Toy Store (IBM Cognos)

The system of the corporate reporting and information analysis on the basis of the data warehouse of trade holding "Toy Store"

JSC The Toy Store — the Center and BI Partner company completed implementation of the centralized information and analytical system which will allow the large trading company to develop and expand the business.

Directorate on information technologies of Toy Store group and BI Partner company announced transfer to commercial operation of a corporate information and analytical system of JSC The Toy Store — the Center. The project on development and deployment of a system is performed by the BI Partner company specializing in rendering professional services and project implementation in the field of data integration and business information analysis.

The decision on transition to a new system for preparation of reports and information analysis was accepted the management of Toy Store group for maintenance of development and expansion of presence of group on the Russian commodity market for children.

A new system is intended for operational preparation and distribution of reports, carrying out the analysis of summary trade and financial performance, and, as a result, increase in efficiency of the made decisions in the field of a goods turnover and procurement management. The process of preparation of reports and information analysis preceding implementation of the centralized information and analytical system was very labor-consuming and consisted in non-automated collecting of primary data by IT department in report forms, and further work of users with them for data of information in spreadsheets.

"The system of accounting of commodity transactions used at the central office and branches did not allow us to receive the consolidated statements and to provide timely with necessary information of analysts and commerce managers of directorate", - Olga Solovyova, the director of information technology of JSC The Toy Store — the Center noted. "In process of growth of business there was more and more obvious a low performance of the existing processing of primary data for obtaining analytical reports using spreadsheets and numerous routine transactions".

Platform of the project

The data warehouse implemented on Oracle 9i DBMS running Linux OS on Proliant ML350 HP server with two Intel processors Pentium Xeon in which information necessary for analysts and commerce managers of directorate from the Domino trading systems set at the central office and branches and also from an accounting system gathers became a basis of an information and analytical system. Except these systems spreadsheets for loading of information on sales plans, the sizes of floor spaces are data sources, to the number of employees and so forth.

The data warehouse allows to store information on the movement of goods on all remote shops (including St. Petersburg) for the entire period of work of each of shops. Again opened shops will be connected to data transmission in KIAS in the automatic mode from the moment of opening.

For an information access, accumulated in the data warehouse, software products of Cognos company, one of market leaders of the systems of the business analysis are used. For solving of tasks, requiring interactive interaction of the user with a system for the purpose of information analysis the system of online analytical processing of data Cognos PowerPlay is used. Within the project the multidimensional cube – the data mart intended for the analysis of sales and settlings with suppliers is developed. For preparation and distribution of reports in scales of all company Cognos ReportNet, the innovation system of data access and the corporate reporting on the basis of web technologies is used. ReportNet provides not only a simple and safe way to work with ready report forms, but also provides a method of independent creation of reports, convenient for users, on the basis of data from different sources. Use of ReportNet allowed to implement tens of reports which not only functionally correspond an assigned task, but also in accuracy conform to requirements for document creation.

The got advantages

Creation of a corporate information and analytical system allowed to increase the speed and efficiency of acceptance of management decisions in scales of Toy Store group.

The data warehouse is uniform data source for preparation of reports and information analysis at the central office and branches; gives the chance to receive a complete picture of business on all necessary analytical cuts; ensures integration and reliable safety of historical data; reduces load of the trading system during active preparation of reports.

Due to automation of operations on collecting, preparation and data view, analysts and the staff of directorate on commerce had significantly more time for the analysis and studying of information. Performance of work considerably became simpler thanks to modern instruments of business information analysis.

Failure from information processing and preparation of reports in spreadsheets significantly reduces the probability of losses of information.