The smartest business intelligence tool in the boardroom

Unilever partnered with us to create an app that knows where you are and the meeting you’re in, then serves up the data you need to take effective decisions in just three taps — from anywhere in the world.

That’s OneView, the smartest business intelligence tool in the boardroom.

OneView is a cross-platform, end-to-end executive information system (EIS) that uses mobile to make business intelligence powerfully contextual. Pulling information from across Unilever, OneView provides just the right data at the right moment. This leads to leaner, more effective decisions without the need to carry around reams of printed, commercially sensitive material.

• Information lock down. Robust security protects Unilever’s most sensitive financial data from prying eyes.

• Powered by context. OneView serves up the data an exec most needs the moment they need it.

• Straight from the cloud. Critical business data, ultra fast, from anywhere in the world, via the cloud.

• Global scalability, baked in. Flexible, service-based architecture for faster performance and development.

• Operational insight, ready to go. Online or off, live reports across Unilever are always within a fingertip’s reach.

• Cross-platform functionality. Accessible wherever Unilever teams are: on web, smartphone and tablet.

The third largest consumer goods company in the world, Unilever is enormous. With operations in 190 different countries, providing a business intelligence solution for the entire organization right from the start was unfeasible.

Instead, we first identified a pilot user group to help us iteratively develop and test a bespoke solution. There was no better place to begin than right at the top, with Unilever’s Executive Group.

Based around the world, these users make critical commercial decisions every single day. Before OneView, the intelligence they relied on was largely in cumbersome hard copy: thousands of reports printed each month, and carried to group meetings across the world.

What the Group really needed was a clear, “one view” of operations: fast, up-to-date and delightful to use. An executive needed to see the reports specifically relevant to their meeting or their business unit automatically — without needing to search or rifle through endless mounds of paper.

With OneView, Unilever would be placing “red status” information into the cloud for the first time. This transition was essential, allowing OneView to deliver information at high speed around the world — but it also meant security was of critical importance, too.

Partnering with Unilever’s own IT security team, we created a collaborative and robust set of secure-by-design principles that were applied across OneView’s development. We then developed and led a groundbreaking security solution and scalable architecture with cloud deployment and, in partnership with Microsoft, a digital rights management system (DRM).

OneView successfully passed penetration testing the first time thanks to its near-military-grade security.

OneView has proved a breakthrough benchmark for Unilever, setting a new standard for what a great mobile experience coupled with contextually served business intelligence can achieve.

The product has also acted as an important catalyst, introducing Unilever to agile methodologies, including new concepts like rapid prototyping and iterative development.