Nandos chooses Cognos business intelligence to maximise production planning

Issued by FHC for Cognos Africa
Johannesburg, 24 Oct 2001

Nandos, a leading fast food chain, with over 200 stores in 20 countries, has implemented Cognos business intelligence as integral part of its state-of-the art IT environment. The installation is aimed at consolidating its data and maximising production, promotion and product planning within the group.

"We needed to create a logical, functional data warehouse," says Errol Epstein, MIS Director of Nandos. "Our aim was to establish daily, weekly and monthly analysis of predefined trading trends and patterns, to enable us to identify problems immediately and solve them as and when they occurred."

Epstein says: "Data is imported from our communications server each night using an extraction routine into the FDM. Cubes are then built automatically once the data has been received. Using Cognos Impromptu and PowerPlay, we are able to drill into yesterday`s information and create the reports needed by management and the various disciplines, such as marketing, purchasing and production."

"Cognos Impromptu is the enterprise answer for database query and reporting," adds Peter Gerson, MD of Cognos locally. "Companies such as Nandos can quickly and easily create complete reporting applications using the powerful authoring capabilities of a Windows client. They can then deploy these reports over the Web to any number of users inside the organisation."

He continues: "Cognos PowerPlay can then deliver a complete business performance measurement reporting and analysis environment for enterprise applications. It gives users access to critical data to improve business performance and maximise production."

He maintains that the ability to have reports based on current sales information, and not having to wait for month-end data is invaluable. "We now have the ability to create new reports on demand catering for almost any type of enquiry as the system is completely flexible. The cubes can then be manipulated to provide the reports required by the different aspects of the business."

When asked about the benefit to the customer, Epstein replies: "Customers should neither have to wait for excessive periods for their orders, nor receive product that has been prepared too long in advance. Cognos has helped Nandos maximise its purchasing efficiency, ensuring that stores should never run out of any items or be overstocked at any time."

"Finally," concludes Epstein, "by analysing menu item performance in individual stores, each store has promotions and specials that are geared towards its particular market, ensuring customer satisfaction worldwide."

Epstein will talk at the Cognos Enterprise 2001 User Conference. To hear more about this and other Cognos implementations, register now on www.cognos.com/za/enterprise2001

Nandos

It was in the small suburb of Rosettenville, Johannesburg, in a humble eatery called Chickenland that a dream was destined to become a reality in a few short years. There, in the heart of the local Portuguese community, chicken was prepared and enjoyed according to a centuries old, Portuguese tradition - the delicioso and well kept secret of the tightly knit community.

But Portuguese hospitality being what it is, the secret proved to be one that had to be shared. Fernando Duarte, a member of the community, introduced his close and long-time friend Robert Brozin to Chickenland. When Robert tasted the traditional Portuguese style chicken he had his first taste of what was to become his sonho (dream). The dream of sharing something this good with the whole world. Fernando and Robert became partners and, embracing all aspects of its Portuguese heritage, Nando`s was born in September 1987.

Today, the Nando`s restaurant chain is a major success story, with stores stretching all the way from Rosettenville to Cape Town, Canada, to Australia.

Cognos

Cognos is the world`s largest and most successful vendor of enterprise business intelligence solutions that leverage Internet technology to make information easily accessible to everyone in your enterprise. Founded in 1969, Cognos does business in more than 120 countries and employs 2 600 people worldwide. With more than 2 million BI licences in over 16 000 organisations worldwide, Cognos solutions are licensed for use by a wide range of customers, including Global 3000 corporations.

Our business intelligence solutions and services are sold directly and are also available from more than 3 000 worldwide partners and resellers and supported by an experienced field force of more than 1 400 customer-facing personnel. For more information visit: http://www.cognos.com/

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