Data Dilemma: Fixing Sales Audits in the Age of Big Data
As newer and more improved technologies continue to create an overwhelming amount data, the ability to manage this data efficiently and cost effectively is no longer an option; it’s an absolute necessity. But big data is still causing major headaches for organizations that don’t have a plan in place.
Retailers are no exception and many are feeling the pinch with particular pain during sales audits. Now that cloud, mobile technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) have progressed from buzzwords to reality, retail organizations must develop a strategy that balances predictable database growth and total cost of ownership with true and accurate data visibility to help them more effectively run their operations.
A sales audit is a difficult and time consuming undertaking. The exercise demands that staff spend excessive hours gathering data to meet short, often impossible deadlines. Missing these deadlines typically presents a costly financial burden, as penalties can range from tens of thousands to tens of millions of dollars. Redirecting resources to gather the required information also detracts from advancing business goals. Ultimately, retailers are faced with a data dilemma: how can they affordably organize and store all of the information needed to quickly complete sales audits without breaking the budget?
The first step to fixing an organizations’ sales audit process is to implement a holistic data volume management strategy. This begins by assessing which data carries high business value and which carries little to no business value. The most important data can be assigned to the production database, while second tier data that is needed quickly but not often can be moved to more affordable nearline storage solutions that provide nearly transparent, seamless access. Older, or rarely accessed data, can be moved offline until decommissioning. This will create more predictable database growth.
The sales audit process can be simplified beginning right at the Point of Sale (POS). The originating POS receipt data needs to be traced through to the final transaction information, but the data is often stored in a variety of systems. Usually, these POS systems are only loosely tied in to the main system of record, or aren’t tied in at all.
This creates a lengthy collection process where employees must trace the information back through all of the systems. Yet, with some planning, organizations can implement archive solutions that connect POS data directly to the financial transactions in the system of record, so auditors can easily access the complete trail of POS and financial data accessed from a common archive repository. Because the organization has identified which data is most important and has chosen a location (online, nearline or offline) to appropriately store it, there is no threat of database size reaching unsustainable limits and no impact to staff.
A sales audit is never a pleasant exercise for a retail organization. It detracts from the main mission of moving merchandise while also incurring increasing operational costs. Depending on the focus of the audit, the outcome could also damage the retailer’s reputation with customers. However, big data can be conquered and this process can be simplified.
It begins with the development of a data volume management strategy which can be enhanced with specific solutions and technology. This can reduce the sales audit cycle from weeks to days, or less. That, in turn, reduces the cost of employee man hours required to fulfill the audit and all but eliminating the threat of missing deadline. What CFO wouldn’t love and appreciate that?
Dr. Werner Hopf is CEO of Dolphin Enterprise Solutions Corp.