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Data Insight: Alterian fixes the Toteteam
Tote team added up by Alterian
The Tote's retail division is using the Alterian Marketing Suite to enable faster delivery of management information to senior personnel. The Tote is one of the principal betting organisations in Britain, with more than 4,000 employees, over 500 shops, a major presence on each of the 59 racecourses in Britain, as well as internet and telephone betting facilities.
To help drive shop sales by improving marketing and operational strategies, the Tote needed a more responsive financial reporting model. Alterian's database Engine is now used to aggregate betting data from 542 UK shops overnight, prior to enabling powerful data analysis and reporting. This daily refresh appends the Tote's last two years of data, to enable the production of reports at daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly levels, for example. The new system went live in May 2006.
"To take full advantage of major sporting events such as the World Cup or Royal Ascot, Area and Regional managers and the Senior Retail Team need to be able to see how shops are performing on a daily basis," explained Bob Broadbridge, IT Director, the Tote. "Two days into the World Cup this year for example, management was able to identify which factors were generating highest returns in which shops and improve in-store promotions and activities at weaker performing locations."
Alterian's database Engine performs a daily data aggregation on approximately 10,000 SQL Server files overnight from 1,400 tills, to append the Tote's data warehouse, which is then used for financial reporting by its IT and Finance departments.
Improved aggregate reporting enables management to spot trends, react accordingly and ensure all shops are performing as effectively as possible. Alterian analytical software is also used to perform ad-hoc ‘power queries' by the Tote's data analysts for in-depth marketing analysis, down to transaction-level if necessary.
"Alterian has enabled us to provide timely and insightful information to senior management in order to spot opportunities quickly and improve performance," continued Broadbridge.
"Alterian's strength in processing large datasets at high speed, has enabled transactional data to be turned into a new strategic business tool at the Tote," commented David Eldridge, CEO, Alterian. "We're proud that our software is helping one of the UK's premier betting organisations improve its operations. This is the second major project in which the Tote has deployed Alterian software; the current retail project follows a successful database marketing initiative at the Company's internet and telephone betting division."
12 September 2006