Mitre 10 and iQ4bis: building better performance management
Upper level management and category managers now have sales data for 75,000 separate items from over 100 stores available at their fingertips...
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Mitre 10's retail presence is impressive, encompassing nearly 100 Mitre 10 stores, 15 Mitre 10 MEGA stores (and growing) and 80 Hammer Hardware stores – all individually owned – and some 75,000 individual items on the books at any given time. As a result, monitoring individual performances across categories and regions, tracking trends and preparing reports that clearly conveyed key information was an overwhelming task for Rod McHugh, Business Analyst at the Mitre 10 Support Centre in Auckland’s North Shore City. “We have plenty of good data but collating it all into meaningful information was a major task," says McHugh. "We have an IBM iSystem (formerly AS/400) DB2-based wholesaling and financial application called SDS Distribution that interfaces directly to our POS solution so our data is very well structured and up to date. But with the sheer volume of data and the varying types of reports that upper level management and individual category managers needed, keeping up with the work load was proving to be an issue,” he says. “We’d heard about business intelligence (BI) and decided that we should adopt the technology to help us stay ahead of the competition, which is always a challenge in the very competitive home improvement retail sector,” says McHugh. “We prepared a formal ‘request for proposals’ and sent it to the various vendors. After a thorough review of the submissions and some eye-opening demonstrations, we selected iQ4bis as our business intelligence solution and Auckland-based Cosyn as our implementation partner.” Preparing the demonstration was an easy task for Cosyn. “Mitre 10’s data was clean and well documented,” says Cosyn director Trevor Middleton. “They gave us a set of raw data and we were able to load it directly into iQ4bis via Microsoft SQL Server. iQ4bis is unique in as much as it is based on pre-defined ‘cubes’ that enables us to quickly build individual views that show managers their own data in a format that they have never seen before. We call this our ‘proof of concept’ process and it is extremely helpful in showing the power of business intelligence and how fast we can implement a complete end-to-end solution.” “What sold us,” says McHugh, “was how easy it was for us to operate the system. We wanted a BI solution that people could pick up and use immediately with a minimum of training. iQ4bis enabled us to view and drill down into the database with just a few clicks of the mouse. The other systems that we evaluated were much more cumbersome for users. Plus iQ4bis was easier at the back end as well, which was a major bonus for me as I would be the person who would be building additional cubes and views for the individual users.” Installation was completed in early 2006 and Mitre 10 couldn’t be happier with the results. “Upper level management and individual category managers both use iQ4bis on a regular basis to monitor performance,” says McHugh. “Upper level management likes iQ4bis because it gives them a quick view of the ‘state of the nation’. "This is especially useful for their monthly management meetings where they discuss performance and strategies. And the category managers find iQ4bis extremely valuable when comparing actual sales to predictions. This allows them to make adjustments on pricing, promotions and the like.” McHugh is especially pleased on how intuitive iQ4bis is for the users. “We had a formal training session from the people at iQ4bis when we first installed it,” he says, “but after that I’ve been the one to show new people how to use the system. It takes me maybe a half hour to show them where to find the data, build queries, drill down for more specific information and print reports. Even managers who are not ‘computer people’ find iQ4bis easy to use and invaluable as they do their jobs.” iQ4bis has made McHugh’s life much easier as well. “Just the other day the general manager asked me to generate a fairly complex report of sales and performances,” says McHugh. “Under our old system, the report would have taken me at least an hour to pull the data, make the calculations and then format the report. It wasn’t especially difficult, just time-consuming. But with iQ4bis I was able to complete the exact same process in minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.” Mitre 10 considers iQ4bis a good investment. “We can now see the complete picture of our business,” says McHugh. “Before we had a good idea of what was happening, but with iQ4bis we can actually quantify what we might have suspected before. With its web browser interface and intuitive logic we have been able to make it available to the people in our head office who need it quickly and easily. People now can do their own queries and analyses and add or subtract data as they see fit without having to ask for help. Not only does this speed up the process but it gives them better results as well.” About Mitre 10 In 2004 Mitre 10 opened its first Mitre 10 MEGA store in Hastings. This is a rapidly growing part of Mitre 10 with plans for over 40 stores to be rolled out nationwide. The Mitre 10 MEGA store offers customers an increased product range and extra services like cafes, kids play areas, larger garden centres and drive-throughs. Mitre 10's strengths include the enthusiasm of its owner-operators, their ability to respond to the local market and their commitment to the local community. Mitre 10 stores are owned and operated by New Zealanders which means the people that make the decisions are also the people on the front line listening to customers. And it also means that customers' purchases go right back into the community. Click here to register for free iQ4Bis Proof of Concept
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May 2007
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