Building the Foundation for Business Intelligence: One Midmarket Company's Journey
AI is sparking both excitement and fear among business leaders. Everyone knows they need to embrace it, but few know where to start. That’s precisely the path Save the Children took with Silver Tree, beginning with trusted, high-quality data. Their journey shows how building a strong data foundation first can turn uncertainty into clarity and deliver measurable value from business intelligence to AI.
Following Silver Tree’s participation in last week’s CEO Connection Midmarket Convention, an exclusive gathering of midmarket C-level executives, subject matter experts, and senior government officials to shape midmarket perspectives, one theme stood out loud and clear: The excitement and fear surrounding AI. Leaders know they must develop AI solutions, yet many lack clarity on where to begin.
The reality is, whether the goal is business intelligence (BI), advanced analytics, machine learning, or AI, success starts in the same place—trusted, secure, high-quality data. Without trusted, secure, high-quality data, BI is unreliable, and AI has nothing to build upon.
That's precisely the journey Save the Children (STC) is on with Silver Tree. Like many midmarket enterprises, STC struggled with siloed systems, fragmented data, and inconsistent governance. Leaders couldn't fully trust the information they relied on to run the business, slowing decisions, limiting campaign effectiveness, and preventing personalized engagement.
It All Starts With the Data
Leaders wanted better intelligence and trusted analytics, but first they needed a solid data foundation. As Silver Tree President, Tony Doye explains, "The ability to tag your data, sort your data, manage your data, curate your data, keep it consistent, reduce duplication, is critical to get trusted data."
Silver Tree began with an eight-week strategy engagement—an assessment that laid the foundation for everything that followed. The assessment covered organizational skills and structures, technology platforms, stakeholder needs and wants, and, most importantly, critical business use cases where data could create real impact. From that foundation, Silver Tree and STC moved into execution across four key areas:
Key Takeaways
Midmarket companies that invest in accurate, trusted data to fuel BI and analytics can expect results like Save the Children, including:
- Reduced costs by optimizing how data platforms are managed and maintained
- Improved operational efficiency through faster, more reliable reporting and analytics
- Trusted, high-quality data that leadership teams can use with confidence to make better, faster decisions
"If you're looking for a partner of choice that really will move with you, be dynamic with you, and understand your needs but also give you sound advice, I would recommend Silver Tree to any of my colleagues."
--Ron Guerrier, CTO | Save the Children
For executives, the lesson is clear: When you establish a solid data foundation, you can exploit and leverage it—first through BI and analytics, then through advanced use case like machine learning and AI. Trusted data is what transforms AI from a concept into a competitive advantage.
For Save the Children, the story doesn't stop at BI and analytics. With the proper foundation in place, the organization is now well-prepared to confidently move into AI. But the lesson for every midmarket enterprise is clear: get your data right, build BI as the bridge, and only then can AI deliver real value.
As Save the Children's Chief Technology Officer, Ron Guerrier states in this video:
"It's great to be be by the side of an organization that has the same philosophy in mind. The sync between the two organizations is lockstep, and we've locked arms throughout this process."
--Ron Guerrier, CTO | Save the Children
Ready to see the full story in action?
If your organization feels the urgency of AI but lacks clarity on where to start—start where Save the Children began. Begin with a Strategic Assessment, build the data foundation, unlock BI and analytics, and then move confidently into AI.
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Tony Doye is President of Silver Tree Consulting & Services, bringing more than 25 years of leadership experience across IT services, outsourcing, and corporate operations. He has held senior executive roles at leading organizations, including CompuCom, Fujitsu North America,Unisys, and CSC, and began his career with IBM, where he spent two decades in global services and customer leadership roles. Before joining Silver Tree, Tony served as COO of Girl Scouts of the USA, where he drove strategic initiatives to diversify revenue, strengthen fund development, and enhance customer experience. Known for his ability to align technology and business priorities, Tony now leads Silver Tree’s growth and client development, with a particular focus on advancing the mission and impact of non-profits.
