2 February 2009

ProfitBase 2009 enables Mydin to consolidate data from its two ERP and POS systems

When one of Malaysia’s largest homegrown retailers set out its aggressive growth strategy, it realised it needed BI software to help keep up with the pace. The ProfitBase solution has generated unprecedented benefits.

Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd (Mydin) was first established in Malaysia back in 1957. From then on the retailer has grown steadily and at a commendable pace and now has 43 outlets nationwide including two hyper-markets, 24 emporiums, two superstores, seven mini markets and six convenience stores.

It sells a broad range of goods including daily essentials, food and beverages, electrical and electronic goods, stationery, hardware and various Muslim products. Mydin has a strategic advantage over other retailers as it sources directly from the manufacturers and purchases in bulk which enables it to get special discounts from suppliers, thus rendering it possible to fulfill its business philosophy of selling to customers at wholesale prices. Mydin’s customers include end users, wholesalers and petty traders.

Far from resting on its laurels, Mydin is still guided by its strategic vision and the retailer’s next ten hypermarkets are at various stages of construction. What’s more, the retailer plans to triple its stores to 125 by 2010. This aggressive growth strategy, teamed with the need for better, near real-time information for decision makers and suppliers, drove the need for a business intelligence (BI) solution that could meet the pace of change.

The ProfitBase solution, combined with Microsoft technology, provides Mydin with standard ARTS-based analytics that match the various job functions found in the retail organisation

Jan de Jong, Microsoft “We had a situation where our IT infrastructure for reporting was not able to keep up with the expansion of store formats and the number of stores,” says Malik Murad Ali, Mydin’s IT director. “We have two ERP and two POS systems and are still in the process of migrating our core ERP to Microsoft Dynamics AX, but while that is happening, we need a way to consolidate the data from these systems and provide the reports and dashboards that our people and suppliers need to make better decisions.”

So Mydin started in the search for a new BI solution. The retailer evaluated many of the big name BI players, but most failed to impress. “We even selected one company to do a proof of concept, but after three months they failed to deliver,” says Murad Ali. “We needed a simple and easy-to-use BI solution that could be used and understood by our whole team. This is when ProfitBase brought its solution to the table”

ProfitBase, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, impressed Mydin with its ProfitBase 2009 solution for data warehousing and On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) Cubes.”

ProfitBase 2009 enables Mydin to consolidate data from its two ERP and POS systems within an easy to use development environment. It also features ready to use OLAP Cube templates for retail that support the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) data standard. The retail templates are quickly deployed and provide metrics for item sales, hourly sales, hourly item sales, efficiency, and much more. Standard dimensions are provided for sorting and filtering the ARTS metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) and include information about store, store type, department, category, article, hour, day, week and month. Additionally, the ProfitBase finance OLAP Cube template will be used to consolidate the ERP General Ledgers so that a report on the financial status of the company is automatically generated.

“Before this implementation, our reporting system had very little flexibility in that it took two weeks to turn a report around and ad hoc analysis was non-existent,” says Murad Ali. “The differences that the ProfitBase system brings are unbelievable.”

By deploying Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Mydin is able to provide all levels of the organisation and its suppliers with information. Dashboards and scorecards, which will have standard financial and retail KPIs, will be deployed for everyone from the board of directors and executive management to central merchandisers, branch operations managers and suppliers. Additionally, the Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 analysis capability will be provided for robust data mining and ad hoc analysis. The store managers will use a new Microsoft Silverlight application, InStore Analytics developed by ProfitBase. This is a high performance, easy to use application where all information is readily available.

The project was a cooperation between Mydin’s IT people, @Quest, the local Microsoft and ProfitBase partner, and ProfitBase.

The solution has allowed Mydin to reduce dead stock through better trend analysis, as well as reducing out of stock situations that lead to lost sales. “With the ProfitBase-Microsoft BI solution we have better visibility of our top selling products allowing us to make sure adequate store inventory levels are maintained,” says Murad Ali. “We also have the ability to share product inventory levels with our suppliers so they can better service our stores. Overall, with better visibility and the resulting optimisation and proactive decision making, we expect a positive impact to the bottom line of at least five per cent.”

ProfitBase and Microsoft are committed to helping retailers like Mydin increase productivity throughout their organisations. “The Mydin project demonstrates our complementary strengths, which provide powerful capabilities that can help any retailer drive results,” says Børre Tharaldsen, managing director of ProfitBase. “ProfitBase offers retailers a proven ready to use, ARTS-based solution that is easily and rapidly deployed so they realise the benefits very quickly.”

“Microsoft and our partners improve retail operations and meet consumer demand with infrastructure optimisation and real-time business intelligence solutions that enable demand-driven merchandising,” says Jan de Jong, worldwide industry solutions manager for business insight, Microsoft distribution and services. “The ProfitBase solution, combined with Microsoft technology, provides Mydin with standard ARTS-based analytics that match the various job functions found in the retail organisation. With Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 technology, Mydin employees are able to use dashboards, reports, scorecards and analysis tools that can deliver the right information to different users in ways that make the most sense to each of them.”

This article first appeared in the spring 2009 edition of Retailspeak magazine.

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