Harvey Nichols: Case Study

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Harvey Nichols: Case Study.

Better retail-ready business intelligence & performance management, thanks to Merret BI & CPM powered by BOARD
 
With an international reputation for luxury lifestyle brands, notably fashion, Harvey Nichols has stores in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol and Dublin, and franchised stores in Riyadh, Hong Kong, Dubai, Istanbul and Jakarta.  It also operates restaurants including Londons Oxo Tower Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie. The business employs in excess of 3,000 people.

 
Business requirement
 
In 2005, Harvey Nichols replaced its legacy merchandising system with a new and complete supply chain ERP solution, Merret from Retail Assist.  Merret initially connected to Harvey Nichols BI tools, which included Business Objects, Arthur Planning and Hyperion.  However, it became clear that a more harmonised approach to performance management was required, based on a tool that was more accurate, easier to use and more cost-effective. 

As Martin Schofield, Retail Operations Director, recalls: Our existing reporting wasnt cohesive or reliable and was produced by a myriad of different tools. Users werent confident in the accuracy or reliability of the data.

Why Merret BI & CPM

As Merret had quickly demonstrated its value, Harvey Nichols felt confident in becoming the first client to adopt Retail Assists new Merret BI & CPM tool, powered by BOARD, when this was launched in 2008. 

Continues Schofield: Merret had been driving our supply chain operations for some time but wed used a number of tools for finance reporting.  Once Merret BI became available, we saw we could achieve a lot more with a single tool than with the multiple products wed been using.

Harvey Nichols identified several areas that the new tool could address, including reporting that was more accurate, more timely and easier for users to run, and improved budgeting and forecasting.  It saw that, with Merret BI & CPM, it could achieve its aims of data consistency and integration from multiple sources, and could replace several BI systems with just one.

A pilot took place during which Merret BI & CPM was compared to existing systems and came out the clear winner.  Alistair McDonald, Senior Business Systems Manager, watched its success: The pilot, replicating the sales reports produced in Business Objects, was completed in a matter of days. It was clear that Merret BI & CPM would provide us with the single integrated environment that we wanted.

The solution

Merret BI & CPM is an out-of-the box, retail-specific business intelligence  and corporate performance management solution that includes budgeting, planning, forecasting and profitability analysis. 

It is not a generic tool: it is designed for retail, to enable retailers to address the challenges they face through sector- and activity-specific business reporting and workflow.  Pre-built retail report templates mean that new users can gain intelligence from their data gathering, analysis and reporting from day one.

Alistair McDonald continues: With this powerful tool, we benefited immediately from faster, more coherent and reliable consolidated reporting to support our decision-making.  Its allowed us to consolidate our information into a single, integrated source and displace multiple systems and a multitude of spreadsheets, giving users much more faith in the results.

Martin Schofield notes that the new solution was easier to implement and is easier to use. User requests can be actioned in hours, not days. Our reporting is now more accurate and, as we have only one licence to pay, its more cost-effective.  With the Merret BI & CPM framework in place, we can build in enhancements that will support our business expansion.

Merret BI & CPM has delivered significant improvements to daily sales, stock and financial reporting as well as cost and sales forecasting. 

The daily sales database and reports were the first to be built, replacing Hyperion.  Data is loaded at the lowest level allowing Harvey Nichols to analyse daily information by the SKU, till, day, hour, payment type and cashier. Aggregated data allows analysis by style, colour, size, fit, customised product attributes and standard attributes such as sub-section section, category and department. 

The daily sales application was rolled out to merchandisers, finance, operations and sales users who, with some basic training, were able to use the drill-anywhere functionalities to perform ad-hoc, root-cause analysis.  The next step was to replace weekly sales reporting previously produced in Business Objects.

Cost and sales forecasting have also been implemented, replacing hundreds of spreadsheets.  Utilising Merret BI & CPMs workflow has automated the process and introduced an element of control not previously available.  Even those users wedded to spreadsheets are happy to work with the new tool, thanks to its ease of use, says McDonald.

McDonald continues Weve rolled out financial reporting and sales and stock reporting across the business, making Hyperion redundant and phasing out Business Objects.  Weve completed work on cost and sales forecasting which replaces hundreds of manual spreadsheets.  Merret BI & CPM has given us a single application that has simplified and fully integrated our MIS reporting and planning.  Were able to quickly produce ad-hoc reports, giving both head office and stores much greater visibility of our KPIs.

Benefits

Merret BI & CPMs programming-free approach has allowed Harvey Nichols users to become self-sufficient.  Ad-hoc reporting has become much simpler and quicker and vastly improved data integration has given users confidence in the accuracy of the information. 

Data consistency and the provision of a single version of the truth have encouraged users to delve deeper into the underlying data. There is a greater thirst for the information on which to base sound decisions, which can only be healthy for the business, says Schofield.

The biggest single win has come from improved performance.  Whereas Business Objects reports used to take anywhere between 30 60 minutes to run, Merret BI & CPM produces those same reports virtually instantaneously.  Users are now able to have the data that they require at their fingertips, allowing them to concentrate on the analysis they should be doing, rather waiting for reports to be produced.  The time/cost benefit to the business is significant.

Martin Schofield concludes: Merret has enabled us to consolidate a number of systems into a single integrated solution. By doing so, development and support are not only more effective but we also anticipate continued reductions in administration and costs.

Monday morning, a critical time in any retail organisation, used to see systems grinding to a halt because of the volume of reports to be run. This is no longer an issue.

The huge pressure put on the IT department by the business to provide ad-hoc reports and to answer a barrage of questions about the accuracy, consistency and usefulness of the data has virtually disappeared, freeing up IT time to concentrate on delivering projects and systems enhancements.

Alistair McDonald recalls that, whereas Business Objects was inflexible and required technical know-how to write a report, Our new technology has got rid of all that, with head office power users in particular getting what they need. In budgets and forecasts, for example, hundreds of spreadsheets used to move through the business. We have been able to consolidate all that reporting, saving at least one weeks activity for a finance person.

Martin Schofield concludes: We have new insights and improved reporting across key areas including daily sales, seasonal sales and stock, and budgeting. Today more than ever, we need to have the ability to make the right decisions quickly: Merret BI & CPM gives us this fantastic degree of visibility, revolutionising how we work.

 
CHALLENGE
 Harvey Nichols reporting was fragmented and unreliable
 Business intelligence was produced by a myriad of different tools
 Users werent confident in the accuracy or reliability of the data
 End-user self-sufficiency was hard to achieve

SOLUTION
 Merret BI & CPM is a retail-specific business intelligence solution
 It includes budgeting, planning, forecasting and profitability analysis
 Pre-built retail report templates mean that new users can gain business intelligence from their data gathering, analysis and reporting from day one

BENEFITS
 Merret BI & CPM has replaced Business Objects, Hyperion and Arthur Planning, and saved licence costs
 It has improved business performance by building data consistency and reliability across the business
 Ad hoc reporting is now in the hands of end-users
 The business has become more transparent and is better able to face market challenges through rapid and informed decision-making.