Matalan boosts information sharing

Retail giant plans to cut costs with business intelligence system

Matalan's new system will help the company respond to shoppers' behaviour

Matalan has improved information management and visibility to increase profits and accomodate future business developments.

The clothing and homeware reatailer processes 466 million transactions per year and chose business intelligence software from IT supplier SAS.

The software will improve the accuracy and speed of information and integrate data from separate disparate systems, allowing the business to make faster and better-informed decisions.

Weekend trading figures will now be available by the following Monday morning through an electronic report, providing detailed insight into the stores sales patterns.

Matalan will be able to react faster to changes in patterns in individual stores, and order stock for each store based on their customer behaviour, reducing excess stock.

“Our aim is to become a fact-based, data-driven organisation," said Pete Trainer, IT and Logistics Director at Matalan.

"The system allows us to optimally plan, execute on that plan and react quickly to changing conditions."