MYDIN selects ARTS-based BI Solution from ProfitBase and Microsoft for on-demand access to their retail performance data.

ProfitBase standards-based ARTS templates used for fast deployment.

OSLO, Norway — 30 Sept 2008 -- ProfitBase, a technology leader in easy-to-use configurable data warehousing, today announced they have received an order and are in the final stages of deploying an Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) Business Intelligence (BI) solution for MYDIN Mohamed Holdings Berhad of Malaysia.

MYDIN, one of Malaysia’s largest homegrown retailers, plans to triple their stores from the present 43 to 125 by 2010. The aggressive growth objectives and need for better, near real-time information for their decision makers and suppliers drove their investment decision. “We have a situation where our IT infrastructure for reporting is not able to keep up with the expansion of store formats and the number of stores. We currently have two ERP and two Point-Of-Sale (POS) systems. We are migrating our core ERP to Microsoft Dynamics® AX over the next two years, but until that happens we need a way to consolidate the data from these systems and provide the reports and dashboards that our people and suppliers need to make better decisions,” said Malik Murad Ali, IT Director for MYDIN. “We evaluated several vendors, both large and small, and decided on Microsoft Office PerformancePointTM Server 2007 for our reporting and dashboards and on ProfitBase 2009 for our data warehouse and OLAP Cubes.”

MYDIN decided on ProfitBase 2009 to consolidate data from their two ERP and two POS systems because of the easy to use development environment and the ready to use On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) Cube templates for retail that support the ARTS data standard. The retail templates are quickly deployed and provide analytics for item sales, hourly sales, hourly item sales, efficiency, and much more. Additionally, the ProfitBase Finance OLAP Cube template will be used to consolidate the ERP General Ledgers so that a consolidated financial status of the company is automatic.

MYDIN is deploying Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to provide all levels of the organization and their suppliers with information. Dashboards and scorecards, which will have standard financial and retail Key Performance Indicators (KPI) will be deployed for everyone from the board of directors and executive management to central merchandisers, branch operations managers and suppliers. Additionally, the Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 analysis capability will be provided for robust data mining and ad hoc analysis.

“With the ProfitBase-Microsoft BI solution we expect to have better visibility to our top selling products allowing us to make sure adequate store inventory levels are maintained. We also will share product inventory levels with our suppliers so they can better service our stores. Overall, with better visibility and the resulting optimization and proactive decision making, we expect a positive impact to the bottom line of at least 5%,” notes Malik Murad Ali.

“Microsoft and our partners improve retail operations and meet consumer demand with infrastructure optimization and real-time business intelligence solutions that enable demand-driven merchandizing,” said Jan de Jong, WW Industry Solutions Manager for Business Insight, Microsoft Distribution & Services. “The ProfitBase solution, combined with Microsoft technology, provides MYDIN with standard ARTS-based analytics that match the various job functions found in the retail organization. With Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 technology, MYDIN users are able to use dashboards, reports, scorecards and analysis tools that can deliver the right information to different users in ways that make the most sense to each of them.”

According to Borre Tharaldsen, managing director of ProfitBase AS, ProfitBase and Microsoft are committed to helping retailers, like MYDIN, increase productivity throughout their organizations. “The MYDIN project demonstrates our complementary strengths, which provide powerful capabilities that can help any retailer drive results,” Tharaldsen said. “ProfitBase offers retailers a proven ready-to-use, ARTS-based solution that is easily and rapidly deployed so they realize the benefits very quickly.”