Information Builders Case Studies Associated Wholesalers Delivers the Freshness Factor With BI

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	Associated Wholesalers Delivers the Freshness Factor With BI Information Builders

Associated Wholesalers Delivers the Freshness Factor With BI

Information Builders

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Applicable Industries	Food & Beverage Retail
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Inventory Management Predictive Maintenance
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	Associated Wholesalers, Inc. (AWI) is a cooperative food distributor that provides flexible business and retail services to promote the growth and profitability of its member stores. AWI began in the late 1950s to help a group of independent grocers compete with larger chains, but now serves thousands of retailers and earns close to $2.5 billion in revenue. AWI buys, warehouses, and resells grocery items to its members and offers a wide variety of programs and services to help them run their businesses. Independent retail stores that buy into the co-op earn dividends from AWI’s profits; enjoy greater purchasing power; and benefit from AWI’s distribution, marketing, and reporting services. AWI offers retail pricing systems, advertising programs, and point-of-sale business intelligence (BI) solutions based on each store’s transaction logs, which AWI loads into its reporting environment every day. Given that grocers are continually driven by a “freshness factor,” AWI has to provide its clients with up-to-the-hour data in order to deliver valuable insight. Ultimately, the company’s search for a BI environment capable of handling this challenge led Morton and his team to deploy Information Builders’ WebFOCUS BI and iWay Software integration solutions to supply accurate data and insight to its members. Read More
About Customer	Associated Wholesalers, Inc. (AWI) is a cooperative food distributor that provides flexible distribution and business services to promote the growth and profitability of its member retailers. AWI began in the late 1950s to help a group of independent grocers compete with larger chains, but now serves thousands of retailers and earns close to $2.5 billion in revenue. AWI buys, warehouses, and resells grocery items to its members and offers a wide variety of programs and services to help them run their businesses. Independent retail stores that buy into the co-op earn dividends from AWI’s profits; enjoy greater purchasing power; and benefit from AWI’s distribution, marketing, and reporting services. AWI offers retail pricing systems, advertising programs, and point-of-sale business intelligence (BI) solutions based on each store’s transaction logs, which AWI loads into its reporting environment every day. Read More
Solution	Associated Wholesalers first reached out to Information Builders as part of a modernization project that involved creating and integrating new information systems for billing, invoicing, ad planning, and other core business functions. With help from Information Builders’ Professional Services, AWI’s team deployed iWay Service Manager, which helped developers migrate data from the mainframe to an Oracle relational database, and facilitates ongoing collaboration between the new information systems. Next they used WebFOCUS Developer Studio to rewrite several key reports and deliver them automatically via WebFOCUS ReportCaster. AWI also created a series of BI dashboards. One particularly valuable executive dashboard features sales by department and commodity, updated every hour. It compares current sales metrics with data from the previous week, month, or year, and allows users to drill down and identify potential problems within each department. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Applicable Industries

Food & Beverage

Retail

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Inventory Management

Predictive Maintenance

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

Associated Wholesalers, Inc. (AWI) is a cooperative food distributor that provides flexible business and retail services to promote the growth and profitability of its member stores. AWI began in the late 1950s to help a group of independent grocers compete with larger chains, but now serves thousands of retailers and earns close to $2.5 billion in revenue. AWI buys, warehouses, and resells grocery items to its members and offers a wide variety of programs and services to help them run their businesses. Independent retail stores that buy into the co-op earn dividends from AWI’s profits; enjoy greater purchasing power; and benefit from AWI’s distribution, marketing, and reporting services. AWI offers retail pricing systems, advertising programs, and point-of-sale business intelligence (BI) solutions based on each store’s transaction logs, which AWI loads into its reporting environment every day. Given that grocers are continually driven by a “freshness factor,” AWI has to provide its clients with up-to-the-hour data in order to deliver valuable insight. Ultimately, the company’s search for a BI environment capable of handling this challenge led Morton and his team to deploy Information Builders’ WebFOCUS BI and iWay Software integration solutions to supply accurate data and insight to its members.

About Customer

Associated Wholesalers, Inc. (AWI) is a cooperative food distributor that provides flexible distribution and business services to promote the growth and profitability of its member retailers. AWI began in the late 1950s to help a group of independent grocers compete with larger chains, but now serves thousands of retailers and earns close to $2.5 billion in revenue. AWI buys, warehouses, and resells grocery items to its members and offers a wide variety of programs and services to help them run their businesses. Independent retail stores that buy into the co-op earn dividends from AWI’s profits; enjoy greater purchasing power; and benefit from AWI’s distribution, marketing, and reporting services. AWI offers retail pricing systems, advertising programs, and point-of-sale business intelligence (BI) solutions based on each store’s transaction logs, which AWI loads into its reporting environment every day.

Solution

Associated Wholesalers first reached out to Information Builders as part of a modernization project that involved creating and integrating new information systems for billing, invoicing, ad planning, and other core business functions. With help from Information Builders’ Professional Services, AWI’s team deployed iWay Service Manager, which helped developers migrate data from the mainframe to an Oracle relational database, and facilitates ongoing collaboration between the new information systems. Next they used WebFOCUS Developer Studio to rewrite several key reports and deliver them automatically via WebFOCUS ReportCaster. AWI also created a series of BI dashboards. One particularly valuable executive dashboard features sales by department and commodity, updated every hour. It compares current sales metrics with data from the previous week, month, or year, and allows users to drill down and identify potential problems within each department.

Impact #1	Independent grocers can access advanced BI tools that keep them competitive with big retailers.
Impact #2	Enhanced ability to analyze inventory, set prices, and maximize profits for AWI and its members.
Impact #3	AWI’s retail pricing system uses a complex series of algorithms to determine the optimum pricing mix for thousands of items based on competitor prices and product sensitivity.

Impact #1

Independent grocers can access advanced BI tools that keep them competitive with big retailers.

Impact #2

Enhanced ability to analyze inventory, set prices, and maximize profits for AWI and its members.

Impact #3

AWI’s retail pricing system uses a complex series of algorithms to determine the optimum pricing mix for thousands of items based on competitor prices and product sensitivity.

Benefit #1	AWI helps them maintain 97 percent service levels for this important activity – a key differentiator from competitors, which typically have 92 to 94 percent service levels.

Benefit #1

AWI helps them maintain 97 percent service levels for this important activity – a key differentiator from competitors, which typically have 92 to 94 percent service levels.

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Overview

Associated Wholesalers Delivers the Freshness Factor With BI

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit