DIXONS TURNS TO NCR FOR DATA WAREHOUSE SOLUTION

A data Warehouse solution provided by NCR Corporation is helping Dixons Stores Group, the UK's largest electrical retailer, gain insights needed to better meet their customers' expectations and improve margins.

Building on the foundation of NCR's Teradata Warehouse, Dixons has implemented custom-developed applications that tap into detailed point-of-sale transaction data from the company's 950 stores. Dixons is able to learn more about customers' shopping behaviour-including payment methods and the mix of merchandise purchased-and the impact these factors have on margins. Armed with this knowledge, managers are better able to make informed merchandising and marketing decisions.

Damian Norton, Dixons Group IS Director explains "It's been 'live' for just a few months, but we're already seeing positive results from our data warehouse. NCR's Teradata allows us to utilize data from throughout the company. Furthermore, company managers can query our data in real time without the need for technical assistance, with whatever ad hoc questions they believe will provide useful information. And Teradata's scalability will allow us to match future growth of the business as well as growth in the types of data we collect."

NCR professional services consultants partnered closely with Dixons for design and implementation of Dixons data warehouse, including application development. As an initial step, NCR led a 'business discovery' workshop during which key Dixons Group operational managers defined the company's business improvement opportunities and established priorities. Later, NCR took Dixons through a 'data discovery' process to clearly identify the sources of detail data they needed to populate the data warehouse.

In addition to the 900 gigabyte NCR Teradata Warehouse and NCR professional services, the Dixons solution also includes an NCR WorldMark 4700 server and NCR enterprise support services to help ensure ongoing system availability for effective, time-sensitive decision making.

Alberto Camuri, vice president of NCR's Retail Solutions Group for Europe, Middle East and Africa says "NCR's data warehouse professional services, such as those we provide for Dixons, help retailers realise sound enterprise solutions that look to their future as well as present needs. NCR's experience in implementing retail data warehouses, as well as the commitment and quality of our staff, are key factors for Dixons and other leading retailers in selecting their solution provider."

For more information on Dixons, visit http://www.dixons-group-plc.co.uk.

For more information on NCR, visit http://www.ncr.com.