This is the latest stage in a project which began in 2002 to centralise PayPal's business data and provide staff with a business intelligence portal to better facilitate analysis of data.

Clay Stanley, senior director at PayPal is responsible for information management and delivery and has had the IT staff embedded within the finance department investigating how Teradata could be optimised for the Hyperion financial reporting software currently used by the finance department.

These embedded IT staff had the specialist skills required by each department, "In risk management, the team needed SQL, business intelligence, business analysis, SAS and reporting skills. Marketing needed SAS, reporting and [market] segmentation knowledge, and finance needed reporting experts." said Stanley.

The business intelligence portal provides tools to enable end-users to access PayPal's data warehouse, whilst power users, who make up about 15% of business users, have been given direct access to the Microstrategy reporting tool, 40% of users having direct access to business transactions stored in the data warehouse.

By reorganising PayPal's IT, Stanley is aiming for a time when 80% of business users will be able to access pre-built reports from the company's business intelligence portal.

.