L'Oréal UK has selected Cognos Planning to automate existing spreadsheet-based business processes and improve reporting. The cosmetics manufacturer, working with Cognos partner BI Inform, has chosen Cognos Planning to drive the development of joint business plans for major retailers that sell its range of L'Oréal Paris, Garnier and Maybelline products. The rollout of the Cognos application began in October 2006 and was completed by the end of the year.
L'Oréal UK's national accounts team, which works with retailers including Tesco, Asda, Boots and Morrisons, is using Cognos to improve the planning and forecasting information available. By taking customers' electronic point of sale (EPOS) data, the national accounts team can develop unit, sales and profit margin projections including built-in key performance indictors that are tailored to each customer's individual requirements. In addition, scenario modelling can be used to forecast the success of customer or L'Oréal-led promotions and look at how seasonal variations may impact on sales and profits.
Previously, L'Oréal had been using spreadsheets but, given the range of products and level of sales in the UK , these had become difficult to manage and highly admin intensive. Account managers were often tied to their desks, reconciling manual analysis.
"The spreadsheets that the national accounts team had been using prior to the rollout of Cognos Planning had become gargantuan and difficult to manage," explained Keith Mattocks, project leader, Sales and Marketing IT at L'Oréal UK . "Not only that, every time a new scenario needed to be created, our account managers had to start again from scratch. This meant spending hours reworking the spreadsheets and inputting new data."
"Cognos' initial demonstration of what its technology could do literally sold it on the spot," Mattocks continued. "We can now demonstrate to customers the effect of various different scenarios much more quickly than before, in minutes rather than hours. This gives them the information they need to make vital decisions in the fast moving retail sector."
"L'Oréal is well respected for its technological innovation and its approach to working with its major retail partners is no different," said Graham Walter, VP of UK, Middle East and Africa . "This is a classic story of a company struggling with spreadsheets and turning to Cognos to provide a secure, spreadsheet-like environment that is robust for the enterprise, yet an easy-to-use tool for the rep on the street."
L'Oréal, working with BI Inform, took the classic project route developing the technology spec from the ground up. Following an initial review of the business need, workshops were held with potential users to set the project requirements ensuring a solution was developed to meet their needs.
