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A new type of technology is poised to put business leaders in the driving seat with regards to their company data. Learn more in this interview with Aldata’s Donal Mac Daid.

In-memory computing or memory-based reporting gives businesses super-fast access to their company data and puts it in the hands of the right decision makers so that they can act on it and benefit the bottom line. 

It can turn a reactive retailer into a proactive retailer; one who can take advantage of new business opportunities and trends. Reactive retailers today are currently drowning in data and data is growing rapidly. Figures from research company, Aberdeen Group*, show business data is growing at an average of 36% year-on-year.

Enter in-memory computing; a technological solution, which aids data visibility and makes accessibility extremely quick compared to large data warehouses, which are traditionally clunky and slow.

“Most business people don’t know they can change the way they do analytics,” says Donal Mac Daid, VP marketing, Aldata.

“Accessing information from a data warehouse is a slow process for business leaders who want to get the right data and to the right place,” he says.

“At Aldata we structure and make sense of the data in advance; so that business leaders have all the relevant information and it’s already prepared.”

Aldata Insights is the company’s memory-based reporting solution. It provides business leaders with a dashboard view of data such as shopper behavior, supplier performance, inventory levels and product performance across an operation. It helps to create a proactive retailer, who can turn business information into a competitive advantage. 

Replenishment Insights is the first product in the new Aldata Insights portfolio. According to Mac Daid, it will identify where inventory is held - in distribution centers and in stores - so that a retailer can understand how much capital they have tied up in inventory and whether they have idle or dead inventory, for example.

“Wherever a retailer has inventory, that translates into money and; if they have too much inventory, they can work to reduce it and get that money back onto the business,” says Mac Daid. 

Metrics from the IGD** show under stocks are a problem for the industry too. Figures published at the end of 2011 put stock availability in UK grocery at 97% on average for the last four years. While across Europe, the 2008 global study by Gruen and Corsten*** shows the current average out of stock rate at European level is 8.3%, equating to less than 92% availability.

Replenishment Insights will also provide retailers with key indicators to track supplier performance including service and delivery levels.

Buyers’ Insights are another likely future development, says Mac Daid. They would deliver timely and relevant information on supplier performance to the retailer’s fingertips, in order to assist in their annual buying negotiations.

Mac Daid concludes that future Aldata Insights developments will help a retailer in measuring channel, sales and promotional effectiveness as well as inventory control.

Critically, Insights delivered by in-memory computing mean retailers can drive their own data rather than being data-driven.

Learn more about Aldata Insights


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Sources:

*Aberdeen Group, In-memory Computing, Lifting the Burden of Big Data, January 2012, Nathaniel Rowe

**IGD - Measuring on-shelf availability, ECR Availability Survey results - December 2011

*** Comprehensive Guide to Retail Out-of-Stock Reduction in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Industry. A research study conducted by Thomas W Gruen, Ph.D, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, USA; and Dr Daniel Corsten, IE Business School Madrid http://www.gmaonline.org/downloads/wygwam/OOS_fullreport.pdf