Information Builders Case Studies Food Lion Roars Ahead With Self-Service Reporting System

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	Food Lion Roars Ahead With Self-Service Reporting System Information Builders

Food Lion Roars Ahead With Self-Service Reporting System

Information Builders

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries	Retail
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Predictive Quality Analytics Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	Food Lion, a major grocery retailer, was facing challenges with its mainframe-based reporting processes. The company was struggling to deliver financial information to the field in a timely manner. The hardcopy reports generated by mainframe reporting programs had to be manually bursted and stuffed into envelopes, then mailed to store managers and the operations team in the field. By the time managers received this information, it was generally more than one week old. It was also difficult to find particular bits of information, since the reports were printed in a rigid, hardcopy format. The profit and loss statements were generated by a mainframe-based reporting tool. Changes to the reports had to be requested of the IT department. Read More
About Customer	Food Lion is a major grocery retailer with more than 1,200 stores in 11 states. Founded in 1957 as Food Town in Salisbury, North Carolina, Food Lion LLC is a subsidiary of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group. Today, Food Lion operates 1,211 stores and employs approximately 73,000 associates in 11 Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. The company was facing challenges with its mainframe-based reporting processes and was struggling to deliver financial information to the field in a timely manner. Read More
Solution	Food Lion decided to create a parameter-driven, self-service reporting environment that allows managers to access their choice of reports via the corporate intranet, as well as automatically schedule and distribute daily sales reports by e-mail. The company purchased WebFOCUS along with enterprise application integration technology from iWay Software. The development team began by creating reporting extracts from Food Lion’s production information systems, which are stored in flat files on the mainframe. iWay converts data from DB2, VSAM, SQL Server, and DB/400 databases on several different computer platforms into a common format to simplify the reporting process. They also used WebFOCUS to duplicate key mainframe reports, which were distributed via e-mail by ReportCaster. Finally, they created a parameter-driven, self-service reporting environment that allows the operations team to access reports via the corporate intranet. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Industries

Retail

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Predictive Quality Analytics

Real-Time Location System (RTLS)

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

Food Lion, a major grocery retailer, was facing challenges with its mainframe-based reporting processes. The company was struggling to deliver financial information to the field in a timely manner. The hardcopy reports generated by mainframe reporting programs had to be manually bursted and stuffed into envelopes, then mailed to store managers and the operations team in the field. By the time managers received this information, it was generally more than one week old. It was also difficult to find particular bits of information, since the reports were printed in a rigid, hardcopy format. The profit and loss statements were generated by a mainframe-based reporting tool. Changes to the reports had to be requested of the IT department.

About Customer

Food Lion is a major grocery retailer with more than 1,200 stores in 11 states. Founded in 1957 as Food Town in Salisbury, North Carolina, Food Lion LLC is a subsidiary of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group. Today, Food Lion operates 1,211 stores and employs approximately 73,000 associates in 11 Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. The company was facing challenges with its mainframe-based reporting processes and was struggling to deliver financial information to the field in a timely manner.

Solution

Food Lion decided to create a parameter-driven, self-service reporting environment that allows managers to access their choice of reports via the corporate intranet, as well as automatically schedule and distribute daily sales reports by e-mail. The company purchased WebFOCUS along with enterprise application integration technology from iWay Software. The development team began by creating reporting extracts from Food Lion’s production information systems, which are stored in flat files on the mainframe. iWay converts data from DB2, VSAM, SQL Server, and DB/400 databases on several different computer platforms into a common format to simplify the reporting process. They also used WebFOCUS to duplicate key mainframe reports, which were distributed via e-mail by ReportCaster. Finally, they created a parameter-driven, self-service reporting environment that allows the operations team to access reports via the corporate intranet.

Impact #1	Sales results and other financial data received days to weeks sooner
Impact #2	Better analysis of weekly store promotions
Impact #3	The ability to quickly detect buying patterns and respond to changes in the marketplace

Impact #1

Sales results and other financial data received days to weeks sooner

Impact #2

Better analysis of weekly store promotions

Impact #3

The ability to quickly detect buying patterns and respond to changes in the marketplace

Benefit #1	Sales results and other financial data received days to weeks sooner
Benefit #2	Significant reduction in distribution costs for printing, handling, and mailing reports
Benefit #3	Reduction in labor costs due to quick report generation and fewer administrative requirements

Benefit #1

Sales results and other financial data received days to weeks sooner

Benefit #2

Significant reduction in distribution costs for printing, handling, and mailing reports

Benefit #3

Reduction in labor costs due to quick report generation and fewer administrative requirements

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Overview

Food Lion Roars Ahead With Self-Service Reporting System

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit