SPAR Group empowers 100s of business users

The recently listed SPAR Group has been using Hyperion`s Essbase and Analyzer from Intellient*, a member of the EOH Group of companies, for a number of years now and has grown the original data warehouse project from the original DC Sales subject area to include a number of additional cubes.

"We chose Hyperion Essbase primarily due to the need to access and analyze accurate and meaningful information from our DC Operations systems, but also because it was highly rated by independent consultants and IBM, it scaled well and was easy to use. Although it is platform-independent, we found it performed more effectively on a Microsoft Windows Server. Additionally there is product technical skill resident in South Africa, the product has a well integrated front-end tool and it provides a good overall value proposition." says Ramie Naidoo, Development Group Leader - Data Warehouse at SPAR Group.

There are currently 181 Hyperion Analyzer users delving into sales analysis, promotion analysis, store purchases analysis, vendor sales analysis, and on a national basis performing the brand analysis, categorising SPAR Brand Trophy entrants, performing national promotions, subsidies and rebates.

SPAR Group has 764 SUPERSPAR, SPAR and KWIKSPAR stores countrywide, 133 Buildit stores and 121 Top stores, and as of October 18, 2004 is a JSE Securities Exchange-listed organisation with turnover of R11,8 billion in FY2004. The listing follows an unbundling from parent group Tiger Brands.

The business is using Hyperion`s Essbase to analyze eight cubes, KwaZulu-Natal DC Sales, South Rand DC Sales, North Rand DC Sales, Western Cape DC Sales, Eastern Cape DC Sales, Drop shipment, Category management and Turnover.

Naidoo adds that the successful data warehouse project has delivered a number of benefits to business users, including:

* One version of the truth.
* Better decisions are being made.
* They are not reliant on IT to get access to data.
* Drill down to item level, and users are empowered through a better understanding of the business.

"The use of Hyperion`s solution: Hyperion Essbase, which supports MOLAP (multidimensional online analytical processing) rather than ROLAP (relational online analytical processing), allows us to support multiple concurrent users with an acceptable response time," says Naidoo. "We use IBM iSeries for our operations at our distribution centres and a Microsoft Windows Server at our head office with IBM DB2 Universal Database, IBM Data Warehouse Manager and some Java script to automate the load and balancing into Essbase."

Alwin Swales, operations director at Intellient, says: "The biggest initial challenge was turning the user culture around. Having them understand the potential of the system and how it could make their lives easier through training has opened up the warehouse and made it an invaluable tool to the business."

The data warehouse project is dynamic and development continues in an effort to enhance it. One focus area is reporting and Naidoo says the number of business users is increasing. There is also a plan to upgrade to Hyperion Essbase 7 and Hyperion Analyzer 7.1.

* Intellient was formerly known as Global Technology Business Intelligence (GBI)