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Retail Prodigy Group charts Nike growth using BI

Company quantifies sales by category, gender and style

Nike Australia master franchise owner, Retail Prodigy Group, has been able to track sales and staff performance through the implementation of business intelligence (BI).

The company began working with BI and enterprise resource planning (ERP) provider, Pronto Software, in July 2011 prior to its Melbourne flagship opening in August.

Retail Prodigy Group general manager, Andrew McDonald, said it decided to work with the software provider as his experience was in running retail systems rather than IT. “Being a startup, we didn’t have the budget to employ an IT staff member so we brought on a partner who we could outsource that function to,” he said.

The retailer implemented a range of Pronto Xi Dimensions tools including financials, distribution, point of sale, customer relationship management and IBM Cognos 10.

“We’re currently using Cognos which is a tool I had used when I worked for Nike,” McDonald said. “Cognos helps us quantify sales by category, gender and style on a weekly or monthly basis.”

McDonald added that the company only had one month to install Pronto before its first store opening so the installation was not 100 per cent complete. “However, everything we needed for a successful store opening was in place by August,” he said.

The company has three Nike branded stores in Australia, but McDonald wants to open another six stores over the next six months.

While the company is busy rolling out bricks and mortar stores, it does not have a website as yet. However, McDonald said it was working with Nike to investigate options in terms of an online strategy.

“The reaction to our stores has been strong, we had a good trading period over Christmas and the stores are continuing to grow,” McDonald said. “In terms of the retail landscape, there is still opportunity for strong brands like Nike where they have a great product offering.”

The company would continue to use Cognos to analyse what products staff members are selling and when they are selling them.

In addition, it is investigating the use of Pronto for its payroll system.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU

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More about: Andrew, Cognos, Cognos, IBM, IBM Australia, Nike, Pronto, Pronto Software
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