4-page Case Study - Posted 4/9/2008
Views: 272
Rate This Evidence:
Croatia-Based Oil Firm Enhances Operations, Achieves 100 Per Cent Accurate Retail Data
INA is a leading oil and gas provider in Croatia. Established in 1964, the company employs more than 15,000 people at its regional offices, and gas and retail stores. Until 2006, INA business and marketing teams relied on the sales data provided by gas and retail stores to manage stock and plan new marketing initiatives. However, the process for consolidating data was unreliable and employees frequently worked with inaccurate and outdated information. In June 2004, INA collaborated with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner IN2, to develop a service-orientated architecture. With the new solution, based on Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006, marketing and business teams can access real-time data from the company’s systems and use this to effectively support business operations. The new, automated system has eliminated the seven days needed by the IT team to administer sales data.
Situation
Established in 1964, INA is a leading oil and gas provider in Croatia. The company employs more than 15,000 people and generates an annual turnover of approximately U.S.$2.4 billion. Headquartered in Zagreb, Croatia, the company has six regional retail areas and owns more than 500 gasoline and retail stores.
To maintain its customer base, INA needs to ensure that retail outlets are stocked with adequate fuel, as well as popular brands of food, drink, and general goods. However, customer preferences vary according to the region and location of each store. Zorislav Mihaljevic, Advisor to the Retail Division Executive Director of INA, says: “Our business managers and operational employees analyse regional sales data in our information systems to find out the most successful products for each retail store. They need to respond quickly to changes in customer preferences and rely on sales information to effectively target marketing strategies.”
Until 2004, store attendants created end-of-day sales and stock data using retail business applications and sent this data to the company’s headquarters. Attendants then had to wait for the data to synchronise with head office systems. It took more than five hours to consolidate batch data from all retail outlets and then transfer it to the company’s Oracle-based information system.
The process of consolidating store data was time consuming and cumbersome for the IT team. Retail employees often neglected to send the information at the end of the day. If there was a technical problem with an application or data file, the IT team had to advise employees how to fix the problem over the phone. If it was too difficult for the store employee to fix, the day’s sales data was not sent—and not included in the weekly sales information supplied to the system. By the time the data was eventually sent to the central office for processing, it was delayed by up to seven days and needed to be manually entered. Mihaljevic says: “Our marketing and business employees frequently worked with inconsistent, incomplete data, because of the complicated technical process.”
In 2004, INA looked for a solution that would deliver up-to-date, accurate, sales and business information to the marketing and operations teams. It wanted to:
- Improve the quality and accuracy of all retail business data.
- Reduce IT administration time.
Solution
In late 2004, INA started working with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner IN2 to develop an enterprise integration application that integrates INA retail business systems and provides comprehensive sales data for all business units.
By 2006, INA was ready to replace its solution with an SAP enterprise resource planning solution. Based on a Windows Server® 2003 operating system, the end-to-end solution uses Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006 to gather and exchange data between gas and retail stores with INA SAP systems, including SAP Retail, SAP Oil, and SAP business warehouse.
BizTalk Server 2006 is a business process management server that includes tools to connect a diverse range of applications and systems. Using the BizTalk Server SAP application adapter, IN2 integrated the company’s SAP systems with the existing retail business applications on retail workstations.
To simplify the process of gathering data from gas and retail stores, IN2 used Microsoft message queue technology in Windows Server 2003 to compress end-of-day sales data on retail workstations. INA also replaced the analogue phone system with ISDN lines. Robert Vurusic, Project Manager, IN2, explains: “To decrease traffic and shorten the upload process, all the data that passes through communication channels is compressed and then encrypted ensuring that sensitive data stays well protected and secure. BizTalk Server 2006 acts as the central hub of the distributed environment. The solution validates data, and ensures its accuracy and stability for its automatic exchange between corporate destination systems for processing and analysis by the business and commercial teams.”
Mihaljevic says: “It took very little time to conceptualise, develop, and deploy a service-orientated architecture based on BizTalk Server 2006 when INA decided to move from Oracle-based custom-designed systems to SAP.”
Benefits
Marketing and business teams now receive accurate sales data daily. Using this information, employees can ensure that INA gas and retail outlets are continuously stocked with adequate fuel, and goods suited to regional stores. The IT team can easily manage the centralised system.
Employees Receive Timely Accurate Business Data
Now that all service station employees can send daily sales data quickly and easily, managers work with up-to-date, accurate data. “With Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006, our head office receives and distributes data between more than 500 gas and retail stores in just 15 minutes, rather than six hours,” says Mihaljevic. In addition to the type and quantity of stock sold, data—such as credit card payments details—is also transferred. Customer payments are processed faster and financial transactions appear in the company’s systems more quickly.
Staff Support Business Operations
With up-to-date data immediately available, it is easy for sales employees to ensure that they sell the most popular brands and products for each region and location. Mihaljevic says: “Depending on the location, one store will sell gas and more ice-cream, while another will sell gas and more newspapers. Managers can now monitor the quantities of stock needed at each store and arrange for new deliveries as needed.”
IT Employees Can Easily Support the Solution
The previous solution required the company to dedicate more than 10 IT employees to managing the process of collecting and transferring data from stores to the head office. Now, one person is required to manage the company’s data, and this takes just eight hours a week. “Using the IN2 custom-developed monitoring tool, based on Windows Server 2003, our IT team can easily monitor the new business data distribution and BizTalk Server 2006 environment, and promptly manage technical issues,” says Mihaljevic.
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/
For more information about IN2 products and services, call +385 1 6386 800 or visit the Web site at: http://www.in2.hr/
For more information about INA products and services, call +385 1 6451 894 or visit the Web site at: http://www.ina.hr/
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
For more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio, go to: www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx
All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
