Organization of IT at
Anheuser-Busch
Company Overview
Being a large publicly traded company with annual gross sales
totaling over $16 Billion, and net income of just over $2 Billion in
20031, Anheuser-Busch is a huge economic force in America.
Anheuser-Busch has several large divisions and subsidiaries: a
world-class brewery, a renowned media group, successful theme
parks, and many other ventures that make it a diverse company with
a high demand and need for integration of IT with its business
services.
Source: Anheuser-Busch Companies, “2003 Annual Report”
http://www.anheuserbusch.com/annual/2003/complete_ar.pdf, viewed October 3, 2004.
Company Overview
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•
•
•
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Headcount of entire organization - 23,216 people1
Gross Sales - $16.3 Billion1
Net Income - $2 Billion1
Worldwide Sales Volume - 109.8 million barrels2
Domestic Market Share - 49.2%2
1. Source: Anheuser-Busch Companies, “2003 Annual Report”
http://www.anheuserbusch.com/annual/2003/complete_ar.pdf, viewed October 3, 2004.
2. Source: Anheuser-Busch Companies, “Anheuser-Busch At A Glance”
http://www.anheuserbusch.com/publications/AtaGlance03.pdf, viewed October 3, 2004.
Interviewee
Robert J. Byrne -
Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Responsibilities
Data Center Operations
Network and Communications Services
Desktop Services
Application and Web Development
Support and Maintenance for AB Applications Worldwide
Information Technology Services
IT Performance Management
Source: Robert J. Byrne, VP & CIO of Anheuser-Busch Companies
Interviewed via email, September 28 - October 4, 2004.
Responsibilities Defined



Data Center Operations: includes all
centralized information processing for the
company
Network & Communication Services:
includes all phones, pagers, e-mail,
network and all other communication
services

• Financial services for the organization
• Information management & retention
for the corp.
• Information protection & IT disaster
recovery

Technology Development: includes
Enterprise Architecture, New Technologies
integration, services acquisition for IT
including contract labor

IT Performance Management:
Application Development:
• Supply chain & AB International
systems
Information Technology Services:
• Sales & marketing systems
• Internal Business Partner Planning for
IT inventories and IT standards
• Finance & HR systems
• IT communications
• Procurement & maintenance systems
• Process Improvement and Deployment
• Busch Entertainment & Corporation
systems
• Training and Management
Development
• AB Packaging group systems

HR for the IT division
Source: Robert J. Byrne, VP & CIO of Anheuser-Busch Companies
Interviewed via email, September 28 - October 4, 2004.
5
Report Structure
CIO
Sr. Director of Operations
Director
Performance Management
Sr. Director for App Dev, Support & Maint.
BEER
Director
IT Services
Sr. Director for App Dev, Support & Maint.
CORPORATE SYSTEMS
Director
Technology Development
Sr. Director for App Dev, Support & Maint.
SALES & MARKETING SYSTEMS
Director
Human Resources
Sr. Director
Busch Entertainment Systems
Source: Robert J. Byrne, VP & CIO of Anheuser-Busch Companies
Interviewed via email, September 28 - October 4, 2004.
6
Management Structure

Meet with each direct report privately for 30 minutes each week to discuss
key projects and departmental issues

Conduct 3 to 4-hour staff meetings with the entire group 3 times a month

During the staff meetings the team reviews detail reports on company
sales, theme park attendance, major IT projects, metrics, and major issues
of universal interest

The IT project presentations are formal and include details on timelines,
costs, ROI calculations, key issues, etc
Source: Robert J. Byrne, VP & CIO of Anheuser-Busch Companies
Interviewed via email, September 28 - October 4, 2004.
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C-Level Executives

Review major IT projects on a continual basis, via capital approval boards,
budget reviews, annual strategy planning reviews and IT project portfolio
reviews

Key points of interest include timelines, costs, ROI calculations, key issues,
etc.

