BI Planning Services has designed and implemented a data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) solution for the sales and marketing business areas of Nando`s stores across SA.
The fast-food chain has established itself as a leading player in the hospitality industry and has seen rapid growth of its company and franchise-owned stores across the region. With this rapid expansion, came the need to manage its operations consistently and more effectively.
Errol Epstein, MIS director at Nando`s, says technology plays a major role in the success of the Nando`s group.
"We required a solution that gave us transparency of the total sales and production costs of our stores, and provide us with strategic information to manage and reduce our operational costs based on individual stores` sales trends," says Epstein.
"The solution was implemented in three phases and was completed within six months according to the BI Planning Services` internal data warehouse and BI methodology and allows regional managers to effectively manage the production, promotion and product planning of the company and franchise owned stores," explains Craig Hart, technical director at BI Planning Services.
The data warehouse was designed using Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Cognos Powerplay for multi-dimensional OLAP (online analytical processing), Cognos Impromptu for hierarchical reporting, as well as the Cognos KPI Business pack to measure and track key business indicators.
The first phase of the project involved the consolidation of the sales and marketing data of the Nando`s company-owned stores, and provision of sales reports to the senior management team.
"Company-owned stores were all using the same information systems connected to the Nando`s back-office systems, but the process was very cumbersome, and managers only had access to monthly sales reports for each store. Now they have access to information analysis on key products, from the preparation phase right through to sales, measured down to an hourly level," continues Hart.
This includes data such as hourly and daily sales, profit margins and the number of products sold in each store, average turnover for each product family grouping, as well as information on promotional sales, gross profit and customer care.
"By consolidating its customer care services, Nando`s can focus on tracking and resolving customer service problems and tracking geographically targeted promotions. The company can measure the effectiveness of its marketing campaigns based on indicators such as population topology and seasonal sales trends," says Hart.
The second phase of the implementation involved the consolidation and integration of Nando`s global franchise store information systems into the sales and marketing data warehouse to consolidate overall turnover, profit margins and franchising fees.
"With the chain`s initial franchising initiatives, there were no strict guidelines as to which information systems should be standard and as a result, the company had many disparate databases and unusable sales reporting formats," says Epstein.
The consolidation of the marketing and sales data warehouse for its franchise-owned stores allows Nando`s to accurately track profitability and provide incentives to its stores based on information such as overall sales, take-away versus sit-in sales, profit margins and sales versus complaints, for example.
The final phase of the implementation required an analysis of the company`s overall business objectives and refining the company`s 1800 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to 10strategic KPIs monitored at senior management level.
"By defining the business processes for its franchise and company-owned stores, and measuring the KPIs down to individual store level, Nando`s can track high-level trends, monitor problem areas and improve its service to its stores and customers," says Hart.
"Store owners have access to their store sales reports and can now manage their production and operational costs strategically to keep costs down. Regional managers also have access to operational information to ensure product and service quality is maintained and fraud is minimised," he says.
Epstein says the implementation was a huge success. "With a consolidated view of the sales and marketing areas for our company and franchise-owned stores, we now have better control over the destiny of our business.
"The ROI has been significant, and we have an holistic view of our business and can manage our stores efficiently, cut down on wastage, and build our brand strategically," he concludes.
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