give them a unique position in the marketplace. They have information analysis in their DNA, and they use that information to their competitive advantage to dominate a market.

Q: And, ideally, that adoption of the enterprise view becomes a business standard rather than just a way the best companies do business?

Hurd: I actually believe that what's a competitive advantage today will be a requirement for participation in business going forward. If you don't have access to the necessary information to make better decisions faster than your competition, you're going to lose. This is going to happen, whether Teradata participates in all of it or not. Obviously, I think we're in a good position to participate.

Q: One result of this approach is putting a system in place that also makes clear new opportunities as they arise, which requires leadership.

Hurd: You're right. We're very confident in our ability to empower people with the enterprise-wide information they need to make better decisions, faster. We do our job better than anybody in the world. We've done it thousands of times. We do that better than any company in the world. The reality is that the customer has to have the three things lined up-the best companies have the leadership lined up, the processes lined up and then they get the technology lined up.

Q: The technology, in other words, has to serve the way the organization does business.

Hurd: I think that's a solid point. Leadership guides the strategy, and the strategy has to be translated into a business model. In other words, strategy and operations have to be aligned. Then you're ready for the information to support the strategy and the operations. If you've got technology leading the others, it isn't going to work. The alignment has to involve all the elements.

Q: And that alignment isn't a one-time articulation? It's an ongoing process?

Hurd: If you undertake an enterprise view of your data and write down an early list of all the questions you want to ask of that data, a year later you'll find that you wrote probably only 2% or 3% of the questions. It is an iterative, learning process: the more questions you ask, the more inquisitive you become. By the time you're a year down the road you're dealing with something entirely new in terms of how you look at your data.

Q: Considering that top level of management, are there situations where the data warehouse, that enterprise view, can serve a governance role and help a troubled company?

Hurd: If a company's in trouble, it's in trouble. But an enterprise-wide data warehouse can certainly shine headlights on all kinds of interrelationships in an organization. That said, the data warehouse can certainly be used as a tool to align supply and demand, the financial outlook, and so on.

Q: Governance by analytics?

Hurd: Not at all. Again, to remember what's happening, most of the technology that's been laid down has been laid down in pipes-process applications around supply chain, CRM and so forth. There's got to be some kind of binding fabric from a data management perspective. You have to actually bring all the data together, interrelate it and then deploy relevant answers back to the decision-makers, wherever they are in the organization.

Q: It seems that what's really being offered is the opportunity for a company to use data by its own business rules. But the company has to be led by the rules.

Hurd: That's the best way to look at it. We think our technology is an enabler to incredible business insight that you should be able to turn into operational action. In and of itself, without that leadership, without those rules, that alignment and access to actionable information, you won't get the value.

Q: It all comes back to leadership. What differences-and what opportunities-in leadership are made possible by an enterprise view?

Hurd: The fundamental business questions that need to be asked, at any level, can benefit from an integrated view. [This is] true of the CEO level, the CFO, Chief Marketing Officer, the sales level or the supply chain level. The ability to be able to get the power of aligning your organization is immeasurable. Great companies align people throughout their organization. But if the information isn't aligned, it's hard to align the people.

Q: And that alignment is the great opportunity offered by the data warehouse?

Hurd: It's part of it. The enterprise data model needs to align with the business model, which needs to be aligned with the strategy. When that happens you have amazing power, and that's true leadership.

June 2003

by Keith Ferrell

Mark Hurd