Each officer in the corporation is involved in the IT function since the IT
systems are key to the success of their business functions

Board approval presentations are formal

Project portfolio reviews are informal in a round table-type setting

As part of the Finance Division providing key financial and business
services to every department within company, the IT organization is directly
involved in the financial decisions of AB.
Source: Robert J. Byrne, VP & CIO of Anheuser-Busch Companies
Interviewed via email, September 28 - October 4, 2004.
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IT Budget Development

Joint effort between IT and their business partner customers

The business units prioritize new projects based on ROI and other business
requirements

IT costs out new project development as well as annual support and maintenance
expenses

Exact budget for company is confidential but in general terms, it runs close to 1.5% of
net company sales

Total company revenues in 2003 were $16.3 Billion

On average, the investment in IT has increased in the 3% to 5% range each year during
the past 8 years

A general breakdown of the IT budget is as follows
• 48% Application Development
• 27% Operations (Desktop, Data Center, and Network Services)
• 25% General and Administrative Expenses including building rent and internal IT
operations expenses
Source: Robert J. Byrne, VP & CIO of Anheuser-Busch Companies
Interviewed via email, September 28 - October 4, 2004.
9
Headcount

Headcount of entire organization - 23,216 people

Current IT headcount including AB employees and contract
personnel is roughly 1,200

IT staff represents approximately 5% of total employees
Source: Robert J. Byrne, VP & CIO of Anheuser-Busch Companies
Interviewed via email, September 28 - October 4, 2004.
10
Project Pre-funding Review
• Representative of information reviewed by CIO and direct
report
• Presented to Business Units after Pre-funding Review
Approval
• Project implemented after Business Unit Approval
Source: Robert J. Byrne, VP & CIO of Anheuser-Busch Companies
Interviewed via email, September 28 - October 4, 2004.
11
Internal Presentation
Integrated Learning Reporting
CIO Pre-Funding Review
Champion: Training Department
Who Pays: Training Department
Stakeholders: Training Department, Outside Third Parties
Funding: company confidential
Timeframe: 200X
Project Manager: Individual within IT department
August 200X
The following slides are an internal presentation from Anheuser-Busch. Source: Robert J. Byrne, VP & CIO of AnheuserBusch Companies. Obtained via email, October 4, 2004.
Executive Summary
Project Manager:
Operations Project Manager:
Business Strategy: Increase Service Level
Business Unit: Training department
Project Scope & Objectives:
Situation:
There is currently no effective method to evaluate training activity (registrations, completions, etc) provided by the
department. A robust reporting tool is necessary to measure compliance with the training component of the agreement
with the third parties.
IT will provide the requesting customers with the ability to access standard and ad-hoc training activity reports.
Scope/Objectives:
• Integrate information from multiple training systems into a data repository.
• Build a custom web based application for standard training activity reports.
• Use Business Objects (WebI) to provide the customer with flexible ad-hoc reports.
• Migrate existing training activity reports to the new system.
Benefits:
• Maximize benefits of training spend by optimizing course offerings.
• Increased training participation levels.
• Improved reporting capabilities for personnel and the independent third parties.
• Increase AB’s ability to measure completing the training component of the agreement with the third parties.
• Reduced maintenance and new development costs for training activity reports.
• Graphing web service components that could potentially be made available enterprise wide.
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Executive Summary
Roles & Responsibilities:
• HR Systems - Project Management
• HR Systems – Domain Architect
• HR Systems – Data Architect
• Operations - Project Management
• Information Protection
• Enterprise Operations Management
• Enterprise Applications Management – AB-UP mentor
• Database Administration
• Network Services
• Training Department
Initial Risks:
• Scope management.
• Securing the appropriate internal resources
from MIS Operations areas.
• Tight schedule expectations since the business
sponsor wants the project completed in 200X.
• Security control for external access of internal
data.
• Web Services is an existing but emerging
technology to the company and will require
support by Enterprise Application Management
and Information Protection.
Key Requirements (Business):
• Standard training activity reports for
• Training department
• Field Sales
• Independent third parties
 Ad-hoc wholesaler training activity reports for
 Training department
Summary of Project Costs: (Not available for
external use)
 AD Labor
 OPS Labor
 Total Development
 Capital
 Grand Total
Tentative Schedule:
To be completed by year-end 200X
14
Executive Summary
Application Architecture Context Diagram
The detailed Architecture Context Diagram is not available externally.
Legend
Existing
Future
New/Changing
Retiring
15
Table of Contents

