industry sales trends has bolstered Virgin’s efforts to leverage BI in tricky purchasing decisions. For instance, regional sales directors and store managers must forge strategies for stocking “right now” products that are candidates for a sales surge whose size or duration can be hard to gauge. “We can work with our replenishment team to place a second order quickly and really take advantage of weekend business,” says Brasby.

Store managers usually run through such a drill once a week. “Tuesday is considered ‘new-release day’ in our market,” says Rick Smith, Virgin’s business analyst for store systems. “Throughout the day, we

are able to easily see the best-sellers and know what is currently on hand in order to be able to make quick decisions on reorders if necessary.”

Virgin isn’t alone in its scramble to harness BI, notes Dan Vesset, an analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass. “Most large retailers and many entertainment companies are heavy users of business intelligence,” he says. “Some of the most sophisticated users of advanced analytics rely on data mining and statistical analysis of customer behavior and purchase trends.”

Virgin counts itself among the industry’s more sophisticated users of BI. By better understanding customer be-

VITAL STATISTICS: VIRGIN ENTERTAINMENT
Retail stores sell music CDs, DVDs, games and books; annual revenue is
approximately $200 million.
• Project champions: Robert Fort, IT director; Alan Flaesgarten,
senior manager of applications and development; Manish Shah,
business analyst
• it department: 15 employees
• Payback: Investment recouped in 15 weeks

havior, store managers have realized better sales and created a better work environment for employees pounding the floors to sell more merchandise, says Brasby. “BI has not

only improved our results but created more of a sales culture throughout our stores,” he says, “where our associates enjoy hearing that we had a great hour.” n