BI Insight

Background

A major home video distribution company sought Systech’s assistance to bolster their category leadership for the DVD category in the retail scenario. They required retailer specific solutions and comparable insights across many retailers and markets.

Objective

The objective of the Category Management project is to provide the data foundation, both strategically and technically, for the overall Category Management Application and subsequent releases, the better forecasting and allocation of new releases, and fixture level assortment planning and merchandising. The approach targeted the most influential variables within a category manager’s span of control: Adjacencies, Aisle Flow, Planogram Configuration, and SKU Assortment in an effort to simplify the consumer shopping experience.

Challenges

Data

• Highly disparate sources of data made it difficult to get a holistic view
• Lack of visibility into financial performance, channel sales and inventory across 13 territories outside US

Incentives

• Category management functions between the retailer and the distributor across the globe was not aligned
• Different promotions and plannogramming at various retailers across different locations made it difficult to perform an efficient analysis

Process

• Standardization of master/reference data across multiple categories
• Required definition of goals, metrics and incentives

Technology

• Required timelines and quality of analysis on large volumes of granular data
• Needed access into significant number of resources to crunch data, gather insights and make it actionable

Solution

Systech worked with the client to develop Enterprise Data Architecture to Integrate Data and applications residing in 13 different sources across many countries. Informatica was configured for the ETL process to extract data from source & populate the data mart. Systech’s seamless data exchange through automation, resulted in minimal manual intervention. Conversions and interfaces were also built from existing and legacy systems to a flexible platform, and migration was managed without any disruptions to the users. To make the deployment efficient, Systech adopted a Phased Approach (by territory)

Systech also designed, developed & implemented the data warehouse, the reporting & Dashboard applications to provide information on Sales, inventory, promotion, assortment planning, merchandizing, market share by retailer, by SKU, by time, by region using MicroStrategy. Defining key business drivers and KPIs to achieve deeper insights into the product was also facilitated.

Product-specific configuration principles were developed to be implemented when new DVDs were introduced into the strategic assortment structure. In addition, Systech developed a fully automated assortment tool that integrated configuration principles with market forecasting to optimize space allocation on an account level.

The category management application was developed in an onsite – offshore model.

The underpinning category strategy set by Systech was to increase footfall into the category, by improving relevance, as well as to simplify the customer shopping experience, through improved layouts, product range segmentation and product presentation.

Results & Benefits

Assortment Planning and Merchandising

•  Assisted in determining which products should be in distribution at specific stores during specific time frames
•  Assisted in determining which, and when, to discontinue an item
•  Helped the buyer determine which assortment of products will best maximize and capitalize on seasonal changes and events like holidays.
•  Matched consumer demographic and psycho-graphic traits to store level assortment
•  Determined incremental gain obtained thrrough cross selling synergy, or diminished sales resulting from cannibalization
•  Helped understand correlations between qualitative activities, such as fixtures and displays, and quantitative results such as sales dollars and unit sales
•  Helped understand cross-merchandising patterns and opportunities, such as selling DVD’s near DVD players
•  Assessed planogram performance in maximizing store sales and/or category profits

Market Share Analysis

•  Assisted in determining the performance of retailers and products across different geographic areas such as the West coast, Midwest, Los Angeles, etc.
•  Evaluated the performance of retailers and products across different channels such as grocery, mass merchant, specialty
•  Assisted in ranking and assessing the performance of vendor sales for specific products across retailers
•  Helped compare the retailer’s sales performance against another part of the market, or across the market as a whole.
•  Assessed the opportunities of expanding the retailers’ footprint into new markets, categories, or channels.
•  Evaluated Market Share across studio, brand, genre, format, top selling DVD

Sales and Inventory Analysis

•  Assisted in analyzing POS sales performance based on product, vendor, store, division, or time frame
•  Evaluated sales, profit, and distribution share across the retailer categories
•  Assisteded in ranking, contrasting, and evaluating the sales, profits, and related performance of specific products across brands or franchises
•  Helped understand how to maximize sales performance based on the physical store layout and store type
•  Assisted the retailer in managing out-of-stocks, as well as assessing opportunity cost
•  Helped the retailer manage inventory capacities at both the warehouse and store level
•  Assisted in planning initial forecasts, as well as replenishments order requirements
•  Evaluated the impact on category profits by analyzing shrink and loss prevention
•  Helped better manage the inventory process by monitoring the product movement

Promotion and Event Analysis

• Assisted in determining increases or decreases in sales resulting from promoting two or more items together
• Evaluated the sales, profit, or distribution or a new item launch or re-priced item
• Determined the impact to product and category performance in conjunction with the price elasticity
• Assisted in assessing the performance of specific retail promotional tactics and combination of Ad Price, Display, Price Points, etc.
• Assessed the performance of special events such as a sporting event tie-in, celebrity store signing, etc.
• Determined the performance of special pack configurations, such as dual packs, premium packs, special editions, limited editions, etc.
• Understood the impact and value add of promotional themes and circular themes
• Assessed the impact of product placement in an advertisement or Sunday circular
• Compared and analysed retailer promotional price point against competitor promotional price points

The majority of concepts developed through this project have been implemented by retailers, leading in all cases to double digit improvement in performance for both the DVD category as a whole, and the whole DVD distribution enterprise.

Systech Corner Assortment Planning and Merchandising, category management, Data Foundation, Market Share Analysis, Promotion and Event Analysis, Sales and Inventory Analysis

Systech launches New Applications for Category Management for CPG & Retail

Systech has developed a unique approach that combines its in-depth knowledge of customers’ business processes with expertise in BI solutions to create an analytical solution for Category Management for CPG & Retail.

