Consumer goods companies are turning to business intelligence to manage costs.

Sixty-eight percent of consumer goods companies say that they plan to make BI available to more employees more quickly, according to the InformationWeek 500 survey. That percentage is substantially higher than the average figure of 37% for all InformationWeek 500 companies.

At E.&J. Gallo Winery, the largest family-owned winery in the world, VP and CIO Kent Kushar says his company is using SOA architecture, SaaS, and its BI repository to optimize its product packaging, pricing, and channel strategies. The goal is to deliver productivity, inventory, and planning improvements.

"It has changed the way the business operates--executives are asking for and using more data, detail, and analysis," says Kushar.

In addition to BI, upgrades to Web operations are a priority. Among InformationWeek 500 survey respondents, consumer goods companies as a group (32%) show more interest in improving Web operations than the average (26%).

Herbalife CIO Chuck Sperazza expects his company will grow its Internet and mobile sales channels. While well-developed in the United States, the Internet accounts for only about 10% to 15% of the company's business globally.

Industry Snapshot: Consumer Goods