1 Introduction
• 1.1 Business Problems/Opportunities
• 1.2 Summary Project Recommendations

2 Scope & Objectives
• 2.1 Business Objectives
• 2.2 Project Dependencies
• 2.3 Initial Project Scope

3 Project Approach
• 3.1 Proposed Project Approach/Delivery Strategy
– 3.1.1 Detailed Deliverables
– 3.1.2 Milestones and Impact
• 3.2 Constraints
• 3.3 Assumptions
• 3.4 Risk Assessment and Risk Management
• 3.5 Governing Agreement
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Table of Contents

4 Roles and Responsibilities

5 Initial Project Plan and Estimated Costs and Schedule
• 5.1 Funding Request Breakdown
– 5.1.1 Project Cost Detail
• 5.2 Project Timeline
• 5.3 Business Benefit(s)
• 5.4 Measures
• 5.5 Change Control

6 Approval
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1.1 Business
Problems/Opportunities
Business Problem
There is currently no effective method to evaluate courses provided by the Training Department. There is a
requirement to create a production system to report against current and historical Integrated Learning system
training data. This system needs to be supportable and delivered to internal personnel and to the appropriate
third parties.
The new reporting system will need to be flexible and scalable, as the users have access to the data, more
requirements for reports will be generated.
Training Department Business Needs
Improved reporting capabilities to allow the department to analyze data from multiple source systems. Based
on this combined data, the training department will:
• Evaluate course participation and make business decisions for future course offerings.
• Reduce costs by optimizing course offerings.
• Evaluate participation levels to increase participation.
• Evaluate the participation for individual courses based on the media type (satellite, web based training or
live classroom) to determine the most effective delivery mechanism.
• Evaluate role based training requirements and summarized participation information to determine
frequency courses need to be offered.
• Determine an individual course’s cost effectiveness (compare the cost of producing/providing a course
against the number of break-even course participants).
·
Business Drivers·
• The current agreement requires tracking of third party certifications.
•
Even though training is not required for certification, the training courses are designed to increase the skill sets
necessary for certification.
• Improved reporting capabilities for appropriate third parties to track individual staff’s training.
•
Appropriate third parties can use this information to determine what courses their personnel need.
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1.2 Summary Project
Recommendations
IT evaluated multiple conceptual design approaches based on the business
requirements and appropriate infrastructure required to support the business
requirements. Based on this analysis, the following recommendation was made:
• A custom web based application will support the independent third parties
personnel accessing the system from the Internet via the secured extranet
environment.
• The custom internet application would be replicated internally within the
intranet to provide the same reports to the Field Sales and Training
Department personnel.
• XXXXXXXXXX would be used to provide ad-hoc reporting capabilities to the
Training Department.
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2.1 Business Objectives
Objectives
• Deliver a supportable, flexible, and maintainable Interactive Learning reporting
system that is accessible to internal personnel and appropriate third parties.
• Provide training related reporting capabilities that is not currently available.
• Provide information that will help the company make better business decisions
relating to training.
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2.2 Project Dependencies
Other Projects / Initiatives Dependent on the Project
• None
21
2.3 Initial Project Scope
In Scope:
1.
Integrate information from multiple systems including the Interactive Distance Learning
system, the educational management system that includes registrations, and the
enterprise data warehouse so that the information may be accessed for training related
reports.
2.
Build a custom web based application used to request training related reports.
 Training Department and Field Services will access via the intranet
 Third parties will access via the secured extranet connection.
3.
Create a standard user interface for the custom web based application with business
logic to filter options based on user role.
4.
Existing reports will be available in the new system.
Third Party Participation
•
Login Site Participation
•
Satellite Registration
•
Satellite Completions
•
Students Logged In
•
Student Satellite Registration
•
Student Satellite Completions
Training Administration
* Web Based Training Participation Details
* Satellite Registrations by Time and Course
* Course Attendance by Media Type
* Course Utilization
5.
Ad-hoc reporting capabilities for Training Department to run reports to evaluate training
data and define future reporting requirements.
6.
Begin analysis to define additional training related data that will be accessed for future
training related reports.
Out of Scope:
1.
Integration with other training system replacements or enhancements.
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3.1 Proposed Project
Approach/Delivery Strategy
The following tasks will be used to implement the new reporting system.
1. Participate in all standard QA related reviews and audits.
2. Finalize application and infrastructure design.
3. Design, develop, test, implement and load new reporting system
database.
4. With the participation of EAM, develop, test, and implement new web
services that will be created to support passing data between the new
database and the custom application.
5. Develop, test, and implement custom web based application for
accessing training related reports.
6. Develop ad-hoc reporting capabilities for the Training Department.
7. Test reporting results.
8. Implement new application(s) in production.
9. Document requirements for future phases including new reports and
future learning data source systems.
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3.1.1 Detailed Deliverables
The project deliverables will include:.
• Web based application that the appropriate third parties, the Training Department, and Field
Sales can use to access training related reports.
• XXXXXX reporting capabilities for the Training Department to run ad-hoc reports to evaluate
training data and define future reporting requirements.
• Existing reports that will be available in the new system:
– Login Site Participation
- Web Based Training Participation Details
–
–
–
–
–
- Satellite Registrations by Time and Course
- Course Attendance by Media Type
- Course Utilization
Satellite Registrations
Satellite Completions
Students Logged In
Student Satellite Registrations
Student Satellite Completions
The project deliverables from each of the 4 phases are identified below.
• Inception
• Construction
–
–
–
–
•
Project Plan
Use Case Model Survey
Glossary
Non-functional requirements
Elaboration
– Iteration plan
– Use Case Specifications
– Skeletal Class Diagram
– Key Sequence or Collaboration Diagrams
– Logical Data Model
– Change Orders and Decisions
– Source Code and Related Unit Tests
– Implementation Plan
– Acceptance Test Plans
•
Transition
– Acceptance Test Results
– Application or Website Usage Statistics
– User Satisfaction Surveys
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3.1.2 Milestones & Impact
Project Milestones & Estimated Completion
Major Milestones
End Date
1
Inception
Aug
2
Elaboration
Sep
3
Construction (including testing)
Oct/Nov
4
Transition
Nov
Organizational Impact
• The Training Department and Field Sales will be able to make training business
decisions based on related training reports.
• The Training Department will have the ability to create their own ad-hoc reports;
therefore, the support costs for these reports will be minimized and potentially
eliminated.
• The Application Development support team will reduce the amount of work to create
new custom training related report requests; therefore, the support costs will eventually
be reduced.
25
3.2 Constraints

