Clients

Transforming Unusable Business Data into Valuable Business Intelligence
Commentary by Volker Bluhm, Central Logistics Manager, SPAR Handels AG

Company Overview

SPAR is one of Germany’s leading retail companies and has the largest chain of supermarkets in Europe. In SPAR neighborhood stores and supermarkets, independent retailers provide their customers with fresh products and a superior personal shopping atmosphere.

Business Challenge

With 400,000 items, 10,000 suppliers, 17 warehouses, and sales information from approximately 5,000 independent franchise customers and stores, SPAR’s operation is not small or simple. To achieve greater efficiency, SPAR was determined to harness its raw business data and convert it into meaningful business intelligence. The existing process was slow, inefficient and often required manually analyzing thick stacks of data printouts. Implementing a data warehouse solution would ensure easy access to valuable business intelligence plus help the company plan for future growth.

Anticipating the need for additional types of data, SPAR predicted its data warehouse requirements would soon reach the terabyte mark. Consequently, the solution it desired would need to be flexible and scalable.

Solution

In 1998, the go ahead was given for the new data warehouse project and SPAR considered three well-known data warehousing solution providers. In the end, SPAR decided in favor of the analysis capabilities incorporated in Microsoft® SQL Server™, then still in version 7.0.

The transition to SQL Server 2000 is currently underway. Utilizing SQL Server 2000 and its Analysis Services 2000 (which incorporates both online analytical processing and data mining), SPAR will realize even more functional improvements.

"With SQL Server we have the capabilities to complete flexible analyses within just a few minutes—analyses which would have taken a lot longer before, or not have been possible at all. This enables us to optimize our logistics processes, reduce our inventory costs, and improve our scheduling with up-to-date information."
—Volker Bluhm, Central Logistics Manager, SPAR Handels AG

Why SPAR Chose SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server made it easy for SPAR to transform its business data into business intelligence. SQL Server’s integrated Data Transformation Services (DTS) efficiently migrates data from the existing database. No additional third-party ETL Tools (extraction, transformation, loading) are required. The OLAP services in Microsoft SQL Server access the central data warehouse database (star schema), which is the heart of the data warehouse solution. SPAR technicians use the OLAP services to put the "cubes" together, which provide the pre-structured data for the various analysis requirements. The cubes can be integrated easily into the automated computing center operations. With its SQL Server OLAP-based data warehouse solution, SPAR gained the ability to quickly and easily implement in-depth analyses.

Advantages of SQL Server were quickly realized by the SPAR IT department when it was tasked with building an inventory management tool for the purchasing and logistics departments. The entire realization process was completed in just four weeks.

Now, with the Microsoft SQL Server solution, individual departments at SPAR can take more care in determining their precise evaluation and data requirements because the IT department requires less time to actually run the analysis. Various SPAR departments have also demonstrated renewed interest in utilizing business intelligence to benefit company operations. The diversity of analyses could not have been realized on the old SAS system because of the immense development efforts and costs that would have been involved.

"With SQL Server we have the capabilities to complete flexible analyses within just a few minutes—analyses which would have taken a lot longer before, or not have been possible at all. This enables us to optimize our logistics processes, reduce our inventory costs, and improve our scheduling with up-to-date information," says Volker Bluhm, Central Logistics Manager at SPAR Handels AG.

Case Study Source: http://www.dw-institute.com/research/display.asp?id=5405