NORMAL aims to give customers a unique experience at each store visit by offering new products every week. To do this, they need a comprehensive overview of the company’s products and market trends. Before TARGIT, decision-makers had to compile massive Excel spreadsheets to decide which products to stock, determine which were most popular, and compare performance and retail chain locations. These spreadsheets were difficult to decode and lacked any type of detailed analyses or user-friendly data visualization.
NORMAL had a number of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) they needed deeper insight into, but because they were pulling massive amounts of data into Excel, they could only access new data once a month. The process was incredibly slow and cumbersome since everything had to be done manually. For a retail chain that needs to stay on top of market trends and consumer demands that could change daily, it simply didn’t make sense to operate that way.
NORMAL was experiencing rapid growth, and with new stores opening all the time, executives knew they needed to gain control of their data immediately. They wanted instant access to data, up-to-the-minute monitoring of KPIs, and a user-friendly platform that would increase data visibility throughout the organization.
The company was on the hunt for a comprehensive business intelligence and analytics solution that employees enterprise-wide would be able to use.
TARGIT Decision Suite checked off all the boxes for the features and functions NORMAL was looking for. And when they factored in TARGIT’s skilled training, proven partnerships, and user-friendly
self-service analytics, NORMAL knew this was an ideal solution.
NORMAL was particularly impressed with the look and feel of TARGIT Decision Suite’s dashboards. The software’s data visualizations displayed key metrics in a way that gives NORMAL users insight in just a few seconds. Additionally, the ability to automatically schedule reports eliminated many of the frustrating, error-prone manual processes for NORMAL employees.
NORMAL chose TARGIT partner Kapacity to build their data warehouse on the back end and implement TARGIT Decision Suite on the front end.
“We chose Kapacity, because they have the competencies we demand and need, but they also have retail experience and a proven track record,” says Thomsen. “They have retail customers who gave them experience. And on a personal level, we felt they were a really good match for us.”
Today, TARGIT pulls from massive data sources very quickly, so NORMAL stores have access to detailed product analyses on-demand, as opposed to once a month.
“Our approach to building reports is with focus on creating value for the users and, of course, the company,” says Steffen Thomsen, Business Controller at NORMAL. “We let the goal drive the process. Instead of me asking what each individual needs, we discuss the needs and what purpose it has and what kind of action needs to be taken from the results of that.”
The greatest benefit TARGIT Decision Suite has brought to NORMAL is the simplification of processes. Employees throughout the organization are saving time and resources on processes that used to take days. There is no more manual creation of reports or collection of data. Data is available when and where users need it.
Because company decision-makers always have the most up-to-date information at hand, they can quickly take action when any situation arises. It’s easy to keep track of inventory and monitor product sales and shelf life. With TARGIT’s automatic alerts, managers know where to focus their attention from the moment they boot up their computers in the morning. Decision-making is more agile and responsive.
“If I could pass on any good advice from this process, it’s to decide on a strategy for your BI,” says Thomsen. “Know what your goal is, and how you get there, so you make sure that your solution actually ends up better than what you had and doesn’t grow so big that no one wants to touch it and nobody knows how to handle it. If you want to support your company strategy with BI, you need to know what your solution includes and why.”
