Customer Spotlight: Kimberly-Clark Drives Revenue, Boosts Production by Deploying Microsoft's Business Intelligence Tools

REDMOND, Wash., March 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Kimberly-Clark Corp., a leading producer of consumer personal-care products, has adopted a business intelligence (BI) solution from Microsoft Corp. to improve manufacturing efficiency and increase business agility, Microsoft reported today.

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Kimberly-Clark chose Microsoft Business Intelligence solutions for the user-friendly interfaces, extensibility and integration into existing Microsoft software. By deploying a suite of Microsoft solutions including Microsoft Excel 2007 and Microsoft SharePoint 2007 for reporting needs, Kimberly-Clark provided business analysts with greater visibility into its supply chain, inventory and manufacturing performance, making it easier to pull and aggregate data such as corporate forecast variance and in-stock tools, without a steep learning curve.

"The Microsoft business intelligence solution has transformed the way we do business at Kimberly-Clark," said Ramon F. Baez, vice president of IT Services and chief information officer at Kimberly-Clark. "The challenges of the economic downturn make it imperative to use information as a competitive advantage, and, thanks to Microsoft's BI solution, employees can make faster decisions and leverage mission-critical information to stay one step ahead of our competitors."

In the first three months since the deployment, Kimberly-Clark has already increased production efficiency using solutions such as SharePoint 2007, to store reports and standardize work across multiple resources, and Excel 2007, which enabled it to create built-in processes and tools to replenish data easily and allow for at-a-glance data visibility. The company has also realized $10 million in additional revenue by avoiding "out of stock" scenarios. Having successfully implemented the BI solution in its supply chain and manufacturing execution domains, Kimberly-Clark is now looking to reproduce the benefits of the solution in other areas of the company. The company also plans to add new capabilities to the existing BI solution when it upgrades to Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010.

"Kimberly-Clark touches more than 1 billion consumers in 80 countries each day, and its business users must be able to seamlessly share and collaborate using flexible business intelligence tools in an IT-managed infrastructure," said Kevin Tigges, U.S. consumer goods industry director, Microsoft. "Kimberly-Clark's BI solution drives value by enabling its IT staff to provide business users with fast access to the right information in a secure and compliant way on whatever device they are using — PC, smartphone or browser — so they can efficiently glean customer insight, measure success and move their business forward."

More information about Kimberly-Clark's BI deployment is available at http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Office-2007-Suites/Kimberly-Clark/Firm-Uses-BI-Tools-to-Realize-10-Million-in-Incremental-Revenue-in-Three-Months/4000009160.

About Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 150 countries. Every day, 1.3 billion people — nearly a quarter of the world's population — trust K-C brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds No. 1 or No. 2 share positions in more than 80 countries. To keep up with the latest K-C news and to learn more about the company's 139-year history of innovation, visit www.kimberly-clark.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.