Preferred Partner Professional Services Team

Grocery Industry Expertise

Project	Purpose	Method	Benefit	Detail
Architecture	Reduce TCO, increase ability to execute projects, and improve operational SLA's across HEB	Applied Enterprise Architecture principles and 6-Sigma project execution coupled with overall IT Director training program	Substantial increase in project execution efficiency, massive increase in Executive support in BI and DSS	CTO engagement at a major grocery retailer, 2001 through 2004
Loyalty/Value Card	Design loyalty card system	Matched program requirements against existing IT stack/processes and determined optimal strategy	Increased customer transaction-size per visit, and increased customer counts in certain demographics	Process design and solution engagement with large convenience store chain
Signs & Tags	Decrease errors and S&T deployment costs	Extracted data from antique computing platform onto modern DB2 platform. Wrote foot-fall order S&T file generation per store	Millions of dollars of labor savings per year in S&T nightly deployment and exception handling	A one-month engagement wherein we identified structural flaws in Signs & Tags selection and printing methodology and resolved the issues while optimizing the printed S&T order at the same time.
Demand Forecasting	Build econometrics system to predict consumer response to price changes	Used classic econometric elasticity and cross-elasticity statistical methods across massive transactional data sets	Improved profitability on a per-store, per-region basis	A series of such engagements witheconometrics solution providers, retail industry consultants, and major grocery and CPG retailers.
Distribution Optimization	Optimize DC pick and truck loading to improve distribution efficiency	Joint design and implementation with Manugistics. Determined query strategy and data integration with Pick/Pack DC systems	Achieved 4-5% distribution cost reduction across the enterprise	A two-year project at a major grocery retailer
Autoboot & Application Testing	Dual-use DR equipment for gold-standard application testing and validation	Developed boot strategy to turn DR systems into gold-standard test and validation systems with multi-week data playback and validation, while retaining 100% of DR capability	$12M savings in equipment purchases avoided for test and validation purposes. Also kept DR equipment “hot”, thus verifying DR environment	Took advantage of advanced server architecture features to deploy multiple “regions” of operating systems and apps so that DR capabilities are always present while historical test data is “played back” through proposed new software releases of enterprise applications. One set of hardware, dual use.
Converged Network	Developed a full-scale, converged network WAN for all enterprise data/network services	Built Cisco “SAFE” model, leveraging latest technologies	Substantial improvements in SLA's for enterprise applications across the board while enabling many new applications	This project at a major grocery retailer was necessary to then move on to VoIP, monitoring and CCTV over the network, phone bridging and follow-me phones to reduce store employee communication time/effort/cost, etc...
Master Data Modeling	Single data dictionary for all applications in the enterprise	Centralized tools to scan all applications/databases and develop as-used, as-designed data models of all elements	Decreased error rates in new application deployments substantially	Due to the complexity of Item Masters and product definitions in retail, this project was a necessity. Hardest problem was getting client buy-in to perform the project. The value was enormous once completed. Have done these for multiple grocery retail organizations.
Data Cleansing	Reduce errors and duplicate data in enterprise datamarts	Deployed tools with inference capability to identify candidate “dirty” records for modification/deletion	DSS tools could be deployed with confidence that results were valid	This batch-oriented approach also kept costs down, and led to much greater awareness for software developers to do data validation at input for future applications and systems
BI/DSS	Develop executive decision-support-systems that work	Included sufficient data sources and types throughout the enterprise to get useful data	Most DSS systems are under-deployed with insufficient data and yield questionable results.	Example: By including store employee badge-in, badge-out, and assignments, along with classic financial/stocking per-store, per-period data, we were able to use the DSS system to quickly identify shrink “candidates” for observation. This program decreased in-store shrink by almost 20%.
