CALGARY CO-OP COUNTS CUSTOMERS WITH EIS

DENISE ZIMMERMAN

CALGARY, Alberta -- A new "customer count" feature just added to its executive information system will give Calgary Co-op here a vital tool for promotional planning and analysis.

The 14-store retail cooperative expects to make the new customer tracking feature available to executives this week. The EIS tool will draw data from stores' point-of-sale systems weekly and analyze the ebb and flow of customer traffic by department.

"Let's say in the deli department, we have a promotion coming out this week. We'll be able to tell if this promotion attracted more customers than what we had before, so we can see if that promotion worked, or didn't work," said Jaci Tomei, senior systems analyst.

The customer count component of the executive information system, which tracks customer volume by store and department, incorporates data chainwide so executives can access store-to-store comparative promotional analysis.

Calgary Co-op began developing an executive information system in 1992 in an effort to simplify sales and promotion analysis and to monitor personnel and administrative costs. About 30 employees, ranging from department supervisors and store managers to vice presidents, are using the system today.

"We had a paper-based accounting system that wasn't meeting our needs. We were spending an awful amount of time analyzing the data, rewriting it, trying to get the information out" to executives, said Ken Doherty, vice president of information service.

"What we wanted was a system that did the analysis for them -- quickly," he added.

Tomei said analytical reports that previously took two days to compile are now generated instantly through the executive information system. Sales data, for example, is displayed in text and graphic form, showing actual, budgeted and year-to-date sales information.

"They log on and it's there," she said.

Executives equipped with laptop personal computers can access data remotely, a capability that was was added last month.

"They can download the executive information system to a PC, which gives them the top three levels of the EIS. If they decide they need more [detailed data], they can dial directly into the system" and access information from the mainframe computer for real-time computing, Doherty said.

Calgary Co-op's executive information system grew out of an internally designed prototype that provided sales analysis of each store. However, because the system was not integrated, it failed to provide analysis on a store-to-store basis.

"The main issue with the prototype was that the data was not readily linked," Doherty said. Calgary Co-op then worked with Unisys, Blue Bell, Pa., to develop a corporate local area network and establish connectivity with each of the 14 store locations.