A prototype of the system has been in use within the business for around a year and more development work is to take place to improve how data is analysed and presented.
The information store is running on an HP blade server infrastructure at present. White Stuff plans to add a storage area network to this so that it can create a “database of databases”, according to the retailer’s head of IT Venn Luscombe-Mahoney.
For head office, the creation of the data warehouse means that all predefined reports necessary for Monday morning trading meetings are available on demand
by 8am.
Reports are also being delivered to store managers via an intranet, which White Stuff has been able to set up since it linked up its stores by creating a broadband wide area network working with retail telecoms supplier Vodat.
A dashboard on the intranet lets store managers access real-time reports on information like best-sellers, transaction values and best-performing staff.
Luscombe-Mahoney said users can also create reports very easily, within three or four clicks of a mouse. He explained that the introduction of this technology at stores was part of a strategy to break down the barriers between the head office and the rest of
the company.
He added that the retailer plans to further enhance its communications networks this year. It will increase the capacity of the link to its distribution centre to deal with an anticipated expansion of its mail order business.
Luscombe-Mahoney is also working with the retailer’s systems supplier Prologic to move the stores’ card transaction processing activity to the Vodat network connections from the dedicated network links that it runs over
at present.
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