Supermarket chain Hoogvliet, operating over 70 stores in the Netherlands, was striving to maintain its competitive edge by upholding its lowest price guarantee. To do so, it needed to streamline its supply chain operations and improve the accuracy of its inventory forecasting. Managing thousands of products across diverse store formats required detailed insights into customer demand patterns. This complexity was further compounded by seasonal fluctuations, local variations in shopping behavior, and peaks caused by holidays or weather conditions.
In response to these challenges, Hoogvliet sought a scalable solution that could process large volumes of data in real time. They partnered with Axians to deploy SAP HANA as a high-performance analytics engine. This platform enabled the company to produce over 700,000 daily demand forecasts across its store network, providing fine-grained control over product replenishment. Furthermore, Axians implemented SAP IQ as a central data warehouse, ensuring fast, structured access to historical and transactional data necessary for reliable decision-making.
Moreover, integrating XML-based point-of-sale systems added another layer of complexity, generating thousands of transactions per hour. In response, Axians developed a master data management framework that unified these diverse data streams. As a result, data quality and consistency significantly improved across the business, allowing various departments, from store operations to finance, to trust the insights generated.
Consequently, Hoogvliet achieved a new level of agility in its supply chain. Store-level inventory was optimized, minimizing waste while maintaining availability. Peaks in distribution center activity were balanced more effectively, improving operational efficiency.
Ultimately, the collaboration with Axians laid a robust foundation for data-driven retailing, enabling Hoogvliet to consistently deliver on its brand promise of offering the lowest price, without compromising efficiency or customer satisfaction.