7-Eleven buys SAP for store-level reports

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven has gone live with a new SAP business intelligence (BI) system in an attempt to improve store-level reporting in Australia.

The SAP BI 7 system has been rolled out in conjunction with SAP POS Data Manager (POSDM) and SAP BI Accelerator.

Approximately 140 merchandising, marketing, supply chain and operational managers will use the new system, according to the company’s CIO, Dennis Lewis.

The BI implementation is said to be part of ‘a phased IT roadmap’ to increase the efficiency and profitability of both the company and the 7-Eleven franchisees.

Lewis said that in recent years, 7-Eleven Stores had leveraged an earlier investment in SAP ERP ‘to achieve a major re-engineering of its supply chain processes’.

The change centralised more than 80 per cent of merchandising and inventory replenishment decisions.

Franchisees at store-level review and approve these replenishment orders to apply local tailoring before they are submitted electronically to supply partners, according to Lewis.

The implementation is the latest addition to what Lewis described as an ‘extensive SAP footprint’ at 7-Eleven.

The footprint also includes SAP for Retail (ERP) and SAP Exchange Infrastructure (XI). 7-Eleven Stores upgraded to ECC6 in April 2008.

7-Eleven is privately owned in Australia with more than 370 franchised fuel and convenience stores throughout New South Wales, Victoria and Southern Queensland.