Johannesburg, 28 Jan 2011
Some things never change, like the challenge retailers face to rapidly assign products and prices at local stores. But unlike 100 years ago, this precise practice now involves massive amounts of data, powerful computers and advanced analytics.
SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services, puts fast localised merchandising within reach as it unveils SAS High-Performance Markdown Optimisation within its popular SAS Merchandise Intelligence suite.
"With data streaming in from cross-channel, online and social media channels, our retail customers face challenges that defy current computing techniques," said Shiva Kommareddi, Senior Director, Solutions Product Management, SAS.
"The unprecedented capabilities of SAS High-Performance Markdown Optimisation let even the largest retailers optimise markdown price schedules at the SKU-store level to maximise sell-through and revenue. By applying proven granular analytics such as price elasticity, store sales forecast, and pricing rules to store-specific promotions and inventory, SAS can help increase revenue and sell-through at a lower total cost of ownership."
Preliminary SAS lab findings show a tenfold improvement in optimisation time and a tenfold reduction in time for estimation and forecasting, while lowering hardware costs by a factor of three to 10 times, depending on data volume.
Analysing mountains of data for real-time decisions
By maximising multi-threaded analytical processing components and in-memory processing models, new SAS High-Performance Computing creates a single system to analyse massive amounts of data in parallel and answer complex business questions in real-time.
SAS High-Performance Computing solutions will be powered by HP Converged Infrastructure technology. Among solutions HP will provide are the HP BladeSystem solution on RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and HP Insight Control Management software. By using HP Converged Infrastructure solutions and HP Factory Express, SAS will reduce analysis times, lower provisioning times and decrease energy costs. SAS High-Performance Markdown Optimisation automatically distributes data and processing required for estimation, forecasting and optimisation to fully utilise the available processing capability of multiple computers.
“Retailers are looking for solutions that will have a positive impact on their revenue and working capital,” said Mario Vollbracht, Worldwide Segment Executive, Retail and Consumer Goods Industries, HP. "By breaking jobs into multiple threads and processing them across multiple cores, the SAS and HP solution will provide clients with detailed information faster."
In addition to availability on HP hardware, SAS Markdown Optimisation also is available on demand, providing customers the flexibility and agility to run on a hosted environment at SAS.
Boosting retail performance
SAS' unparalleled retail business knowledge, coupled with powerful, advanced analytics, supports flexible life cycle merchandise planning through a variety of investment, deployment and growth options.
SAS retail customers include Aeropostale, AutoZone, Bakers Footwear, Brooks Brothers, Burger King, Cabela's, Carrefour, Casino, Casual Male, Charming Shoppes, Chico's, The Children's Place, Eddie Bauer, Family Dollar, Gander Mountain, Hallmark, Hudson's Bay Company, Kohl's, Luxottica Retail, Macy's, Mark's Work Wearhouse, Marks & Spencer, Northern Tool & Equipment, Office Depot, Rusta, S-Group, Sainsbury's, ShopKo, Sport Chalet, Spiegel Brands, Staples, Tesco, Tween Brands, Waitrose, Wakefern, Williams-Sonoma, Winn-Dixie and 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.
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