Challenges
Mitre 10 is a New Zealand-based chain of more than 80 home improvement and garden stores. Structured as a marketing and buying co-operative, storeowners across the country can respond to the unique demands of their individual communities while being supported by their Auckland-based corporate headquarters.
With greater than 80,000 individual SKUs available at any one time, monitoring individual performance across categories and regions, tracking trends or preparing useful, timely reports was a huge challenge for Mitre 10.
Data but no insight
Monthly sales figures, purchasing numbers and selling information was all available but not able to be analyzed in any meaningful way.
Supply chain complexity
In excess of 80,000 individual SKUs being available across 80 stores made monitoring individual store performance difficult, as well as tracking trends or preparing useful, timely reports.
Solutions
From a technical perspective, Logility arranges information into pre-defined ‘cubes’ — sets of information relevant to a particular department that can then be dynamically arranged and analyzed easily. Logility’s data warehousing solution extracts the data from Mitre 10’s source systems and transforms it into the more usable data warehouse format to build into the information cubes.
“Pulling information into a cube improves accessibility. With other systems, you get the same reports but they’re very static, so you don’t get the answers you’re looking for. There’s no easy way to drill down into the data,” says McHugh. “Once the cubes are all set up, it’s really simple on a design level to make changes, so that you’re always looking at the information in the most useful format for you.”
Data Management
Advanced Analytics
Another win for Mitre 10 was Logility’s compatibility with other systems. Logility was able to simply ‘sit’ on top of their SQL Server, with most of the data coming from their ERP system on IBM iSeries. This saved cost and time because the business didn’t need to implement whole new systems.
Results
Mitre 10 was able to get up to speed quickly with Logility’s uniquely simple user interface. As one executive reports, “When you compare Logility with other systems, it’s so much quicker to bring people up to speed. In 10 or 15 minutes you can learn the basics. When someone new starts here, they’re always surprised at how simple Logility is to use.”
Mitre 10 managers now make decisions based on timely, accurate information rather than on instinct. They can quickly access a “state of the nation” view which is crucial for monthly management meetings where they discuss overall performance and strategies.
The category managers use Logility when they need to compare actual sales to predictions, allowing them to make adjustments on pricing and promotions.
Beyond the system itself, Mitre 10 executives have high praise for the Logility team, who just seem to “get” Mitre 10’s business, and always be “one step ahead.” As one executive explains, “The Logility team was a big selling point for moving forward. They’re a real asset to the business.”