Resources
• Availability for timely internal IT resources to define strategy, technical resources for
development, and Information Protection risk assessment of technical solution
• Customer involvement and commitment throughout project

Technical
• Web Services is an existing but new technology that will require support by EAM and IP.

Time
• Project must be completed in 200X.

Budgetary
• Project dependent on budgetary approval.
26
3.3 Assumptions

Reporting requirements are summary in nature and therefore do not require realtime updates to the reporting system. The data used to create the reports will be
deleted nightly and reloaded from the source systems.

The reporting application will use the existing user profile information to
automatically filter reports based on the user’s role.

Three data sources have been identified to supply the data for reporting:

Interactive Distance Learning system that contains satellite course
information

Education Management System that contains registrations and completions
for all appropriate third party related courses

Enterprise Data Warehouse that contains organizational and territorial data
about appropriate third parties and field sales representatives

Continued development of existing report system is on-hold while the new
system is designed and developed.

Appropriate development resources will be available for this project
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3.4 Risk Assessment & Risk
Management
Risk Management
Risk Description
Status
Comments
Action Items
Scope Management
To protect the viability of the
current approved Project
Definition

Scope can change frequently.

Resources
Knowledgeable resources
are required for this project

Resource Availability and
commitment – Securing internal
resources


Schedule
Tight timeframe to deliver
project

Availability of resources could
push the project start date and
impact ability to complete in
2004

