MasterCard Masters Information Delivery
By Ron Miller
May 24, 2004
Excerpted from eWEEK
Business Objects solution streamlines scattered data processes
Back in the 1990s, MasterCard International Inc. got into data warehousing in a big way and built a vast storehouse of information. But as the decade came to a close, the company wanted to find a way to deliver some of that data in a more efficient and timely manner to its bank clients.
MasterCard went shopping for a Web-based business intelligence solution that could scale to tens of thousands of users: not an easy task in 2000.
According to John Meister, head of information delivery at MasterCard, of Purchase, N.Y., the company wanted to distribute information on such topics as compliance, fraud monitoring and cardholder retention to banks more quickly. At the time, MasterCard sent the information to banks monthly, using a client/server application with outdated and inflexible reporting tools.
"I could give you last month's data but not today's data or yesterday's data," Meister said. What's more, the old tool was difficult to use, and users often needed IT department intervention to generate reports, which delayed information delivery to key decision makers even longer.
Although users could view fixed aggregate information, such as information by state level or country level, they had to contact the IT department if they wanted to see a unique level - a process Meister called awkward and time-consuming and one requiring high maintenance. Meister said MasterCard wanted to come up with different techniques to improve customers' efficiency in their jobs, and that meant getting the most recent data anytime they needed it.
MasterCard went looking for a vendor, and, at the time, Business Objects S.A., based in Levallois-Perret Cedex, France, and Cognos Inc., of Ottawa, were the only vendors that could handle MasterCard's requirements. In the end, MasterCard chose Business Objects because it offered a scalable Web-based solution. "Business Objects was most mature in the Web market, and that, in turn, was translating to them as having the most scalability," Meister said.
MasterCard and Business Objects launched a pilot within six weeks of signing a contract back in 2000, but the pilot lasted a year and a half while they built and fine-tuned the system for clients. "We spent a little more time on this project. We had evolved, and, as you evolve, your pilots become longer and you have to make sure your solutions are more robust," Meister said.
In addition to the kinds of functionality issues that are the focus of the typical pilot, MasterCard had to deal with a worldwide client base, and that meant usability issues. "Culturally, usability is different depending on the country," Meister said.
The company decided to begin with the Asia/Pacific region, reasoning that it would likely be a more challenging implementation. "For us, the United States was going to be straightforward, and we wanted a tougher objective," Meister said.
The new system gave customers secure access to data, anytime they wanted to see it, through five separate Web applications presented as separate portals. Now customers could look at data such as fraud reports and spot trends before they were out of control. Each application, however, had its own look and feel, meaning users had to learn a new way of working in each one.
After completing the pilot, MasterCard rolled it out to different areas using customer advocates to help deliver and implement the system. To ease the transition to the new system, the company created a variety of documentation and training materials, including online tutorials, self-guided demonstrations and paper documentation.
The new system was well-received, and clients were happy to have easier and more immediate access to information, although as with any new system, it was by no means perfect.
"We tried to figure out, each step of the way, what we wanted to do next [to improve the system]," Meister said. In an effort to respond to customer needs, the company purchased Business Objects' portal product and upgraded it so that all five applications live inside a unified Portfolio Analytics Portal. This offers the advantage of presenting a set of applications in a single environment and with a common look and feel, making it easy to move between applications.
Today, the system boasts thousands of client banks with tens of thousands of users, and Meister said that number is growing. The system continues to scale to those needs. The next step is to improve the analytics end of the application.
MasterCard has been satisfied with its relationship. "The one thing I like about Business Objects is that they are very good at supporting me," Meister said. "It's not often my vendors let me talk to developers and help guide them, but Business Objects lets me do that."
