Company lays foundation for aggressive growth strategy in coming months, years with business intelligence solution
San Jose, CA — October 18, 2004 — The Tile Shop, a growing retailer of ceramic, porcelain and natural stone tile, said today it has implemented solutions from business intelligence (BI) provider Business Objects to help execute an aggressive growth strategy for the chain in the coming months and years.
Gerald Baltrusch, director of IT at The Tile Shop, will present a case study on The Tile Shop's plans to become a performance-based company at the Business Objects International User Conference at the Gaylord Texas Resort in Grapevine, Texas, November 7-10.
The Tile Shop operates 30 stores throughout the nation and is continuing to grow. The retailer said it is using Business Objects' solutions to analyze and define best practices at current stores that can then be replicated at new locations. For example, at the point of sale (POS) The Tile Shop staff identifies whether an individual or a contractor made a purchase. This distinction is important, the company said, because contractors purchase tile in bulk for large projects, such as finishing a housing development, and receive special incentives as a result.
The Tile Shop then downloads the data from its POS terminals nightly, and executives determine which stores and regions are attracting more contractors, and which are attracting more individual consumers. The retailer said this helps ensure that marketing dollars are being properly allocated between these two important types of customers.
In addition, the Tile Shop said it is on track to push through the $100 million revenue benchmark, making it imperative that upper management have access to business information. With this goal in mind, The Tile Shop is implementing BusinessObjects Dashboard Manager and BusinessObjects Performance Manager to track key performance measurements by department and store. The Tile Shop also uses BusinessObjects Data Integrator to deliver data to their performance management dashboards.
"Knowing the details behind daily operations is a necessary obsession for our management team and store managers," said Baltrusch, The Tile Shop's director of information technology. "I am looking forward to presenting what we've learned so far, and the information that will be critical for us in the future at this year's Business Objects International User Conference. We are transitioning from operating on gut feel to really understanding and implementing against the numbers, and I look forward to sharing what we have learned with conference attendees."
"Understanding and delivering the right product mix at the right time to their varied customer base is essential to mid-sized retailers like The Tile Shop," said Russ Hill, director of worldwide industry marketing for retail and consumer product goods for Business Objects. "We are honored that Gerald Baltrusch has agreed to share his successes with Business Objects at our International User Conference."
