CRM and BI take aim at coalface retailers

Beverley Head
Tuesday, 25 August 2009 05:30

IT Industry - Market

Australian retailers are starting to push CRM and business intelligence tools out to the coalface, providing store managers with unprecedented levels of information about both their customers and the store’s performance.

Both Super Cheap Auto Group and Gloria Jean’s Coffees are exploring how to make more information available to their in-store managers over the next 12 months. According to Dr Bruce McCabe, director of technology innovation at KPMG; “When you push it out to the coalface you can set up feedback loops,” which he explained “combine human intelligence and silicon and improve both through an iterative process.”

“One of the great opportunities in business intelligence is to increase the footprint and make intelligence available to the people who can act on it, not just the (executive) managers,” he said.

Karin Hattingh is the divisional controller for Gloria Jean’s Coffees in Australia which is installing IBM Cognos TM1 to provide enhanced reporting for the business. “One of the aims for the future is to do franchise partner analysis and benchmarking,” according to Hattingh, who hopes to have a system ready by Christmas.

“If they know that other franchisees are returning 18 per cent profit, compared with their 10 per cent,” she said, store managers may be in a position to, for example, tackle their costs of goods. Analysis may show their wastage or salary costs are higher than comparable outlets allowing store managers to make changes to improve performance.

“When you drill down to that level you might find that some of the franchise partners never use casuals for more than 20 hours a week, and if you pay less than $400 a week then you don’t have to make superannuation contributions.” Having more granular store level information would allow franchise partners to more effectively manage their businesses.

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