Infor Case Studies Pilot Flying J refuels its analytics with Infor Birst

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	Pilot Flying J refuels its analytics with Infor Birst Infor

Pilot Flying J refuels its analytics with Infor Birst

Infor

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries	Retail
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Inventory Management Predictive Quality Analytics Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
Services	Data Science Services System Integration
Challenge	Pilot Flying J, the largest operator of travel centers in North America, embarked on an IT modernization program to replace 25 different IT systems. The company wanted to replace its existing disparate systems with a suite of cloud-based Infor applications. The goal was to spend more time with its guests and for team members to spend less time on administrative or infrastructure-related activities. Once many of the Infor applications were live, Pilot Flying J turned its attention to analytics. The company wanted to replace a large and complex landscape of old, difficult-to-use legacy analytics tools, which had previously caused data analysis to be performed in silos. Pilot Flying J also wanted to integrate all of its Infor data with non-Infor sourced data to provide a more complete view of business performance and share that information with all 28,000 employees via a company portal called “PFJ Today”. Read More
About Customer	Pilot Flying J, a Berkshire company, is the largest operator of travel centers in North America with more than 750 locations in 44 states and six Canadian provinces. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, the company employs more than 28,000 people. CEO Jimmy Haslam has embraced technology and moved Pilot Flying J in new directions, leading the company's growth from 1.1 billion fuel gallons sold in 1996 to more than 7 billion sold annually today. Pilot Flying J serves more than 1.6 million guests a day and is committed to connecting people and places with comfort, care, and a smile at every stop. Read More
Solution	Pilot Flying J implemented Infor Birst to transform its analytical capabilities. This provided joined-up analytics across all of its operational systems including financials, HCM, workforce management, and asset management. This enabled all of Pilot Flying J’s 28,000 employees to easily see the performance of the company and its travel center in real-time. The company also rolled out Birst mobile analytics to its store, restaurant, and regional executives so they can make data-driven decisions, while on the floor where they can ensure key products are on the shelves, talk to customers, and help everything run smoothly. Employees can access store sales reports as well as profit and loss data on Apple® iPads® and mobile phones. Birst’s consumer-grade user interface enables users of all skill levels to understand their contribution to sales and make immediate changes when required—without leaving the store front. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Industries

Retail

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Inventory Management

Predictive Quality Analytics

Real-Time Location System (RTLS)

Services

Data Science Services

System Integration

Challenge

Pilot Flying J, the largest operator of travel centers in North America, embarked on an IT modernization program to replace 25 different IT systems. The company wanted to replace its existing disparate systems with a suite of cloud-based Infor applications. The goal was to spend more time with its guests and for team members to spend less time on administrative or infrastructure-related activities. Once many of the Infor applications were live, Pilot Flying J turned its attention to analytics. The company wanted to replace a large and complex landscape of old, difficult-to-use legacy analytics tools, which had previously caused data analysis to be performed in silos. Pilot Flying J also wanted to integrate all of its Infor data with non-Infor sourced data to provide a more complete view of business performance and share that information with all 28,000 employees via a company portal called “PFJ Today”.

About Customer

Pilot Flying J, a Berkshire company, is the largest operator of travel centers in North America with more than 750 locations in 44 states and six Canadian provinces. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, the company employs more than 28,000 people. CEO Jimmy Haslam has embraced technology and moved Pilot Flying J in new directions, leading the company's growth from 1.1 billion fuel gallons sold in 1996 to more than 7 billion sold annually today. Pilot Flying J serves more than 1.6 million guests a day and is committed to connecting people and places with comfort, care, and a smile at every stop.

Solution

Pilot Flying J implemented Infor Birst to transform its analytical capabilities. This provided joined-up analytics across all of its operational systems including financials, HCM, workforce management, and asset management. This enabled all of Pilot Flying J’s 28,000 employees to easily see the performance of the company and its travel center in real-time. The company also rolled out Birst mobile analytics to its store, restaurant, and regional executives so they can make data-driven decisions, while on the floor where they can ensure key products are on the shelves, talk to customers, and help everything run smoothly. Employees can access store sales reports as well as profit and loss data on Apple® iPads® and mobile phones. Birst’s consumer-grade user interface enables users of all skill levels to understand their contribution to sales and make immediate changes when required—without leaving the store front.

Impact #1	Pilot Flying J has seen a dramatic improvement in the time taken to run the monthly close reports. A report is run for all 750 stores in the company. Before Birst, that process took over twelve hours, making it hard to re-run when changes happened. With Birst, the same workload takes five minutes.
Impact #2	The functionality in the Birst dashboards and reports not only provides a great deal of flexibility in enabling employees to understand how their store is performing and where they can focus their efforts, but it has also enabled Pilot Flying J to retire hundreds of legacy reports and reduce a considerable amount of technical debt.
Impact #3	One innovation of the new Birst dashboards is that Pilot Flying J has embedded sales best practices into the dashboards themselves to act as a coach to less experienced employees. If an employee notices that a product line is falling behind its sales target, the dashboard will advise key tips for achieving sales success.

Impact #1

Pilot Flying J has seen a dramatic improvement in the time taken to run the monthly close reports. A report is run for all 750 stores in the company. Before Birst, that process took over twelve hours, making it hard to re-run when changes happened. With Birst, the same workload takes five minutes.

Impact #2

The functionality in the Birst dashboards and reports not only provides a great deal of flexibility in enabling employees to understand how their store is performing and where they can focus their efforts, but it has also enabled Pilot Flying J to retire hundreds of legacy reports and reduce a considerable amount of technical debt.

Impact #3

One innovation of the new Birst dashboards is that Pilot Flying J has embedded sales best practices into the dashboards themselves to act as a coach to less experienced employees. If an employee notices that a product line is falling behind its sales target, the dashboard will advise key tips for achieving sales success.

Benefit #1	$500K Annual savings in report development and maintenance
Benefit #2	5 minutes Down from 4 days for month-end reporting (750 store P&Ls)
Benefit #3	5 seconds Down from 12 hours for month-end reporting (total company P&L)

Benefit #1

$500K Annual savings in report development and maintenance

Benefit #2

5 minutes Down from 4 days for month-end reporting (750 store P&Ls)

Benefit #3

5 seconds Down from 12 hours for month-end reporting (total company P&L)

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Overview

Pilot Flying J refuels its analytics with Infor Birst

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit