Dulux saves with 'make do' approach to systems split

Paint-maker Dulux Group estimates it has saved $600,000 over five years and clocked up a return on investment of 207 percent after upgrading and augmenting its business intelligence system.

The Dulux Group spun off as a separately listed entity from resources giant Orica in 2010 to focus on its paint and home and garden consumables brands.

“When there’s a corporate divorce, everyone fights over the children,” said Paul Sullivan, business intelligence team lead at Dulux Group. “In this case the kids were the IT systems.”

Speaking at the Gartner BI Summit in Sydney, Sullivan detailed the challenge the IT faced to prove their value to the business in splitting the IT systems between the two new entities. 

Sullivan said the new company resisted calls for investment in new systems.

“They were very focused on cost,” he said.

The company was using an older version of SAP’s Business Warehouse, but wished to add mobility and single sign-on.

The temptation was to start from scratch - but Sullivan's team opted instead to upgrade the legacy SAP system and pair it with SAP’s Business Objects BI 4.0.

The company engaged UXC Oxygen to help with the implementation, which also included integration with Crystal 2011, Business Objects Explorer, and SAP Mobile BI 4.0.

Overall it took 342 person-days to revamp the SAP system, and a further 95 person days to get a mobile dashboard up and running.

The biggest gain, Sullivan said, is the newfound ability for the leadership team to examine business fundamentals and performance on their iPads.

Sullivan said the company now intends to push this visibility down to lower level management in order to promote a better awareness of overall business performance.