One of SA`s most successful and profitable retail chains, the JD Group, has brought new levels of speed, accuracy and flexibility to the key function of reporting operational numbers across the organisation. The implementation of ProClarity fulfilled a much-needed requirement to replace older technology.
Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, IS Partners, was responsible for the solution design and implementation, providing a tight fit with JD Group`s strategy to move to Microsoft technology exclusively for its database requirement.
"The driving force behind retail is being able to react to any variances to the norm in the day-to-day running of the business. The benefit of the Microsoft-based ProClarity solution in this environment is that the chairman and executive team can see group performance across a range of key indicators as of close of business on the previous trading day. By 7am we have access to the entire group`s performance figures," says John Andrews, Information Systems Executive at JDG Group.
Users now have fast, up-to-date sales, debtors, stock and management information at their fingertips.
The solution is currently deployed to group executive board level, but will be rolled out to management for branch access to information relating to sales, debtors, performance, stock holding and budget provision.
The implementation of a Web-based application was also key to JD Group`s move towards a centralised ERP system. Access to all information resources would be through the group`s portal, making it critical for the front-end reporting tool to be in line with the organisation`s overall IT direction towards a centralised Web-based solution. This was an important factor in the choice of ProClarity, as it could successfully address the group`s specialised information delivery requirements.
"As ProClarity is a Microsoft SQL Server-based solution, it has opened up a whole new world of support, in terms of available skills, both internally and externally," says Andrews.
"ProClarity offers far more configuration capability to individual users, to slice and dice information and to present it in whichever way they want to see it. Ease of use has also made deployment of the application that much easier, with training facilitated by the application`s intuitive capabilities and extensive online help features. This was a major limitation in our previous set-up."
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