Thin Client/Virtual Desktop	Decrease desktop support costs and increase user satisfaction	Various: older projects have deployed Thin Clients or Remote Desktops; recent projects using Virtual Desktop technology	Much lower TCO and greater end-user satisfaction. Also lowered help-desk support costs.	Also deployed POS systems with this method – one image, booting all POS systems every morning. Guarantees no application skew and massively simplifies software distribution.
EDI/ACH	Decrease A/R and A/P processing costs	Developed secure, EDI and ACH-connected receipt and payment systems	Improved accounting visibility into A/R and A/P and increased supplier satisfaction	Further benefit was the claimed ability by some supplier managers to obtain slightly better pricing due to the electronic payment flexibility to tune payment terms with no change in processing costs
Energy Mgmt	Lower energy consumption costs	Measured energy and deployed centralized software to decrease or eliminate daily & overnight power consumption	Cost savings. In limited situations, customer satisfaction rose from stores that had been “too cold”	Aggregated all energy consumption data through BI/DSS so it was obvious where savings potential existed. Determined which savings would not adversely affect customers, or would even enhance customer experience.
Enterprise Advertising	Simplify ad changes and deployment costs	Single-version-of-ads for all print, ad, TV, store banners, etc...	Reduced costs and exception handling costs for ad errors	Resolved excessively complex antiquated advertising content management systems with multiple versions of same ads. Added tracking controls and release management.
Mexico EPS	Re-architected Electronic Payment Systems for Mexican retailer	Simplified network and assured transactional integrity in architecture	Errors were reduced, thus reducing labor costs for EPS mgmt	The existing system was error prone due to poor architecture. By guaranteeing transactional consistency while maintaining in-store responsiveness, consumer satisfaction was increased.
US EPS	Replaced ancient EPS system	Rewrote key messaging application when vendor refused. Applied stress, volume, and functional tests to ensure Quality Control	Eliminated dependency on an unpleasant EPS vendor and increased capacity and responsiveness	Existing software was under-supported, would not upgrade, and was single-threaded, causing consumer checkout delays, which were unacceptable to the enterprise. Found root cause of issue and commissioned team to rewrite core software component and eliminate old vendor
ETL	Develop ETL infrastructure capable of supporting entire enterprise	Rewrote poorly formed queries and reconfigured poorly configured ETL systems	ETL batch times dropped to a few hours from 10-15	Most enterprise-class ETL tools (DataStage, Informatica, Data Junction, etc...) can achieve high throughput when configured properly for well-formed queries. Most implementations do not achieve this.
Warehouse Mgmt	Developed warehouse mgmt solution	Ensured potential vendor solutions first matched process, business requirements and BI needs	Warehouse shrink rates dropped and mgmt costs were kept steady over a five-year growth phase	Analyzed pick, labor, tracking systems and processes and determined ideal solution to increase efficiency and minimize disruption AND to ensure BI/DSS system datamarts would get needed information
Finance Reporting	Improve accuracy and completeness of financial reporting	Centralized financial data and tied EssBase tools to single data source and supplied query procedures	Improved timeliness and accuracy of financial reporting to Mgmt	This project didn't really improve the process, but rather assured the accuracy and timeliness of the financial reporting results
Food Services	Improve purchasing, delivery, sourcing of raw materials for own-brands product production	Determined requirements for per-region/store ordering; aggregated and built interfaces to suppliers	Improved raw materials pricing and delivery terms	This was a straightforward systems integration project once actual business requirements and measurements of success were widely understood. Biggest benefits were in ice cream, bread, and prepared-meals production costs and quality.
Fuel Systems	Assure accuracy of delivered fuel for cost management	Tied scales/delivery systems to centralized databases and paid on as-measured fuel delivery	Reduced overpayment incidents for fuel and improved payment processing time	a very simple project
Item Management	Optimize Item Mgmt for retailers to reduce errors, increase productivity, operating efficiency	Centralized database and built true enterprise Master Data Model, then tied all apps to the same Item Master system	Improved profitability through reduced error-handling costs, improved vendor price-change access and accuracy, and decreased operating costs	This was a “One version of the Truth” project. By building a true, enterprise-class Item Master database and tackling the integration problems, Retailers can give their suppliers better access to price downloads, “specials” offers, and decrease operating costs due to pricing, description, advertising, and other errors driven by Item Management data integrity issues.
