The situation
Data is the key to making informed business decisions. The trouble with data is, for it to be really useful, you need a lot of it. And for one of the largest retailers in the country, that avalanche of data had become more overwhelming than helpful.
This retailer is a household name and a dynamic business. While it had grown rapidly via mergers and acquisitions, the consequent muddle of fragmented, obsolete finance systems was making efficient management reporting almost impossible. And the self-service queries that finance needed more frequently every day? Forget about them.
The company’s CFO knew there had to be a better way. Her thinking: why couldn’t there be a one-stop destination for data that could be used for multiple finance functions?
When does big data get too big to be useful?
The solve
Collaborating closely with the CFO and her team, Deloitte asked basic questions to better understand their day-to-day work: What does this report do for you? Do you even use it? Their feedback enabled us to design reports that made sense for their goals.
Although the CFO hadn’t seen technology tools as an answer to the challenges her function faced, she realized that it was impossible for Finance to run specific queries without them. That opened the door to a solution that would allow the retailer to mine the vast amount of data it had available and thereby better command the business advantages that sound data management offers.
We developed an in-memory computing solution, powered by SAP HANA® Enterprise, that mined through the vast amount of data available and automated the retailer’s monthly close process.
This tech innovation was based on a very human truth: New solutions are more readily adopted when small improvements lead to tangible, visible, short-term benefits.
From hundreds of hours worked to an automated monthly close.
The impact
Today’s automated close process saves hundreds of hours across various functions. The project led to:
The difference was immediate. And visible.
Furthermore, decision-makers across the organization can now access data how they need it, when they need it—enhancing both customer relations and decision-making. This led the retailer to other SAP solutions, such as a cloud-based analytics tool that powers personalized dashboards to deliver data in near-real time via mobile devices.
Based on this success, the CFO is now open to considering robotics and predictive analytics to take full advantage of the retailer’s new computing power and data availability.
