Wausau Supply Company

Peggy Miller

Data Trust Advocate

Peggy Miller is a seasoned IT leader with 25 years of experience in information technology, the majority in leadership roles. As Director of Business Intelligence at Wausau Supply Company, her recent focus has centered on data and analytics leading a team that specializes in data engineering, analytics strategy, and data visualization. She helps the organization turn complex data into clear, reliable insights that drive better, faster decision-making across everyday operations and long-term strategy.

Trust the Data, Stay Nimble

To answer this question, I have to reflect on what has changed and why. Not too long ago in our industry, many decisions were made based on instinct and experience alone. As markets become more competitive and the business landscape shifts faster than ever, data has moved from a supporting role to the driver's seat.

Tracking historical trends and monitoring real-time impacts to sales allows organizations to forecast future outcomes with far greater confidence. Consider a supply chain disruption — a team relying on gut feel reacts after the damage is done, while a team with strong BI infrastructure sees the signal early and adjusts. That is the transformation. It is not just about having data; it is about having the right data, at the right time, in the hands of the right people — allowing organizations to stay nimble in an ever-changing market.

Perception Is Reality: Data Integrity Is Everything

The most important lesson I have carried throughout my career is this: perception is reality. If the business does not trust the data, the data has no value — regardless of how accurate it actually is.

What I have learned is that if you do not take time to establish a sound foundation and platform, or if the data is not accurate and easily accessible, it will not provide much value to the organization. Worse, when the business loses faith in the platform, people go outside the enterprise systems to find what they need. That creates cascading implications — most notably, conflicting answers to the same question depending on who pulled the report and where they pulled it from.

Our strategy is to maintain a deliberate balance: staying current with technology while fiercely protecting data integrity, accuracy, and the day-to-day reliability the organization depends on. The platform has to earn trust before it can drive strategy.

The Hub and Spoke Model: Empowering the Business

Balance is the operative word here. Data-driven insights are only valuable when they connect to the realities of how a business actually operates — and that connection requires meeting people where they are.

  ​If the business does not trust the data, the data has no value. Accuracy alone is not enough; BI must earn confidence before it can influence strategy.   

One strategy I have found particularly effective is building a hub and spoke model for data and analytics. The centralized BI team serves as the hub — owning governance, data integrity, and enterprise-level reporting. The spokes are subject matter experts embedded within individual departments who understand exactly what their teams need to run day-to-day operations. Providing self-service options for those practical, operational needs frees the central team to focus on what they do best: surfacing trends, identifying patterns, and presenting insights that answer questions before they are even asked. That proactive posture is where BI delivers its greatest value to leadership.

Embracing AI — Whether You Are Ready or Not

There is no avoiding it: artificial intelligence is the defining trend shaping the future of BI and analytics. I will admit, there was a moment where I understood the appeal of burying my head in the sand. But I am experienced enough to know that the technologies that matter do not wait for us to get comfortable with them.

So I chose to embrace it, learn it, and use it — and I have found it to be genuinely useful in ways I did not anticipate. My value in this role is not rooted in my ability to write optimal SQL queries or build reports from scratch. It is rooted in leadership, strategy, and understanding the business. AI has given me the ability to quickly develop technical fluency, research complex topics independently, and engage meaningfully with developers, engineers, and architects without consuming their time unnecessarily. For those technical team members, AI serves as a powerful accelerant — helping them tackle tough coding problems, evaluate performance tradeoffs, and identify more efficient solutions faster.

Beyond productivity, the emergence of agentic AI — systems that can be trained to proactively surface data insights to end users — represents a genuine leap forward in how BI value is delivered across an organization. We are moving from reporting on what happened to intelligently guiding what happens next.

Stay Curious. Stay Relevant.

Data is invaluable — but only as good as what is entered, how well it is managed, and how clearly it is communicated. BI work looks very different today than it did even a few short years ago, and the pace of change is not slowing down.

My advice: keep an open mind and be willing to shift your focus as the needs of your organization and the capabilities of technology evolve. The professionals who thrive will be those who invest in areas that remain deeply human — governance, data security, stakeholder communication, and the ability to truly listen to the business. Learn to gather requirements through conversation and storytelling. Develop the discipline to keep asking questions until you genuinely understand the problem, not just the request.

The tools will change. The fundamentals will not. Stay curious, stay humble, and above all — stay relevant.