Business Intelligence (BI)

By Jeff Weidauer, [email protected]

Talk to anyone who has been in the retail business for a while, and they will tell you that the world has changed, and continues to do so. Technology is changing daily how shoppers think about the trip, how retailers track sales and shopper behavior, and the way CPG manufacturers approach category management. Metrics abound, and the seemingly simple business of retail now depends on complex algorithms and data analysis to grow and profit.

ATLANTA — QuantiSense, a provider of retail analytics and decision orchestration solutions, has partnered with Teradata. As a result of this partnership and certified integration, retailers will benefit from the rapid and focused implementation of the QuantiSense Decision Orchestration PlatformTM which fits seamlessly into Teradata’s scalable, enterprise-wide retail solution.

Tokyo -- Analytic data solution-provider Teradata said Monday that Takashimaya Co. has completed deployment of a Teradata data warehousing environment to serve as the primary data analytics system for centrally housing and managing its product and customer information.

Takashimaya is one of the world's largest chains of department stores, and is the nucleus of the Takashimaya Group worldwide.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears Holdings has added the Teradata Active Enterprise Data Warehouse Platform 6690 to its existing Teradata analytic environment.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Teradata, the analytic data solutions company, announced that Sears Holdings has upgrades its existing Teradata analytic environment with the Teradata Active Enterprise Data Warehouse Platform 6690, which leverages both SSD and HDD storage.

Sears has also added the new Teradata ADW Private Cloud with Elastic Performance on Demand for on-demand business analytics.

MINNEAPOLIS — Supervalu reported a loss of $111 for its second quarter, compared with net income of $60 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue fell 4.6% to $8.04 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 8, from $8.43 billion in the year-earlier quarter. The decrease in net sales was blamed on both a decline in identical-store sales and the sale of a majority of the company’s gas stations, which had contributed $158 million in revenue in the second quarter last year.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — GE's Brillion-enabled products have made their retail debut at Sears.

Starting Thursday, more than 100 Sears stores in the Northeast will offer the GE Get Connected Starter Kit, plus the GE programmable thermostat and GE’s award-winning GeoSpring Hybrid Water Heater, all with Brillion technology, in one location.

DALLAS — PeopleAnswers has extended its software licensing agreement for Foot Locker, Inc. to use the PeopleAnswers HR solution in its 2,500 stores across the United States representing Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports and Footaction.

Miami -- While out-of-stock items and inventory performance remain top-of-mind, retailers' concerns about understanding customer preferences — along with their own ability to respond to those preferences with new ideas about pricing and promotions — have become top business challenges, according to a survey of 96 retailers published Wednesday by Retail Systems Research.

New York -- The Conference Board Employment Trends Index decreased again in September, following a downward revision in August. The index now stands at 107.86, down from the revised figure of 108.23 in August. The September figure is 5.4% higher than a year ago.