Help Desk / Identity Management	Centralize and simplify identity provisioning; decrease Help Desk load	Selected optimal LDAP repository tool and developed adapter/integration strategy for all enterprise	Substantial decrease in Help Desk load and costs. Able to reduce size of Help Desk and improve “customer” satisfaction and first-call resolution	With a single identity master, all organizations reduce orphan accounts, undeleted “should-be” dormant accounts, security risks, and costs associated with password resets and account provisioning in complex enterprise IT environment
Long Range Planning	Plan technology expenditures and projects against trends in technology and corporate business goals	Map business long-term goals against existing technology investments and relevant trends. Showed where ROI is highest and which IT projects were best delayed.	Optimized IT spend to produce best possible results given existing technology stack and long-term goals of business.	Performed for several large retail organizations.
International Integration	Centralize key information and systems for multi-national retailers	Analyzed and compare technology stacks and processes between various country operations. Developed project plan to achieve results.	Better overall corporate decisions, yielding improved business results across the enterprise	Dealt with US, Mexico, European, and Chinese retail operations of various size, mostly in grocery and C-store markets
Phones	Optimize communications efficiency throughout the enterprise	Selected, designed and deployed optimal VoIP solution based on business requirements	Lowered toll tariffs and saved money in per-store labor. General improvement in service delivery at pharmacy, help-desk, store	Various retailers have selected different vendors. The best success have been achieved with Shoretel and Cisco VoIP solutions.
Pharmacy	Optimize pharmacy services, create central-fill capability, decrease op-ex	Tied IT systems to central fill system, created “JIT” delivery to stores.
Point of Sale	Replace proprietary, limited-feature POS with standards-based, lower TCO architecture	Developed multicast-boot POS open-source solution.	Reduced software deployment and in-store price-list distribution costs, improved reliability, and decreased maintenance costs	Used Linux software and remote-boot/load technologies to create a modular POS solution that matched the technical capabilities of the In-Store Processor and retailer's Item Management and Price List systems.
Software Development Re-engineering	Eliminate numerous disparate development methodologies and tools; standardize, and improve development productivity/results throughout the enterprise	Engaged technology leaders to be involved in selection process and act as change-agents.	Decreased cost of development for new software releases/capabilities and improved developer productivity	By standardizing, and then enforcing/encouraging universal adoption we were able to significantly improve the overall tools and techniques skill level of all internal developers
Systems Management & Monitoring (NOC)	Monitor/Manage all systems centrally and report on Enterprise SLA's	Developed monitoring and management requirements (state, SLA reporting, trending, troubleshooting, capacity planning, etc...). Designed solution to meet all requirements, given existing tech stack	By actually monitoring all key enterprise IT systems, and overall system SLA, failures/shortfalls were identified unambiguously and priorities for remediation were clear	The key to a successful enterprise monitoring and management infrastructure is to ensure the infrastructure doesn't cost more than it's worth, and that the enterprise gets much more benefit than just “is everything up?” status reporting. So, by designing in capacity planning, trending, virtualization monitoring and management, troubleshooting, and reporting, we were able to deliver much greater value to the retailer.

PreferredPartner is proud to have provided services to many of the leading grocery enterprises in the U.S. including:

HEB Grocery
White Rose
Longs Drugs
A&P
Walgreens
Raleys
Kroger
7-11

For more information on how PreferredPartner’s Professional Services Team can add value to your organization, please contact:

Craig Humphreys

Vice President, Technical Services

PreferredPartner

866-885-3249 x904

craig.humphreys@preferredpartner.com

Customers
Grocery Industry Expertise