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Comet
Comet, the UK's Second Largest Electrical Retailer, Uses MicroStrategy Technology to Provide Insight into Product Sales
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Retailers now recognise that information about products and customers is vital to sustainable commercial success. They also recognise that it is virtually impossible to create that information and insight without relevant technologies, including data warehousing and business intelligence software. |
But the really successful retailers are those who understand how to match the capabilities of that technology to the real requirements of the business.
Comet, the UK's second largest electrical retailer, is a case in point. Since 1997, it has worked with technology from MicroStrategy to deliver an effective information warehouse that provides the insight into product sales that the business needs to plan more effectively for the future.
Comet has 265 stores and 8,000 employees in the UK. Its annual turnover for 1998 - 1999 was £862.4 million, and it deals with 40,000 different products. Part of the Kingfisher Group of companies, Comet specialises in selling a broad range of white, brown and multi-media goods direct to consumers.
Like many large retailers, Comet had invested heavily in its operational support systems over the 1980s and 1990s. It was building up huge amounts of data about sales and products, but had no easy way of turning that data into useful information for the business.
"We had a lack of accessible information that the business could use," says Michael Cleary, Information Systems Manager at Comet. "It was not uncommon for commercial departments to need particular information, but for IT to be too busy to create reports for them. Businesses were often using systems that still had green screens. Instead of working with product names, they would be working with product codes and numbers. We had a very unfriendly system environment."
A further problem was that there was no single version of "the truth" about sales and products, Cleary says. Often frustrated by the inability to develop new systems and reports quickly in response to business needs, users would spend time rekeying data into local database and spreadsheet based systems. In turn, IT would waste time and money creating reports that did not meet the needs of the business.
The result of that was slower decision-making across the business, Cleary says. And decision-making was not always based on accurate information, because of the challenge of multiple versions of data.
In the summer of 1997 Comet decided to respond to these challenges with a data warehouse project. It held business led workshops to gather requirements from users. As a result Comet started the project with its sales and stock ordering process because this is where it anticipated seeing the greatest benefits quickly from its investment. Comet also made key technical decisions: it chose a Sequent Numa-Q hardware platform, Oracle database technology and MicroStrategy front end tools.
Comet reviewed a number of different software companies to work with on the project. It chose MicroStrategy data warehousing and decision support technology because it was the best fit for the demands of the project, both in terms of flexibility and levels of complexity.
"MicroStrategy provides a number of 'stepped layers' of decision support software, starting from its simple to use MicroStrategy Executive and moving up through MicroStrategy Agent," says Cleary. "This means that users can use more complex levels of functionality as they get used to the product and what it can do in terms of supporting business decisions. We also found that users were more comfortable with MicroStrategy software overall than with the other products we looked at."
Comet made the decision to work with four MicroStrategy products: MicroStrategy Agent, MicroStrategy Architect, MicroStrategy Executive and MicroStrategy Objects.
By June 1998 a lot of good work had taken place, particularly around the database design. But the project had not delivered its business objectives and it had become technology focussed. "We knew we had to regroup to ensure the project became business led once more." Cleary recalls, "The first step was to regain support from the business community. We also had to agree the objectives and create a project plan, with realistic timescales and goals."
The date for delivering the information that the business required most urgently - accurate historical data - was set for October 1998 and the project was branded "Edison".
By putting a stake in the ground and promising to deliver the goal relatively quickly, the project was given the go-ahead to proceed.
The Edison team hit its October 1998 target. Phase two was to build on that basic framework of data to create intelligence for business units, and the first step in that process was to prioritise the requirements from different business units.
The second crucial step was to make sure that the business as a whole understood what the Edison project was all about, and how it would improve and speed up certain business processes and decision-making across the company.
"We made sure we had the Edison name attached to the project and we developed an internal newsletter that was endorsed by the business sponsor," says Cleary. "We also developed a quick reference guide to the new systems. The guide explained how to get the most out of the systems, and - together with email technical support - would help to cut down on the number of calls to the IT department as the systems were introduced."
The team also introduced a training timetable for prospective users of the systems. Developed in-house by Comet, the training courses were designed to work specifically with real-life data technology.
The first systems were developed to go live in January 1999, and the training was due to be completed by the end of February 1999. The course delivered lasted less than two hours, so that users were up to speed with the systems as quickly as possible.
By July 1999, Comet had introduced quicker, more profitable decision-making for users involved in marketing and stock planning, says Cleary. The flexibility of MicroStrategy Agent means that reports can be changed according to the ongoing and changing needs of the business. The amount of paper reports used by the business has reduced, and the implementation of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server means that there is now just one version of the truth - no matter who is looking at it, and for what purpose.
There are now 110 users of the system across the business, including 95 standard users and 15 power users, who have the ability to set up their own templates and filters to data from the warehouse.
The business benefits that Comet has already achieved from the Edison project are clear, Cleary says. New business initiatives would not have been possible without Edison, because users can make more effective, profitable decisions far more quickly. The system is relatively easy to use, and Comet as a whole has one version of the truth about its sales and products. Although it is relatively early days for the Comet Information Warehouse, Cleary believes that there are a number of lessons to learn from the project already. The first is to start projects small and grow from success - delivering 80% of requirements with 20% of development effort, rather than the other way round.
The second is to always develop technical solutions with the needs of the user in mind. If a system fails to do the things that the business wants it to do, then there is no point in having it - no matter how elegant the system may be. The third is to ensure the right project team is put together.
"An information warehouse will not deliver business benefits on its own," Cleary says. "It only provides the potential means of delivering those benefits. A diverse team of people worked on this project and it was their effort and determination that ensured success."
Comet will continue to expand its use of MicroStrategy software in line with business requirements into the future, Cleary says. When access to information needs to extend beyond present users, Comet will investigate the use of web-based information delivery channels, for example.
"Whatever we choose to do with MicroStrategy in the future, it will always be done in response to requests for particular projects from the business, not by particular advances in technology," Cleary concludes. "Technology must always be used to satisfy business requirements, not implemented for its own sake."
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Like many large retailers, Comet had invested heavily in its operational support systems over the 1980s and 1990s. It was building up huge amounts of data about sales and products, but had no easy way of turning that data into useful information for the business. |
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|
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Comet reviewed a number of different software companies to work with on the project. It chose MicroStrategy data warehousing and decision support technology because it was the best fit for the demands of the project, both in terms of flexibility and levels of complexity. |
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The amount of paper reports used by the business has reduced, and the implementation of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server allows for just one version of the data.
There are 110 users of the system across the business, including 95 standard users and 15 power users, who have the ability to set up their own templates and filters to data from the warehouse. |
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