Ascential Software Corporation, the leading provider of Information Asset Management (IAM) solutions, today announced that Helzberg Diamonds, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, is using DataStage XE to increase profits through improved revenue tracking and on-time analytic reporting.
Using DataStage XE to populate its data warehouse with daily sales data from more than 230 stores nationwide, Helzberg has moved from a monthly to daily revenue reporting schedule for its regional field managers. The Helzberg data warehouse provides corporate, divisional, regional and store managers with more accurate information to manage their business areas more proactively, with the overall focus on delivering improved products and services to their customers. In addition, this information is being used to evaluate new store performance as the company expands into new markets.
"Using DataStage XE, we`re able to easily place sophisticated, weekly reports into our managers` hands, giving them more granular control over how they meet their sales goals while sharpening Helzberg`s overall competitive edge," said Greg Backhus, Helzberg`s director of data warehousing/decision support systems. "With the Ascential solution, managers no longer have to rely on `yesterday`s news,` but can use real-time data to assess new strategies for increasing Helzberg`s revenue and better servicing our customers."
Previously, information from each of Helzberg`s retail stores was uploaded and combined nightly into a central database at the company`s corporate offices in Missouri. Housed on an IBM AS/400 DB2-based server, this information was stored at a granular level in the company`s transaction-based legacy systems and was used with great difficulty to support business reporting. Many of the legacy reports that were generated on a monthly basis were manually aggregated to produce reports that contained metrics for store managers to manage their business areas. Using Ascential`s DataStage XE solution for data integration and Brio Software`s reporting tools for reporting, the jewellery retailer now produces comprehensive sales reports in hours rather than days, enabling Helzberg`s field and corporate managers to leverage information in a timely fashion, including peak retail sales periods.
With DataStage XE delivering the data integration and meta data management functionality for its new data warehouse, Helzberg turned to Brio Software to provide comprehensive business performance data visualization. "By providing retail sales data to managers on a timely basis, Helzberg has created a huge competitive advantage to drive profits and fuel retail expansion," said Brian Gentile, CMO and executive vice president for Brio Software. "We welcome the opportunity to partner with Ascential in delivering this solution and enabling Helzberg`s continued success."
Today, Helzberg`s 27 regional and district managers use scorecard reports containing key business metrics such as store performance versus budget, sales by sales associate, credit program sales, sales by product category and hourly revenue per store to coach store managers, improve sales within merchandise categories, target staff training and administer payroll. Similarly, Helzberg`s corporate managers, including finance, human resources, general management and marketing staff, access this same information through a series of data marts and a set of pre-defined and ad hoc reports to ensure the operational efficiency of their departments. Helzberg also leverages DataStage XE`s meta data component, - a tool that explains the meaning of every piece of corporate data, to give its staff a more complete understanding of the meaning of each column within a report.
By selecting a specific value when building a Brio report users can quickly view the origin and meaning of each value. In addition, using DataStage XE`s data quality components, Helzberg`s IT group has been able to audit their source data and address data quality issues before they appear in the warehouse or data marts.
"DataStage XE is an extremely powerful integration tool that allows us to be much more proactive in meeting our sales reporting goals," Backhus concluded. "The robust Ascential solution keeps us informed about the performance of our company and permits us to leverage that information to develop effective revenue-generating strategies to drive our growth."
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