Retail Performance Management | Jacqui Sasserath, Product Solution Marketing Manager for Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS)
Jacqui manages the partner channel and product marketing for RMS in the UK and is an expert in helping businesses large and small take advantage of Microsoft Dynamics solutions for their retail businesses.
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Question: We have a group of retail stores. What is the best way for them to electronically send us their weekly performance metrics? I would prefer not to get Excel sheets sent to us. - Sanjay, Leicester
Answer: Hi Sanjay, there are at least two solutions open to you. But firstly, what’s wrong with Excel? The answer is probably that you don’t fancy wading through lots of data to pull out the few bits of crucial information which really matter.
The solutions I’m going to propose will solve that problem- and plenty more besides.
Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System
The “Rolls Royce” of retail systems is Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS). RMS is designed to manage store activities from start to finish, and includes modules for:
| • | Point of Sale - everything you would expect to do at the till from taking transactions or looking up stock information for a customer; (as well as customer accounts, receipt printing etc.) | | • | Inventory management - control and visibility of your stock for reordering, promotions, goods in, etc; | | • | Pricing and Sales (promotions, discounts, mix and match pricing) | | • | Relationship management (CRM, marketing applications) |
These functions obviously have the power to simplify and improve every aspect of retail activity on the shop floor. The part that will most interest you, though, is the fact that RMS splits into two modules: Store Operations and Headquarters. Designed to work seamlessly with each other, the Headquarters module takes data from each store (in real-time or at regular intervals) and compiles management reports which help you to make effective decisions immediately. A set of reports come as standard with RMS; however you can also design your own reports for precise customised metrics. Base them on store by store comparisons, line item sales, or point-of-sale promotional efficiency for example.
 Both RMS and PerformancePoint can revolutionise business agility- allowing you to make decisions and solve problems faster and more effectively than previously possible. 
Naturally, that means not just presenting compiled data but also spotting trends. If a store appears to be losing sales month-on-month, RMS reports will highlight that fact. Similarly, you’ll be able to compare store sales (and costs) side by side, allowing less effective stores to learn from star performers.
RMS was exclusively designed for retail operations from the ground up, so it’s almost certainly exactly what you need.
Microsoft PerformancePoint Server
There is another option, though. If you are looking for top-line metrics across a broader range of disciplines, rather than in-depth retail statistics, the Microsoft PerformancePoint Server might be the answer.
PerformancePoint compiles analytics for a bigger picture approach which fits into a wider range of companies and scenarios. If, for example, your stores operate largely independently and your main concern is employee value, then PerformancePoint has plenty to offer.
In particular, PerformancePoint puts key metrics in front of you in real-time; and presents them in simple “traffic-light” dashboards. You or your Finance Manager, for example, gets intelligible fiscal reports; whilst store managers can see employee reliability statistics; and neither has to wade through endless spreadsheets of confusing irrelevancies to get there.
Remember RIRO: Rubbish in, rubbish out!
There’s one caveat to both these systems, (it holds just as true for pencil and paper…): the analytics offered by RMS and PerformancePoint both rely on high quality data entry in each store. Your decisions can only be as good as the information you have been given. RMS does allow catalogue data to be imported from your suppliers however, cutting down on errors and removing tedious manual data entry.
If a store manager or employee “fiddles” the data, then you’ll get skewed results. RMS can help insure against this through barcode recognition of your products and ‘exception reporting’, whereby employees must cite a “reason” for any sales which cannot be logged automatically. In this way, any fraudulent activity is easily spotted. And with 31 levels of security within RMS you can be sure that only the right people in your organisation have access to each sales or reporting function.
Both RMS and PerformancePoint can revolutionise business agility- allowing you to make decisions and solve problems faster and more effectively than previously possible. Indeed, trends which would otherwise remain entirely hidden can now be acted upon. We recommend you choose which is right for you on the basis of:
| • | How much your supply chain (stock visibility, planned buying and margin comparisons) affects your business | | • | How much integration into your existing stores is appropriate | | • | Whether you require stock and sales metrics, employee performance metrics or both. | | • | The depth of information you realistically need to make useful decisions |
--Jacqui
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