In the know U S West erects a powerhouse data system to keep its employees on top of customer information >BY BRENDA MONCLA

Information is power. Never was this adage more true than in today's telecommunications industry. The new competitive environment poses a special challenge for those who must build the information systems that employees require to reach the goals that are critical to the company's success.

U S West Communications first confronted this challenge in the fall of 1994, when it came to a troubling conclusion. With the information systems then available to employees, the company was having great difficulty keeping pace with all the changes in the industry. As the pace accelerated, employees shackled by obsolete technology were inevitably falling further and further behind.

When U S West's Information Technology organization began to address the need for new information systems, it realized that employees needed more efficient ways of tracking product revenues and expenses. They also needed better ways of determining which products customers were migrating to and why. These and similar capabilities are commonly known as "decision support."

In late 1994, the carrier decided to create a new "data warehouse," in which computer hardware, operating system and database management system were specifically engineered to work as one system for decision support.

In its decision to act quickly, the company would spend most of 1995 building a pilot version of its new data warehouse and moving small groups of end users to the warehouse by the end of the year. New users would be added through 1996.

Largely because of the cooperation of senior management and the active involvement of end users in the company's business units, U S West's Information Technology organization has met its deadlines. Today, end users throughout U S West's territory have a fully functioning data warehouse that contains one reliable data source for all customers, products and revenues. This warehouse will provide employees with decision support capabilities for serving customers in all 14 states where U S West operates. Designing the system

In building its data warehouse, the organization worked closely with end users in the business units to consider how data should be organized and stored so that employees could obtain quick and accurate responses to their questions. Consultants were brought in to conduct classes on information modeling for end users.

In these classes, users discussed how to organize the data so they could "drill down" through the higher, summary levels to the detailed data that a question might require. If, for example, revenues for one customer's multistate operations dropped off dramatically from one month to the next, users would want to drill down through the data on that customer to identify the state, product or service program where the drop-off was greatest.

Information modeling classes prepared end users in the business units to find the answers they needed. These classes also enabled end users to contribute to the design of the warehouse and understand it better once they began to use it.

While designing and building the data warehouse, U S West's information technology organization took every opportunity to sell the concept to senior management. For example, if the warehouse contributed to answer a question that saved U S West Communications a significant amount of money, staff members quantified how much money was actually being saved using the speed and accuracy not previously available.

From the start of this project, the organization recognized that the computer system chosen to host the new data warehouse would have to be highly efficient and cost-effective. Therefore, it looked for a host system that was scalable over time. If, at some point, the organization wanted to double the number of processors on the system, it expected to obtain roughly twice the processing power for its investment.

To obtain the degree of scalability required, U S West selected IBM's parallel-processing computer, the RS/6000 Scalable Power parallel systems platform for the data warehouse. The RS/6000 SP uses several processors that attack a question simultaneously and shorten response time considerably. Because more processors can be added as needed, the decision-support capabilities of the warehouse can scale with the size of the database, the number of end users and the complexity of their questions. Initially, the organization expanded its SP from four processors to 24 and recently added an additional 28.

For the operating system on its data warehouse, U S West chose IBM's AIX operating system, and for the database management system, Oracle's parallel server. Up and running

By the end of 1995, the data warehouse was up and running with a small group of end users. In early 1996, more end users were brought onto the warehouse.

Already, employees can see what a difference the new data warehouse has made. In the past, information on product sales and revenues might be spread over as many as 30 different databases.

Until recently, information from 30 different databases was hard to retrieve and was accessible to a limited number of employees. Collecting the information from these databases might take a day or a month.

Today, 90% of the revenue data is stored in one place, the data warehouse, which is widely available to employees. Soon, all the information will be there because employees and other end users have requested the specific data they would like loaded in on a regular basis.

The new design of the database will allow users to drill down through the data much more easily. If a user wants to match details involved in supporting products and services with revenues, she might start with a particular state, then drill down to a neighborhood wire center that services several customers, and then to an office or residence of a particular customer. This way, she can look at all the products or any one product used at a particular location.

By identifying the details associated with the products and services used at a location and matching these details with company revenues, a user will be able to easily determine whether U S West is making or losing money on specific products and services. The questions that used to take anywhere from a day to a month to answer can be answered within an hour or two.

Introducing the "mart" Before the end of 1996, employees will be able to take subsets of data from the warehouse and copy them to servers and desktop computers located in various business units and departments throughout U S West. These computers are called "marts." The data warehouse and marts will play a major role in employees' efforts to improve service to customers, especially those who operate over several states. In the past, when a large customer needed to know which products and services for network monitoring were being used at its locations in several states, U S West Communications could not provide this information quickly because it was often spread across several billing systems. Competitors were sometimes able to answer such questions more quickly, which only weakened the strong relationships U S West had built with its large customers.

As the data warehouse and marts are fully deployed, however, U S West will be able to rapidly provide customers with detailed information on the products and services they have already purchased. By doing so, the company will improve service to these customers and lay the groundwork for future marketing campaigns.

U S West's data warehouse and marts should have a major impact on future marketing campaigns, particularly those targeted at large, multistate customers. Over the next several months, U S West will approach large customers with comprehensive service programs that will help ensure the speed and quality of the company's response to issues and problems.

But before any marketing of service programs begins, U S West must have detailed histories of all the services it has already provided for a large customer's multistate operation. What percentage of due dates for service delivery have been met and missed? What has been the average time required to identify and resolve a problem once the customer has reported it? Are there specific areas of service in which U S West clearly must improve before it markets any new programs to this customer? Only by answering questions such as these can the company plan future marketing campaigns that will be successful.

Analyzing marketing campaigns When a new marketing campaign begins, employees will use the speed and accuracy of the data warehouse and marts to track the campaign. Corporate marketing staff of U S West Communications, for example, will use the data warehouse and data marts to track the success of products, price levels, service programs and distribution channels, including telemarketing, direct mail and print and TV advertising.

Marketing staff will also be able to analyze close ratios to determine how many customers ordering a particular product or service called back the next day to cancel the order or how many customers kept a new service for only month and then dropped it.

Once a marketing campaign gets underway, employees will quickly know how successful it is. With the data warehouse and marts, marketing staff will not miss sales opportunities. They now have the information they need to make informed decisions quickly. If it's envisioned as a multistate campaign, they will know what's working and what's not working in one state before they roll out the campaign to other states.

And finally, they will be able to share their successes and mistakes more easily with employees throughout

U S West. This way, they can all use the lessons they've learned to plan future marketing campaigns.

More importantly, the warehouse will help the company pose and answer the questions about its customers and its industry that no one can answer today. What trends will emerge to change the business environment for customers? How will these trends change the products and service offered and the way U S West must position itself for the future? This is where the data warehouse will undoubtedly have its greatest impact.

Brenda Moncla is Senior Director of the Shared Capabilities Department in U S West's Information Technology Organization, Denver.