Tom Graft

Tom has been working in Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing since 2000, counting over 24 years+ of experience in Business Analytics.

After graduating in Applied Information Technology, Tom started his career as an Information Analyst at EDS in 1997. He contributed to several projects for various customers (St-Jude Medical, Atlas Copco, General Motors, DHL, Carlson Wagonlit, and Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap). Over time, Tom evolved from operational ERP implementation projects, where he gained a lot of insight into various business domains and operations, to Business Intelligence & data warehousing. He took up roles as a data warehouse designer and ETL developer and became an expert in Cognos Business Intelligence.

Tom joined Cognos in 2005, where he worked as a Senior Business Intelligence consultant in various missions, going from firefighting and problem-solving with customers to helping and assisting them to work according to best practices in their BI journey. Next to this, Tom joined the European Cognos competence team, where he became Cognos BI Migration specialist and Configuration & Installation specialist for both Cognos BI, Cognos Planning, and Cognos Controller. Tom instructed also the complete Cognos BI curriculum both as classroom training and on-site customized training.

In 2008, Tom decided not to join IBM (after the Cognos acquisition), but started to work as a consultant, mainly for IKEA and Inter IKEA Centre Group. Here Tom supported various parts of the business mainly in Finance (including working with Cognos Controller as a source) but also Distribution, Retail, and IT. Tom was able to work as a very broad skilled consultant with contributions in various roles going from business analysis, data modeling and solution design, project management, ETL, and reporting development to support as IBM Cognos subject matter lead in the governance track of the Future BI Landscape pre-study at IKEA.

Tom has a broad proven track record of over 17 years within the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence stack, both functionally and technically. Over the past years, Tom also added IBM Cognos Disclosure Management and the integration of Cognos Controller and Cognos TM1 -including FAP- to his skillset. Tom also is a specialist in multi-server, multi-product installations & upgrades of IBM Cognos BI, IBM Cognos TM1, and IBM Cognos Controller in integrated environments, where all IBM Cognos Business Analytics modules are combined.

Since 2016, Tom increasingly has moved into interim BI management assignments, Data Governance audits, elaboration of Business Analytics roadmaps, development of BI Training plans & organizational development, and coaching around Data & Analytics both towards Senior Management and BICC Teams. In 2017 Tom joined the element61 management team as Analytics Director, to become Partner Analytics in 2022.

In his spare time, Tom enjoys wining and dining, and spending time in the city or in the park with the family. After being an active football player, Tom can still be found near the pitch supporting his son in playing his favorite game.