Technical
Web Services are required
for this project

Emerging technology that still
has some security concerns


Agreed on initial scope.
Continue to review project
progress with customers in
context of the current scope.
Any scope changes occur
through Change Control
process.
Experienced application
architect and developer will be
assignment to project and can
mentor any junior developers.
Additional resources will be
secured and fully dedicated to
this project.
Resources have been
identified and will be dedicated
100%.
Review proposed solution with
all appropriate groups
including Information
Protection.
Work with EAM mentor to
review design and code.
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3.5 Governing Agreements
The approved Development Agreement will be used as the governing agreement
for this project.
29
4 Roles & Responsibilities
Role
Responsibility
Business Sponsor
Responsible for providing scope, direction, approval, and funding for the project.
Identifies necessary Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and their roles within the project.
Application Development
Project Manager
Responsible for day-to-day project activities including planning, monitoring, and
reporting progress to the business sponsor. Also responsible for creating project
deliverables, overseeing project change control, tracking progress, and documenting
future business requirements, coordinating system integration and customer
acceptance testing.
Application Development Web
Developers (2)
Responsible for designing, coding, and testing the custom reporting system.
Business Objects Developer
Responsible for designing, coding, and testing an ad-hoc reporting system that can be
used to create flexible/dynamic Training Department reports.
Domain Architect
Responsible for ensuring applications conform to all of AB’s standards.
Data Architect
Responsible for data analysis and design for logical and physical data model to
support the new reporting system.
Ops Project Manager
Coordinates resources and activities for Operations resources.
Information Security
Performs IT security audits and assessment.
EOM – Web Ops
Responsible for architecture reviews, stress testing, and external infrastructure.
DBA
Responsible for testing, tuning, and maintaining new reporting database.
Network Services
Responsible for defining data flow, network connectivity, and bandwidth consumption.
30
5.1 Funding Breakdown

Total Estimated Project Costs:
– Expense: $
– Support: $
– Capital:

$
Cost of the project will be funded as follows:
–
31
5.2 Project Timeline
20XX
Qtr 3
Jul
Project Preparation
Aug
20XX
Qtr 4
Sep
Oct
•Develop Agreement
•Project Funding
•Technical Approvals
•Ramp Up & Resource Acquisition
Inception
•Application
Architecture
Design
Elaboration
Nov
Dec
• Database logical & physical
data model
• Web services
•Connectivity to database
•Graphics
• Custom application
•User Interfaces
Construction/Testing
Implementation
32
5.3 Business Benefits
Benefits
• Allow appropriate third parties access to training related reports that are not
currently available to them.
• Appropriate third parties use training related information to make better training
choices.
• Reduce costs by optimizing course offerings.
• Allow appropriate third parties to review training related information daily and
adjust personnel training schedules accordingly.
• Allow appropriate third parties to assure proper training is available to meet the
terms of the agreement.
33
5.4 Measures
Project Metrics
• Project costs at or below approved funding
• Delivery of Product is early or on-time
• Percentage of milestones met as planned
• Actual hours to do tasks vs. baseline
• Number of defects
• Lines of code
Metric Measurement
• Weekly project plan reviews
• Post-implementation customer reviews
34
5.5 Change Control
Change Control Log
• The Change Control Log represents any modifications to the content of this
document. Upon approval, a Change Control Log will be established, and
changes will be review and approved by IT and the business sponsor.
• All work products will adhere to the Sarbanes-Oxley configuration policy and
standards.
35
6 Approval
6.0
Approval
Approvers:
• VP of Training Department
• Director of Applications Development
Reviewers:
• Applications Development Manager
• Applications Development Project Manager
• Applications Development Domain Architect
• Operations Project Manager
36
Summary
Anheuser-Busch’s IT department has specific views on how they are to relate to the
company. Robert Byrne states:
“We are not an information technology company ... we are a beer company. The last message in the
world our IT organization wants to send to our company is that there are 1,200 IT people sitting
around dreaming up IT solutions to business problems that do not exist. We are a group of 1,200
business people who happen to manage IT. There will be no information technology driven
initiatives ... everything we do is a business initiative enabled by IT”
Here Mr. Byrne defines the reason that IT exists at Anheuser-Busch:
•Business Growth through the systems we build, run and maintain for our customers and through
the business strategies we support
•Cost Reduction in the business initiatives we deliver that are enabled by IT
•Standardization and Service Excellence in our delivery to internal and external customers and in
the maintenance and replacement of IT infrastructure, hardware and software
Source: Robert J. Byrne, VP & CIO of Anheuser-Busch Companies
Interviewed via email, September 28 - October 4, 2004.
37