Wesco Base Case

Wesco International didn't want to pony up big bucks for traditional enterprise resource planning system. How a new, quicker data warehouse helped the $5.3 billion company anchor its business.

WESCO BASE CASE

Headquarters: 225 W. Station Square Drive, Suite 700, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Phone Number: (412) 454-2200
Business: Distributor of electrical and industrial maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) supplies, with 370 full-service branches in the U.S. and Canada.
Chief Information Officer: John Conte
Financials in 2006: $5.3 billion in revenue; $217 million profit.
Challenges: Add new reporting and workflow applications more commonly associated with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, without replacing key legacy systems.

BASELINE GOALS:

• Produce a detailed month-end analysis of sales from 370 branches in 24 hours, compared to 80 hours on old system. Actual result: 75 minutes.
• Distribute one daily report of sales from branches with ability to dig deeper into individual customers, compared to previous system, which could not support daily analysis.
• Increase profit margins by expanding profit margin analysis beyond top 75 customers to include all customers.
• Accelerate organic growth beyond industry average of 7% per year by using business intelligence applications to drive direct-mail marketing campaign to customers. Actual growth: 16%.