Ep #2: How to Sell Your BI Solution to the Business with Ross Wilson of McKesson

Learn the mindset of a Fortune 20 company Exec and his team who turned BI failure into success

by

Are you struggling to win over the business with your BI solution? You’re at the right place! Our special guest today is BI leader and veteran expert Ross Wilson. Ross has been working with SAP for about 20 years and started with BI back in 2001. Over the course of his career, he has worked with large companies like Pricewaterhouse, IBM, and Autodesk. Currently, he works with Mckesson where he is the Senior Director of Solution Management for McKesson.

While McKesson was one of the first companies I ever worked with, I met Ross about four years ago. We met while speaking in Africa and have connected in many countries since. Always fascinated by his very practical approaches to user adoption, I quickly realized that his background in finance was a key component to how he managed to gain BI success. On this Analytics on Fire podcast, we delve into how Ross has managed to sell both new and old BI solutions to his global business user base. We then take a deep dive into some of the challenges and successes that he’s had during his deployments. In this open discussion, we talk to Ross about what prompted Mckesson’s shift from IT to analytics and what that process of evolution looked like.  Ross also shares their biggest unavoidable failures and incredible successes along their analytics journey, and how he motivated the team to update their BI solutions and optimize their internal practices for delivering value.

While we joke about whether or not anyone has ever heard about McKesson in the podcast, as the 15th company on the Fortune 500 list, the company boasts 122 billion in yearly revenues. Mckesson distributes pharmaceutical and IT solutions for most of the healthcare industry. Today, nearly 20% of all US physicians use their services in some way.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

  • Ross’ untraditional background and what led him to BI and SAP.
  • What prompted McKesson’s shift from IT to analytics.
  • How Ross and his team handled failure with their users.
  • Why being honest about your legacy BI solution may increase user adoption
  • What Ross means by “failing fast” when it comes to Proof of Concepts.
  • The biggest challenges of McKesson’s analytics evolution process.
  • What KPI’s Ross and his teams measure to track their BI success.
  • How Ross was able to motivate his team to update their BI solutions.
  • The importance of staying flexible in the BI world and how to handle the dreaded ‘legacy’ discussion.
  • Ross’ tips for marketing analytics internally to gain traction. (this is golden)
  • What the terms Big Data, Data Scientist, Obamacare, and Mobile Analytics mean to Ross. (get ready to smile)

Right-click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

Links and Resources mentioned in this Episode:

Enjoy The Show?

Subscribe-with-iTunes-small Subscribe-with-Stitcher-small

 

Posted on
Category: Podcasts
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.