FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Multichannel Retailer USI Inc. Selects Taurus Software’s Manage Metrix for Proactive Business Performance Management

Redwood City, Calif. – Taurus Software, a premier provider of data warehousing and business intelligence solutions for multichannel retailers, announced today that USI Inc., a leading supplier of lamination equipment and office accessories, has decided to implement Taurus Software and F. Curtis Barry & Company’s Manage Metrix solution in their strategic environment. An Ecometry client, USI is excited about the combination of Taurus’ retail industry expertise and F. Curtis Barry & Company’s knowledge of best business practices coming together in a unique business performance management solution. USI and Taurus will be working together on streamlining business efficiencies in the Inventory department, where USI’s goals are balancing inventory, reducing backorders, and maximizing customer satisfaction.

USI selected Manage Metrix because of several factors, including the dynamic Taurus/FCBCO partnership, the solution’s valuable functionality, and the long-standing relationship that USI and Taurus have enjoyed throughout the years of Taurus developing specialized solutions for Ecometry customers.

“Over the years, we have been working with multiple Taurus Software solutions,” states Peter Frega, Director of Operations at USI. “We have been completely satisfied with their valuable products, ease of use, and superb functionality. Even still, we are more excited about implementing Manage Metrix since we have never seen anything quite like this.”

USI will be monitoring their Inventory pulse by using the Manage Metrix Inventory analytics, which yield insight on how to reduce Pick/Pack/Ship costs, free up dollars in unproductive inventory, minimize backorders and lost customers, ensure Purchase Orders are only being issued for needed products, and automatically prioritize the most productive and valuable tasks. In addition, the consultants at F. Curtis Barry & Company will be working closely with USI to establish best business practices. Key performance indicators (KPIs) illustrate what areas in Inventory are excelling and proactively alert Executives and Managers to possible areas of concern.

“Managing inventory is so important because it’s one of the largest assets we have,” says Peter Frega. “Inventory impacts our other departments as well as our customers, and managing inventory is a challenge since inventory levels change hourly. We used to spend 80% of our time generating reports, and 20% of our time strategizing. With Manage Metrix, we expect to spend 20% of our time generating reports, and 80% of our time strategizing.”

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 About Taurus Software
 
At Taurus Software, “making data liquid” means helping turn data into business intelligence, smart decisions, and competitive advantages – the lifeblood of your company. Taurus products include a variety of applications developed to help clients get more from their data by allowing them to Move, Map, Measure, and Manage data regardless of where it resides within business systems. To learn more about Taurus Software and our offerings designed for various data platforms and applications, call 650-482-2022 ext. 1, or visit http://www.taurus.com.

For more information
 
Zaki Hussain, Taurus Software Media Contact
Phone: 650-482-2022, ext. 407
Fax: 650-482-2010
zaki@taurus.com

January 12th and 13th, 2009
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City
Dont miss this event where you will learn “The difference between information and intelligence”.

Or, say management has tasked you with developing a report and you try and go back to prior results, maybe from a season or two ago.  How many different versions of the sales, purchase and inventory plans are there?  Which ones are the actual and which were prior versions?

Some readers might say we could do a better job of controlling and eliminating versions of plans—which is certainly true, and something every company should work toward. Or you may say if we use only one enterprise system we can eliminate this dilemma.  But that isn’t really the solution; such systems aren’t viable for most companies, and anyway, there are multiple data elements that are all valid for whatever processing system is being used.  There isn’t a “single version of the truth”— one official set of figures for sales, inventory, plan, history, etc.

Take for example a product’s inventory.  You can find sales plans on a user-derived Access system or Excel spreadsheets.  A product’s inventory on hand in units and dollars occurs on your order management system.  A separate best-of-breed warehouse management system will also include the same product on hand, but needs to be synched up daily.  The finance system will also carry the total company inventory in dollars—probably not updated real time, but daily or  weekly.  You may also have a specialized standalone forecasting and inventory management system, to project inventory by promotion or catalog campaign.

Additionally, because the major transaction systems require a high degree of training, management does not use them as the source for their information.  Management has to go to extremes to get what they need, either by requesting that department managers pull data or by using business analysts to come up with reporting.  Because these are manual efforts using sources not originally geared to management’s needs, they are delay-riddled, error prone processes.  And they still don’t deliver a “single version of the truth.”

You get the picture.  There simply isn’t a “single version of the truth” for the major data elements used in many businesses.  For management to have confidence in the integrity of the data they’re getting, I think the time has come to advocate and budget for projects that resolve these problems.  Such problems are not new, and I believe they inhibit the effective management and growth of direct businesses.

Here is a hierarchy of solutions you should consider:

• Extract data from major transaction processing systems into Excel or other reports
• Access databases, and business analysts using OLAP tools
• Data warehouse products
• Business intelligence systems with dashboards and analytics

As the New Year approaches, it’s time to advocate with management for solutions to this problem.  Especially in this economy, knowing exactly where you stand is essential. You can only control expenses and inventory and know which products and promotions are working—and which aren’t—if you have accurate data on which everybody across the company can agree. In our experience, companies that used business intelligence systems to overcome such information problems have been successful in getting a positive ROI from these types of systems within 12 to 18 months.  And in today’s business environment, that’s a “single version of the truth” on which all companies can agree.

Brian Barry is a Senior Consultant with F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com.