How Reckitt Benckiser takes a BYOD-like approach to visualisation tools

CIO Darrell Stein claims 'there isn't just one visualisation tool that works' for everything

Consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser has taken a bring-your-own-device (BYOD)-like approach to visualisation in a bid to get the best out of its numerous data sources, says the company's CIO Darrell Stein.

In an interview with Computing, Stein explained that the organisation, whose brands include Dettol, Strepsils, Veet and Durex, is using a range of technologies to extract more intelligence from its data.

Reckitt Benckiser is using Amazon Web Services (AWS) for hosting, and a series of Birst business intelligence tools, which sit on top of that. This enables it to collate a vast amount of data.

On top of that, sit a number of visualisation tools.

"There isn't just one that works. So, when we're getting data from marketing information provider Nielsen, for example, we use some of their tools because we don't want to rebuild stuff that's already fine. When we are comparing some of our internal statistics we use other visualisation tools," said Stein.

"We use a whole range of different ones - you can't set one tool for the market. It's a bit like BYOD, if you like. You have to be much more flexible, so you need to create the data at the bottom. But then, on the top, you stick on all of the tools because what I wouldn't want to do is have to rebuild and re-invest everything if a new visualisation tool came out. I want to be able to plug and play," he said.

But doesn't it cost more to have all of these different tools in place?

"Not really, because this is where you're really taking advantage of software-as-a-service (SaaS). You're getting some pretty good deals on some of these products," said Stein.

"The real cost is making sure you're keeping the cost of hosting, data quality and manipulation down, which are areas that we are consolidating," he added.

Popular visualisation technologies include the likes of Tableau and QlikView, while many other business-intelligence providers are starting to produce their own visualisation solutions to integrate with their existing products.