Retailers today are troubled by inadequate insight into customers` buying behaviour, difficulty ensuring the right assortment of merchandise and poor visibility into vendors` performance.
To address these challenges, Business Objects, the world`s leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced the availability of Business Objects Retail Analytic Solutions, which enable retailers to more effectively track, understand and manage their overall operations.
The new product is part of BusinessObjects Analytics, a suite of enterprise analytics that allows organisations to better understand their operations, customers, products and people.
"We are excited about the Business Objects Retail Analytic Solutions because now our managers can develop our customer marketing strategy based on better and focused information," said John de Ruiter, Manager Business Development at Jumbo Supermarkten in The Netherlands. "We can use the Retail Analytic Solutions to find out which products are most profitable and get detailed information about how products are faring at individual stores. Business Objects gives us best practices for understanding complex issues related to our marketing campaigns, category analysis and product sales - and this helps us to improve customer satisfaction and therefore our bottom line."
The Business Objects Retail Analytic Solutions consists of three products designed to help retailers identify the optimal product mixture to increase sales at each store, accurately profile their customers and more effectively manage vendor performance. The solution provides retailers with dashboards and guided analytics that enable them to measure profitability across the organisation, and drill down to identify and resolve problems.
For example, the "BusinessObjects Vendor Performance Management" product enables managers to monitor and formalise the vendor review process. With the new products, retailers can rank and compare vendors` performance, establish a baseline of acceptable results, and then take appropriate action to ensure consistent service from all vendors.
"Retail companies want more control by understanding key trends and gaining visibility into their customers, supply chain and products, and we know that starts with a better way to communicate and share data," said Russ Hill, worldwide director of retail, consumer product goods and distribution, industry marketing at Business Objects. "Unlike point solutions from other vendors, Business Objects has developed a vertical analytic solution that specifically addresses all of retailers` pain points."
Availability
All three of the Business Objects Retail Analytic Solutions are currently available: Customer Profiling and Campaign Management, Store Assortment Optimisation and Vendor Performance Management.
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Jumbo Supermarkten was founded in 1983 and originates from the family business Van Eerd Groothandel, which was established 82 years ago. In 2003, the company reported revenues of 616 million euros. Jumbo has 200 employees at headquarters, over 650 employees in the distribution centre and approximately 5 700 work in Jumbo retail stores. Jumbo has been one of the fastest growing supermarkets in The Netherlands for years now. Jumbo Supermarkten consists of 63 branch-stores. Jumbo continues to be innovative, for example with logistic improvements, shelf arrangements and product presentations at its supermarkets. More information is available at http://www.jumbosupermarkten.nl.
Business Objects
Business Objects is the world`s leading business intelligence (BI) software company. Business intelligence enables organisations to track, understand and manage enterprise performance. The company`s solutions leverage the information that is stored in an array of corporate databases, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Popular uses of BI include enterprise reporting, management dashboards and scorecards, customer intelligence applications, financial reporting, and both customer and partner extranets. These solutions enable companies to gain visibility into their business, acquire and retain profitable customers, reduce costs, optimise the supply chain, increase productivity and improve financial performance.
In December 2003, Business Objects completed the acquisition of Crystal Decisions, the leader in enterprise reporting. The combined product line includes software for reporting, query and analysis, performance management, analytic applications and data integration. In addition, Business Objects offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.
Business Objects has more than 26 000 customers in over 80 countries. The company`s stock is traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026250 - BOB). It is included in the SBF 120 and IT CAC 50 French stock market indexes. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and http://www.businessobjects.com.
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