Johannesburg, 09 Sep 2004
European retailers Eroski and The Tengelmann Group are among 150 leading global retailers which have been improving and enhancing their operational performance with the aid of enterprise data integration leader Ascential Software.
Ascential has assisted Eroski and subsidiaries of The Tengelmann Group with the integration of their corporate data to improve their business operations, streamline their supply chains, enhance in-store productivity, and gain a more accurate view of their customer information.
"The retail sector operates on razor-thin margins in a fiercely competitive environment," says Julian Field, MD of local Ascential distributor CenterField Software. "The most successful retailers understand the importance of accurate, reliable data in developing successful promotional and marketing programmes, understanding customers, and ensuring an efficient supply chain."
Eroski and The Tengelmann Group subsidiaries required a scalable data integration platform to help them better understand customer data generated from multiple sources in the organisation and then leverage the information in new and consolidated applications.
In addition to improving supply chain visibility and managing point-of-sale data, other top initiatives that retailers are undertaking include customer relationship management and master data management, in preparation for data synchronisation activities from UCCnet.
UCCnet is a non-profit subsidiary of the Uniform Code Council. It provides globally endorsed item registration and synchronisation services that reduce the costs and delays associated with bad data.
"Leading retailers are investing in strategic applications to improve their overall efficiencies and competitiveness in an environment that continues to be challenging," Field says.
Global retailers are faced with specific business challenges that include pricing and promotion optimisation; achieving a single view of customers, suppliers and products; shortening the replenishment cycle through improved store data integration; managing multiple trading relationships with suppliers over different industry standards; implementing radio frequency identification to optimise inventory; and implementing UCCnet requirements with key suppliers.
Eroski is one of Spain`s largest retail chains, with more than 1 500 stores mainly in the hypermarket and supermarket sectors.
It was faced with increasing complexity of applications and a growing demand for interfaces. The retailer was looking to streamline the way it integrated its IT portfolio and chose Ascential DataStage TX to accomplish this.
"We selected Ascential DataStage TX because of its well proven ability to handle complex data types and transformations," says Jesus Mi~naur, IT director at Eroski. "Over the next two years we intend to expand our use of Ascential`s technology to provide a complete integration environment for our business."
The Tengelmann Group has annual revenues in excess of $20 billion. The group needed to accelerate the movement of point-of-sale data for 4 500 supermarkets, discount stores and drug stores; and integrate real-time data from 1 000 suppliers.
"We selected Ascential because we can create reusable integration components that enable us to harmonise a very diverse business and technical landscape quickly," says Frank Jelinek, technical communications manager for Kaiser`s Tengelmann.
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