32 CASESTUDY
LOCATION ANALYSIS AIDS CO-OPERATIVE STORES STRATEGY
Large-scale business analytics software helps The Co-operative Food speed up key strategic planning processes, helping to make more effi cient and effective strategic location-based business decisions
Experian provide us with a professional software and data package that meets our analysis needs…we feel like a valued customer
chain, the number one provider of funeral services and the largest independent travel business in the UK. The Co-operative Group also has strong market positions in banking and insurance. Owned and run by its members, The Co-operative group employs 120,000 people, has 5.5 million members and around 4,800 retail outlets. In 2008, The Co-operative continued the expansion of
H
its food operation by buying around 900 Somerfi eld stores, taking its total number of food stores to over 3,000. To cope with the increase in workload, The Co-
operative Retail Location Analysis (RLA) team needed a solution, which would speed up the planning process, aid decision making and make the department more effi cient. The RLA team were asked for a solution to identify which of the newly acquired Somerfi eld stores would potentially fail the Offi ce of Fair Trading (OFT) rules for acquisition, enabling the group to prepare to dispose of such stores in a tactical manner. Having worked together for over six years, The Co-operative turned to trusted partner Experian to enable this solution. It was vital that the intended solution was compatible with the RLA team’s existing systems, including its existing implementation of location planning software Experian Micromarketer Generation 3 (MMg3), and the team’s series of databases.
The solution also had to be capable of handling large datasets, and produce high-quality analysis on a large scale.
aving started as one small shop in Lancashire, The Co-operative is now the fi fth largest food retailer, the third largest retail pharmacy
It was hoped that the solution could cut analysis time, and allow the team to prioritise stores more effi ciently. In addition, The Co-operative RLA team asked Experian
to provide them with Alteryx: a front end data-fl ow system, which enables geographic business intelligence and uses the engine behind the Experian MMg3 being used already. By implementing Alteryx alongside the existing
Experian MMg3 software, The Co-operative RLA team were able to access Co-operative data and convert these to spatial objects. They were also able append census and lifestyle customer information with user-defi ned boundaries; apply geographical processes to the data; perform spatial analysis without waiting for maps to load; and output results to most known fi le types as required. Adhering to very tight timescales to enable The Co-
operative RLA team to quickly improve their processes and decide which stores needed to be closed, Experian installed Alteryx and the relevant background datasets onto the Co-operative computers. An in-depth training course was provided by Experian to ensure all users fully understood the full benefi ts and intricacies of the system. The RLA team were given direct access to their Experian account manager, who provided around the clock after-sales support as and when requested.
This preparation and support enabled the RLA team to spend two weeks building a module that replicated the OFT rules for acquisitions.
The successful implementation of Alteryx into Experian
MMg3, has also enabled increased processing speed for The Co-operative, while maintaining the overall quality, accuracy and reliability of current RLA methods. This, in turn, has equipped the RLA team to cope with a higher workload. Using Alteryx and Experian MMg3, the Co-operative put almost 1,000 Somerfi eld stores through the OFT rules for acquisition and two hours’ worth of analysis time per site was saved as a result. The Co-operative RLA team have since used the module to analyse many new potential sites that would not have been previously possible without Alteryx. Daran Hewitt, The Co-operative Group Property national location analysis manager, commented: “Experian provide us with a professional software and data package that meets our analysis needs. Customer service from the Experian team is second to none and we feel like a valued customer. We are very happy to be associated with Experian.”
RETAIL TECHNOLOGY MARCH/APRIL 2011
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40