Some BW on HANA projects start with a narrow focus on improved performance. Pan-Asian retailer Dairy Farm took a much broader approach, incorporating their BW on HANA projects into a focus on process innovation and SAP platform enhancement.
Prior to undertaking their BW on HANA project with Bluefin Solutions, Dairy Farm’s corporate leadership had already initiated a program of retail process improvement. Along a different track, Dairy Farm’s technical leadership was reviewing their SAP installation, deciding whether their SAP system could support modern analytics requirements. Eventually, the two re-evaluation projects converged. To support these bigger goals, David West (BI Group Manager) and his team decided to upgrade their reporting systems via a multi-region BW on HANA deployment.
Dairy Farm’s re-assessment of their business and technical systems also provided a business case framework for the BW on HANA projects. As West and his team proceeded with the first BW on HANA rollout in Indonesia, they understood improved reporting fit into Dairy Farm’s corporate goals. The lessons learned from the Indonesia project, now nearing go-live, will be applied to Dairy Farm’s upcoming Chinese rollout. In China, BW on HANA will be packaged and tied into a new SAP installation.
Dairy Farm’s BW on HANA projects are based on two guiding principles: modernize performance and expand reporting across the user base. “Prior to HANA, our BW system was not getting it done,” recalls West. “We have a lot of reports that run against granular data, which was which was not feasible from a performance standpoint. To compete in retail, we need our users to have access to self-service information. HANA looked looked like a feasible way to provide fast, direct access to daily market information for a mass user base.”
To achieve their process improvement goals, Dairy Farm must transform into what West calls “an analytics culture.” West sees BW on HANA as a way to help drive that transformation. “In the past, access to BW was limited to a few business analysts who were Excel experts,” he says. “Their reports used to take one to two hours to complete - now that’s down to 15 to 20 seconds.” One of West’s first self-service projects? Merchandising. “Quick access to information is one of our success measures,” says West. “People can go in and check their numbers. We now have 50 to 60 people doing it. Before BW on HANA, it was only a handful of people sending out PDFs.”
Due to improved reporting speeds, West’s team can now move to a “push” model where information is shared with users via a BusinessObjects UI. Currently 130 people are being trained on how to use these analytics capabilities within Indonesia, including Dairy Farm’s convenience, health and beauty divisions.
West knew that user adoption of the new BW on HANA system was critical - so far, so good. “We need to get our older systems decommissioned quickly,” explains West. “That means getting user uptake just as quickly. So far, we’ve gotten very good feedback on performance. For users, reliable access is the main thing. Getting the right design patterns to optimize BW on HANA is our biggest challenge. As much as possible, you want your models to run against the base data. We’ve now achieved a solid foundation; we’re quite happy with the design patterns we’ve developed, which force the processing down to the HANA layer where the speed benefits lie.”
To measure the HANA benefits, West and company will return to the fundamentals of their business case. “This is part of an overall SAP retail change initiative,” says West. “With this new system, we are now getting transparent margin data for the first time, which enables better pricing decisions. That’s a superior operating model.” Examples of retail metrics Dairy Farm will track in their pending China rollout include sales improvement, margin improvement, and stock reduction. West’s team will evaluate the success of BW on HANA in the context on the company’s SAP retail change goals.
Other vital metrics include user adoption, and reinforcing executive buy-in. User adoption could include bulk stats like amounts of system queries, but West’s ultimate goal is to see users embracing an analytics culture. “We want to train people to use information access to make better decisions,” says West. “For example, taking action on an out-of-stock issue. We want to make it simpler for users to get to problems quickly, or identify opportunities.”
As the Dairy Farm pushes their retail envelope further, West anticipates an even more compelling HANA business case. “I expect we’ll look at real-time retail scenarios like dynamic pricing, e-commerce processing, and real-time inventory management,” says West. “That could be transformational.”