SOLUTIONS SHOWCASE AGILENCE
Retail 20/20—Blurring the Line between Exception Reporting and Business Intelligence
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nyone who works in retail loss prevention knows what exception-based reporting (EBR) is. After all, it has been the industry standard for a few decades now. In their prime EBR programs were beneficial in helping to prevent future losses at the point-of-sale (POS), but even the best tools were difficult to use. They required a basic knowledge of structured query language (SQL). They would take weeks to return data, if you were lucky. And they did not generate actual reports, producing only spreadsheets of data that the user had to manually sort through.
Emerging Tools
Enter the 21st century and the emergence of business intelligence (BI) tools. BI programs allow users to examine the business as a whole by collecting data from all possible inputs, then reporting on that data. These advanced tools tend to be highly personalized and colorful. The former is vital because it allows the user to see exactly what they want on their own
terms, but the latter can be just as important. This is because color allows certain figures to pop off the screen, quickly drawing your attention to the items that need immediate attention. While each of these tools serves its own purpose, the separation of the two can leave loss prevention professionals in the dark. This is where Retail 20/20™ comes in—the next-generation reporting solution. Retail 20/20 blurs the line between EBR and BI by taking the best features from both and creating something that truly works for loss prevention professionals. Below are a few key features that allow Retail 20/20 to stand out from the traditional exception-reporting tools. Automated Compliance. ACT™, Retail 20/20’s automated compliance tool, enables retailers to create workflows that automatically triage and report on alert triggers that can be based
on individual events, summary data, or KPIs. ACT is also built to make chain-wide compliance simpler by allowing retailers to attach action plans and recommended resolutions to specific causes. The system then reports back to district managers and corporate-level users indicating which issues have been resolved, and if there are still open items that need to be addressed. Chain-Wide Data Integration. Much like you, we know that losses can occur beyond the POS. This is why Retail 20/20 has the unique capability to collect data from almost any source, including loyalty programs, alarms and access control, inventory, human resource data, and much more. Collecting and reporting on all of this data simultaneously allows you to spot trends and track employee behavior more efficiently, helping you to stop fraud faster.
Reports That Actually Report. With all of this data coming in, you need reports that improve the process without adding to it. Retail 20/20’s reports run continually, eliminating the need for overnight jobs, and can be personalize using the drag-and-drop report builder—no knowledge of SQL required. The reports produced by Retail 20/20 use bright, colorful charts and graphs that allow outliers and trends to stand out. Click-to-drill-down then allows you to easily investigate issues all the way down to the item level. Advanced Queries without SQL. Creating a query in traditional EBR tools can feel like solving a calculus problem. If you do one thing wrong, you’ll never get the desired results. But Retail 20/20 is different. Creating queries has never been easier because you can use the language that your organization is familiar with. After just a few minutes with our query builder, you will be able to create queries delivering actionable insights that previously took you a full training session to nail down.
Future Ready
At Agilence we know that the technology being used today may not be the technology that is used tomorrow. To help you stay ahead of the curve we keep our ears to the ground and continually develop Retail 20/20 to be compatible with new technologies as they come across the horizon. Whether it is the next-generation EAS or RFID tag, a unique mobile POS system, or even wearable technology, rest assured that we are working to keep Retail 20/20 future ready.
LP MAGAZINE | MAY - JUNE 2014
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