Arun Gollapudi, CEO, Systech Solutions, Inc. explains, “Many CPG and Retail businesses are becoming victims of fluctuating dynamics in industry. Margin pressures are increasing and product lifecycles are shorter in a downturn. Systech has initiated a solution that would positively impact CPG and Retail businesses by collaboratively targeting profitable product and customer segments. We are confident this solution will provide advanced analytics to our clients at a competitive cost .”

The solution deals with the key applications of Category Management such as:

• Assortment Planning
• Inventory Management
• Price Management
• Supply Market Analysis
• Market Comparison
• Vendor Management
• SKU Rationalization
• Planogramming
• Visual Merchandising
• Monitor key metrics, analytics and scorecards

Systech’s application for Category Management would provide customers a solution to strategically manage categories and gain an insight to unlock additional saving.

Talend Launches Talend Integration Suite RTx

Talend, the recognized market leader in open source data integration software, recently announced the availability of Talend Integration Suite RTx, a new real-time data integration platform for enterprise application integration needs.

Based on Talend’s award winning, enterprise-grade data integration platform – Talend Integration Suite – the new solution allows IT organizations to accelerate the velocity of data across IT systems. With up-to-the-minute data, customers receive a higher level of data consistency across applications, providing more accurate decision making capabilities.

RTx provides organizations with benefits in many areas. For example, with RTx, companies can save time and money by developing and maintaining data integration processes in a fraction of the time and cost it takes with proprietary technologies. For online merchants, RTx provides the information necessary to make promotional offers on-the-fly, based on user behavior, resulting in more targeted offers with better response rates. RTx also improves customer service by synchronizing and maintaining data from multiple sources so that all stakeholders within an organization can access accurate information.

“The fast pace of business today means companies can’t rely on day-old or even hours-old data, and the speed at which IT delivers this data can be the difference between good and bad service, between a happy customer and a lost customer,” said Mark Madsen, president and founder of Third Nature, a technology research firm. “Integration today is mostly performed by hand-coded data movement processes developed by application programmers. Continued reliance on batch data movement and hand-coded integration is a recipe for failure. Companies that want to excel today need a real-time data integration infrastructure and progressive IT organizations are using data integration tools that combine real-time data movement with transformation and quality rules – without the laborious programming effort.”

MicroStrategy Incorporated Announces a Free Reporting Software Package

MicroStrategy Incorporated, a provider worldwide provider of business intelligence (BI) software, recently announced a free reporting software package for departmental BI applications. MicroStrategy Reporting Suite enables companies to use MicroStrategy’s integrated BI platform to develop and deploy premium, Web–based reporting applications, at no cost.

With this compelling new reporting package, MicroStrategy has eliminated cost and time impediments for departments and workgroups to initiate new reporting applications. Business users can simply visit the MicroStrategy Reporting Suite Web site, download the free software, and begin building their reporting applications, all in the same day.

MicroStrategy’s easy–to–use reporting software enables business users to quickly create the reports they need to gain critical insights into business data and make timely, analytically-based decisions. Users can view data in detailed tabular grid reports, graph data to analyze information quickly, drill-down to investigate root causes, make ad hoc queries, manage business performance with arithmetic and statistical metrics, and export data to Excel and PDF. When reporting requirements expand, companies can purchase licenses for more advanced report presentation,

Cindi Howson, Founder, BIScorecard: “Given the product capabilities, migration path, and support, it seems like a deal too good to be true… The appealing aspect [of the MicroStrategy Reporting Suite free offering] is that it provides customers with an easy entree into BI, without that entree being a total throw away. If customers later want to add dashboards or multi-source, for example, they don’t have to start over or migrate to a new product as is often the case with many departmental BI tools.”

SAS Institute highlights benefits BI could bring to education

Johannesburg, South Africa (24 Mar. 2009) – Education can benefit dramatically from advanced analytics and business intelligence (BI) tools, which will provide them with better student data management as well as predictive modelling for understanding future educational demands.

This is the view of Kevin Kemp, head of sales for the commercial division at SAS Institute South Africa, who highlighted the benefits of implementing a BI platform in a tertiary education environment, while speaking at the recent ITS Conference, in Johannesburg.

The conference, hosted by ITS at Emperors’ Palace, brought together users, administrators and financial managers from the education sector and focused on the use of software solutions and technology in the future of education. ITS is a software company with a legacy of more than 20 years’ experience in administration software development for the education sector.

“Implementing a BI solution in an academic environment needs to start with a strong base infrastructure, laying the foundation with data integration and then building intelligent storage and business intelligence on top of that platform,” says Kemp.

“Business intelligence in tertiary education can bring benefits embedded in student data management, HR and fee management, optimising the capacity of universities, trimming costs to make more money available for upgrades, increasing profits, improved marketing approaches and student retention, and could improve student support systems as well as online learning facilities.

“Universities handle incredible amounts of data, and being able to access that data in real-time, analyse reports, discover patterns and provide student support where it is needed, would increase student retention and smooth the running of the university.”

SAS Institute has already made a significant contribution towards education institutions, with a number of local success stories, including Walter Sisulu University, North West University and Unisa.

“Education is experiencing massive transformation, and holds the key to the future, to resolving the skills shortage and driving economic growth in South Africa. Technology and education need to be intertwined to take South African learners and education institutions into the future.

“In 2006, the education minister of Singapore used the slogan: ‘Thinking schools, learning nation’ in his annual address to the country. This is an approach that South Africa could seriously benefit from should it be adopted by our education system. By having technologically advanced places of learning, that run optimally like ‘thinking schools’, students will benefit from improved learning, educators can teach better and a nation can grow,” ends Kemp.

Industry News bi, category management, cpg, MicroStrategy, reporting, retail, sas, talend