Tableau Case Studies How Mobile Business Intelligence Drives Efficiency and Transformation for Supervalu

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	How Mobile Business Intelligence Drives Efficiency and Transformation for Supervalu Tableau

How Mobile Business Intelligence Drives Efficiency and Transformation for Supervalu

Tableau

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries	Retail
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Inventory Management Supply Chain Visibility
Services	Data Science Services
Challenge	Supervalu Inc., one of the largest grocery and pharmacy companies in the United States, was facing numerous challenges and was in a state of turnaround. The company recognized the need to look at their data in new ways and seek out opportunities to improve efficiency, productivity, and revenue. They required an agile business intelligence tool that could support mobile data access to improve day-to-day operations, align the organization around a single, comprehensive view of data, quickly define and iterate on new metrics, draw simultaneously from multiple in-house and third party data sources, assess data opportunities without extensive up-front IT investment, and accelerate the work of analysts and business users with self-service functionality. Before Tableau, Supervalu had ten different business intelligence tools. Their primary tool was unable to build new reports rapidly or iterate in a timely fashion. It was also unable to reach into disparate data sources and create mash-ups without significant IT overhead and complexity. Read More
About Customer	Supervalu Inc. is one of the largest grocery and pharmacy companies in the United States with over 2,500 retail locations. In 2012, Supervalu earned over $36 billion in revenues and ranked #75 on the Fortune 500 list. However, the company has faced numerous challenges in recent years. The company generates extraordinary quantities of data along every point of the value chain from ordering, forecasting, inventory management, and supply chain hand-offs to point of sale transactions. Customers visit an average of once or twice a week and each of these transactions has rich data associated with it, including items bought, promotions, taken, coupons used, composition of the basket, and so on. Read More
Solution	Supervalu adopted Tableau, a business intelligence tool that could be used on any tablet or smartphone, enabling the delivery of real-time data to on-the-ground personnel. Each of the company’s individual store directors and distribution center managers now enjoy access to Tableau dashboards on an iPad that they can carry with them throughout the day. Tableau enhances and unites Supervalu’s BI strategy with an overlay of flexibility. It allows them to analyze and visualize data quickly no matter where that data is located or how it is formatted. Internal data sources include spreadsheets, CSV files, XML files, Oracle databases, pricing systems, and Teradata, just to name a few. Tableau can also support mash-ups with third party data sources like U.S. Census data and weather pattern information from NOAA. Tableau is also improving collaboration across multiple groups at Supervalu, including marketing, merchandizing, supply chain, and finance. 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

Inventory Management

Supply Chain Visibility

Services

Data Science Services

Challenge

Supervalu Inc., one of the largest grocery and pharmacy companies in the United States, was facing numerous challenges and was in a state of turnaround. The company recognized the need to look at their data in new ways and seek out opportunities to improve efficiency, productivity, and revenue. They required an agile business intelligence tool that could support mobile data access to improve day-to-day operations, align the organization around a single, comprehensive view of data, quickly define and iterate on new metrics, draw simultaneously from multiple in-house and third party data sources, assess data opportunities without extensive up-front IT investment, and accelerate the work of analysts and business users with self-service functionality. Before Tableau, Supervalu had ten different business intelligence tools. Their primary tool was unable to build new reports rapidly or iterate in a timely fashion. It was also unable to reach into disparate data sources and create mash-ups without significant IT overhead and complexity.

About Customer

Supervalu Inc. is one of the largest grocery and pharmacy companies in the United States with over 2,500 retail locations. In 2012, Supervalu earned over $36 billion in revenues and ranked #75 on the Fortune 500 list. However, the company has faced numerous challenges in recent years. The company generates extraordinary quantities of data along every point of the value chain from ordering, forecasting, inventory management, and supply chain hand-offs to point of sale transactions. Customers visit an average of once or twice a week and each of these transactions has rich data associated with it, including items bought, promotions, taken, coupons used, composition of the basket, and so on.

Solution

Supervalu adopted Tableau, a business intelligence tool that could be used on any tablet or smartphone, enabling the delivery of real-time data to on-the-ground personnel. Each of the company’s individual store directors and distribution center managers now enjoy access to Tableau dashboards on an iPad that they can carry with them throughout the day. Tableau enhances and unites Supervalu’s BI strategy with an overlay of flexibility. It allows them to analyze and visualize data quickly no matter where that data is located or how it is formatted. Internal data sources include spreadsheets, CSV files, XML files, Oracle databases, pricing systems, and Teradata, just to name a few. Tableau can also support mash-ups with third party data sources like U.S. Census data and weather pattern information from NOAA. Tableau is also improving collaboration across multiple groups at Supervalu, including marketing, merchandizing, supply chain, and finance.

Impact #1	Supervalu can now produce new views of data in a matter of days or weeks, rather than months.
Impact #2	Analysts and business users save time by getting to the data they need faster, and employees in stores and distribution centers save time by having data at their fingertips on mobile devices.
Impact #3	Supervalu is making progress at driving cost savings and efficiency in business processes across all functional areas through smarter use of their data.

Impact #1

Supervalu can now produce new views of data in a matter of days or weeks, rather than months.

Impact #2

Analysts and business users save time by getting to the data they need faster, and employees in stores and distribution centers save time by having data at their fingertips on mobile devices.

Impact #3

Supervalu is making progress at driving cost savings and efficiency in business processes across all functional areas through smarter use of their data.

Benefit #1	Supervalu has achieved significant cost savings by going down from ten BI platforms to four.

Benefit #1

Supervalu has achieved significant cost savings by going down from ten BI platforms to four.

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Overview

How Mobile Business Intelligence Drives Efficiency and Transformation for Supervalu

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit