QuantiSense Connects Retailers with Business Intelligence

Published: August 8, 2006

by Alex Woodie

When you hear the words "business intelligence," you invariably think of data warehouses and OLAP and graphs and reports, and all that other "stuff" that companies use to extract actionable information from their applications. But not all business intelligence is equal. What works for a hospital, for example, doesn't necessarily fit the needs of a beverage manufacturer or an auto dealership. QuantiSense, which concentrates on business intelligence for specialty retailers, understands this better than most.

QuantiSense was founded in 2001 with a single goal: provide business intelligence systems that meet the distinct needs of the specialty retailers. The company defines this sector of the market as any retailer that isn't a grocery or convenience chain, generally with revenues in the $100-million-to-$2.5-billion range.

The Atlanta-based company has 10 customers, including well-known brands such as Hallmark, David's Bridal, After Hours, Restoration Hardware, and FAO Schwartz, which use QuantiSense's eponymous software to match inventory with demand and demographics across thousands of individual stores. A good percentage of these companies use an OS/400-based merchandise management system (MMS) from JDA Software Group or other such vendors, so the company has developed a certain degree of familiarity with the platform, even if the bulk of the processing occurs on Windows- or Unix-based servers running software from Microstrategy, with whom QuantiSense has a partnership.

Jeff Buck, CEO and co-founder of QuantiSense, says his customers often arrive at QuantiSense dissatisfied with their MMS, and may even be looking to replace older applications with newer systems. "They're looking for interactivity and flexibility and access to a wide range of data elements," he says. "They want to empower their users to ask questions themselves, instead of relying on IT. I think that's where the breakdown comes--when our clients are wrestling to get data out of the systems."

While Buck concedes that MMS applications are generally lousy at generating easy-to-digest reports on key business metrics without programming, he says it would be a mistake for most customers to ditch their MMS investments. "Often times our clients have a lot built into their transactional systems," he says. "We don't replace that. Our software generally extends the life of those systems."

Such was the case at NAMCO, a provider of swimming pools and accessories with 42 stores in the Northeast, where an implementation of QuantiSense is currently underway. NAMCO's new CIO, Tim O'Connor, came from another company where QuantiSense had made a big impact among the buyers and the planners. Based on that experience, he recommended QuantiSense to help fix the problem of pulling good information out of the company's OS/400 servers.

"We were using a mix of our homegrown AS/400 system and Excel for reporting, but found it cumbersome to adapt these to the rapid growth and change in our business," O'Connor says. "The QuantiSense application will give us one version of the truth, and gives us the ability to look at our business in ways we never could have before."

NAMCO will soon be using the retail-specific functions that QuantiSense has built into its product. These functions are accessed through the role-based dashboard that serves as the starting point for using the software. Once data from the MMS and supporting applications, such as warehousing or point of sale (POS) systems, is mapped, imported, and normalized in the QuantiSense data warehouse, users can begin taking advantage of the system.

The dashboard uses red, yellow, and green lights to show the real-time status of a handful of key performance indicators (KPIs), which allows users to quickly gauge the status of their store operations and see where the problems are.

One of the most common uses of QuantiSense is matching supply with demand. For example, red lights on a user's dashboard may indicate that "stock outs" are running high at one store. As a user drills down into the data, he may discover that the distribution center has plenty of stock for a given product. "That's low-hanging fruit," Buck says.

The dashboard can also help users solve more complex problems, actions which may be scripted through the product's Play Books. For example, a QuantiSense users may discover that sales associates at store X have logged the same number of transactions as those at store Y, but at 75 percent greater average transaction rate. The question then becomes, "What should I do about it?"

The software can help users find the answer, says QuantiSense marketing manager Jeff Giberstein. "The answer could be that store X is stocked out of specific items, that the mix of sizes and colors or other merchandise at store X isn't appropriate for the customer base, or that the customer demographics differ greatly between stores," Giberstein writes in an e-mail. "Once our customers find out why there's a disparity, they want to address it." Often, that means accessing data from multiple systems, including the MMS, HR, sales audit, WMS, purchasing, and GL applications.

Once users find a solution to a retail problem, QuantiSense can help them take action. "We have a write-back component to actually allocate from external warehouses to stores and to adjust the automatic replenishment parameters," Buck says.

A QuantiSense installation typically encompasses four or more servers, and can utilize the OS/400 server's integrated database to serve as the data warehouse. Implementations are usually accomplished in 100 days or less, and the cost is typically $200,000 or more. While that price tag may seem steep, users need to keep in mind that building such a system would be a multiyear effort, Buck says.

More information can be found at QuantiSense's Web site at www.QuantiSense.com.