The same factors make retailers successful today as they did 100 years ago. Location, good customer service and reasonable prices are as important now as they ever were. But to ensure that the right products are always available to customers in the right quantity, at the right price, retailers need more than just traditional retail skills.

One example of how this works in practice is Marks & Spencer. Since 1996, the company has worked on a data warehousing project based on technology from MicroStrategy, Microsoft and IBM. Part of Marks & Spencer's overall IT strategy, the data warehouse allows information about sales and stock levels to be communicated to users in buying and merchandising departments.

Like most large organisations, Marks & Spencer has built up a number of fragmented IT systems over time. As one of the Project Managers working on the data warehouse system, Jonathan Summerfield, explains, this made it difficult for users to know where to go to for relevant and consistent information to support business decision-making:

"Users were unsure which system contained the information they needed. The buying department were becoming frustrated by the situation, and we realised that we had to create a single source of data for them to access, and from which we could derive a daily update on sales."

The result was the introduction of Marks & Spencer's data warehouse project, which had the capability of building a new sales and stock (SaS) system. The stated goal of the project was to build "a single source of sales and stock data for the whole of general merchandise, worldwide, by the end of 1999."

The overall IT plan for General Merchandise (which includes all clothing and home furnishings, but not food) incorporates sales and stock information, a contracts management (product development) information system on the bottom layer, with buying, price management, image and supply chain applications in between.

The first stage in the SaS project was to work with IBM to create a central DB2 relational database that could incorporate 24 months worth of relevant data from the business. This was built according to IBM's blueprint for data warehousing. The second was to look for a relational online analytical processing (ROLAP) engine that could work directly with DB2 to create the information that buyers and merchandise managers needed.

"We looked at various ROLAP and OLAP solutions from a number of vendors and MicroStrategy Intelligence Server came out on top," Summerfield says. "It wasn't just the technology that we looked at. We also evaluated MicroStrategy as a company versus the competition, and decided that we could expect a more effective business relationship with them than with other companies - especially in terms of enhancements and new products. A further factor was that MicroStrategy's systems could integrate well with our existing applications."

Marks & Spencer set up an initial project to test the new architecture and working practices. This involved 100 users (between 10 and 15 concurrent users) in the Group Operations department of the General Merchandise area. Working with this group of users, the IT project team identified the information and reporting requirements of their users. These were then included in standardised reports that provided an up-to-date, accurate picture of the business.

Phase One of the project went live as planned at the end of October 1998. It provided 45 categories of reports, which totalled 400 separate reports in all. It included 200 gigabytes of data (growing to 500 gigabytes in Phase Two), and reports were delivered via MicroStrategy Intelligence Server to desktop PCs running MicroStrategy Agent.

In this phase of the project users logged onto SaS via a simple Executive Interface (EIS) enquiry screen. This listed a number of standard reports, such as 'Top Sellers', 'Reduced' and 'Monday Morning'. These reports were static, though users could switch into MicroStrategy Agent to analyse information in more detail. They could also drill down into numerous layers of reports within each heading, into other dimensions of geography, merchandise and date. Under 'Monday Morning', for example, they could access weekly sales summaries, promotions and store performance. Some of these reports exported to Excel spreadsheets using VBA macros for enhanced formatting and design.

"The benefits of SaS at this stage were clear," Summerfield says. "It provided standardised reports, a single source of information and flexible analysis to any level of detail. Users did not have to re-key any information, and were diverted from low value administration work towards analysis that added real value to the business. The simplicity of the system meant that training was kept to a minimum, and that the new system could be installed easily on PCs from a CD-Rom or over the network.

"By implementing SaS, we will have replaced seven old systems with a single application. We could provide international access, and reduce costs of training and technical support." says Summerfield.

The next stage was to take those benefits one step further by implementing MicroStrategy Web, MicroStrategy's web interface. This would allow Marks & Spencer to widen access to the data warehouse right across the organisation.

The users included in Phase Two of the SaS project were based in the General Merchandise buying departments and helped to derive the new set of user requirements. They numbered 1,000 potential users, which approximated to about 200 concurrent users. Phase Two goes live in October 1999 to 13 departments initially and their executives and divisional directors.

Phase Two will be complete in May 2000 when all the legacy reporting systems are finally switched off and all 50 buying departments are live on SaS.

With Phase Two, Marks & Spencer moved from a three tier architecture to four tiers. Users will now be able to access MicroStrategy Intelligence Server and the IBM DB2 data warehouse via the intranet, based on a separate web server connected to DB2 via Microsoft SNA server, the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server and a SQL server. Instead of running MicroStrategy Agent, user PCs will access the web server using a standard browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01), which means that no extra software will be installed on PCs for new users of the system.

"The advantages of web technology are that we have less network traffic, and thin client PCs," says Summerfield. "We can be totally flexible in the interface that we offer users, and we have a simplified network structure. We can maintain and administer the system centrally or remotely - which gives us a greater control over costs."

Future phases for the SaS project are likely to include a roll-out of MicroStrategy Web to stores across Europe and in Hong Kong. Marks & Spencer has also been looking at the introduction of MicroStrategy a number of different remote devices, such as mobile phones and pagers. This builds on Marks & Spencer's existing telegram application - a system that sends standard data to senior management on a regular basis.

A third addition in M&S will be data mining, which will allow users to analyse customer related information (CRM) to a detailed level - enabling better insight into customer buying behaviour.

Finally, Marks & Spencer aims to link SaS with global stock management, so that users can analyse systems to see how much stock is in each part of the global supply chain. This will make it easier to plan and to make more effective decisions about merchandising across the world including local sourcing.

When retailers depend for their success on a deep understanding of customer behaviour and requirements, they need information about those customers and the products that they buy, in an easily understandable and readable format. Because of the flexibility and breadth of choice in MicroStrategy's toolset, together with a reliable and powerful IT platform, Marks & Spencer now has the springboard it needs to move forward into the competitive retail marketplace of the 21st Century.