Social Media Portal

Fredrik Ohlsson, programme director at Tetra Pak on IT architecture and the #BIGITSG2016 conference

Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your full name, job title and role (what do you do there) for Tetra Pak?

Fredrik Ohlsson (FO): I?m Fredrik Ohlsson and I?m the programme director for business intelligence for the Tetra Pak Group.   I direct of enterprise IT architecture and am responsible for the IT architecture, technology roadmap and IT strategy for the Tetra Pak group overall.  

SMP: Briefly, tell us about Tetra Pak, when was the company founded and what does it do?

FO: Tetra Pak is the world market leader in food packaging and food processing. Present in 170 markets,, it has 25,000 employees and revenue in 2015 was 11BEuro. The company was founded in 1952 in Sweden, and is today headquartered in Switzerland.

SMP: Who are your target audience and why?

FO: IT executives, the topic of analytics is on the top of every IT executives agenda and I think the journey that Tetra Pak has done can be an inspiration for other organisations.

SMP: Why are you attending BIGIT Technology Singapore 2016, when/what is your session entitled and what is it about?

FO: To share expertise with other companies with similar challenges.

SMP: What do you expect attendees/delegates will take away from your session?

FO: I?m delivering a case study on 22nd March, 2016 at 12:00, entitled ?Optimising Data Generation with Self-Service Exploratory Business Intelligence (BI)?. They'll see a valuable method and learning of deploying analytics and business intelligence (BI).

SMP: Why is big data such an important issue at Tetra Pak and within the APAC region?

FO: Big data is not only the source for making better decisions, it can also open up new revenue streams, it can change your business model.  

SMP: How are you implementing the use of Tetra Pak information across the organisations and why is this important?

FO: Fact based decisions making is an integrated part of our business process and we treat the use of information as key capability. We value the single version of the truth, all organizations should have access to the same data everywhere. Information has clear business ownership and a right quality process.  

SMP: What are the challenges that you?ve encountered regarding big data at Tetra Pak and how are you overcoming?

FO: When we embarked on our big data journey we though our biggest challenge was to find and implement the right technology. That we realised soon was not our biggest challenge. The biggest challenge was to change the mind set.

SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far at Tetra Pak?

FO: Implementing a truly global analytic platform that is today used by 10,000 users on more than 100 markets.

SMP: What do you think is going to be the most interesting aspect regarding big data and business intelligence for the next 12 to 18-months and why?


FO: The internet of things (IoT). Until now most of the data that we analyse has been created by people. The most valuable data today is what is created by our machines. We will see a very exciting development in how we use this data to predict events and optimise our business

SMP: What are your top five predictions for big data and business intelligence for the next 12 to 18-months and why?

FO replies with:

• Internet of Things and sensor generated data.
• The move from descriptive analytics to Predictive analytics.
• Digitalization of products and services.
• The use of public cloud services to store large amount of data.
• The establishment of big data analytic teams.

SMP: What are your top overall five big data and business intelligence tips and why?

FO replies with:

• Don?t treat Big data analytic as normal IT initiatives. They need to be treated as innovation activities.
• Educate your top management on the benefit. Use reversed mentorship. Data is today only the source for good decisions. It?s also a source for new products and services.  
  
• Learn how to fail fast, you need an agile process so you can try new ideas without losing a lot of money.
• Big data analytics does not need an expensive IT infrastructure project. You can start small, using cloud services.
• Many times it?s difficult to get a financial business case with tangible ROI. You need to base your big data investment more on a strategic level.

SMP: Is there anything else we should know, or is there anything that you?d like to share?

FO: Analytics and big data is still a very young science. There are very few best practises. But don?t wait for it to mature, you need to start now .


SMP: Best way to contact you and Tetra Pak?

FO: fredrik.ohlsson@tetrapak.com



SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?

FO: Swedish knackebrod with homos.

SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?

FO: Helped a taxi uncle change his flat tire. As a swede you get very good at that since we need to change our tires to winter tires every year. It?s the law.

SMP: If you weren?t working at Tetra Pak what would you be doing?

FO: Traveling.

SMP: When / where did you go on your last holiday and why?

FO: Thailand, Phuket.

SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?

FO: Have a cup of coffee.

SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?

FO: To be able to fly, would be nice to move around like superman ☺

BIGIT Technology Singapore 2016 #BIGITSG2016, is to be held from 22-23 March 2016 at the Marriot Singapore Tang Plaza, Singapore.

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