Business Intelligence (BI)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Cold weather affected Hibbett Sports' first quarter results for the period ended May 4, but the sporting goods retailer still saw net sales of $240 million, a 3% increase from $233 million for the 13-week period ended April 28, 2012.

Comparable store sales increased 0.8% for the quarter.

For the quarter, Hibbett opened nine new stores, expanded five high performing stores and closed three underperforming stores, bringing the store base to 879 in 29 states.

How does a company whose strengths are more on the creative and design side than the technology side achieve strategic agility through the use of IT? According to Michael Relich, executive VP and CIO of vertical apparel retailer Guess, a flexible approach that focuses more on solving business problems than on meeting technical specifications goes a long way toward getting the most business value from your IT investments.

Chicago -- Leading retailers are much better than other retailers at collecting data, measuring activities, acting on their insights, and measuring again to see the results, according to A.T. Kearney’s 2013 Achieving Excellence in Retail Operations (AERO) Study.

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — OfficeMax Workplace, the U.S. business-to-business division of OfficeMax, has expanded its IT Lifecycle Management Services to help customers streamline their technology work environments. 

The company has added HP Networking solutions to its portfolio, which also includes technology offerings from Motorola and Cisco. The move provides organizations with more options to modernize their wireless and wired networks, increase productivity, unify digital communications and grow their networking capacity. 

REDLANDS, Calif. -- Esri announces that Carrefour Group, the second-largest retailer in the world with nearly 10,000 stores around the globe, has implemented an enterprise-wide marketing solution from Esri partner Galigeo.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Staples was hurt by a stronger dollar and weak same-store sales in North America and Europe. 

The office products company reported that its first-quarter profit for the period ended May 4 was $169.9 million, down from $187.1 million in the year-ago period. Its results missed Wall Street forecasts.

Total sales fell 3.5% to $5.81 billion, also falling short of estimates. In North America, same-store sales were down 2% on weak demand for computers, software and technology accessories.

MAIDENHEAD, U.K. — SDL, a global company that helps brands maximize their online business, has released a cloud-based solution for e-commerce marketers called SDL Fredhopper 7.5. 

SDL Fredhopper 7.5 allows e-commerce marketers to modify their online stores based on new trends, consumer behavior and commercial drivers. Marketers can, therefore, use the tool to adapt an entire product catalog and target specific shoppers.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Dannon is leveraging IBM's cloud-based predictive analytics in an attempt claim the number one spot, currently held by Chobani, in the $7 billion U.S. yogurt market. 

Matthews, N.C. – Family Dollar presented its annual Strategic IT Partner of the Year award to Trade Area Systems at its IT Strategic Partner last month. In September 2012, Family Dollar implemented the Trade Area Systems TAS Unity solution to give real estate managers mobile access to a database of real estate photos, comments and other relevant data.

SAN DIEGO — Lifestyle brand Tommy Bahama has selected ServiceNow, an IT cloud company, to help it evolve its IT services. 

The implementation of ServiceNow software-as-a-service has allowed Tommy Bahama to consolidate multiple IT systems into a single system of record, provide self-service interaction for users and enhance the overall IT service experience.