Colruyt Group invests in data and information
Colruyt Group’s ambition is to become a leading company in data and information management. That is why we have launched a major initiative to make data and information more reliable and accessible in all the different layers of the group. Over the coming years, we are going to implement at least thirty change processes, half of which we want to roll out by the end of 2020. “Crucial steps in achieving this are the introduction of two knowledge centres and the arrival of a state-of-the-art data reservoir”, says Evert Steenhoudt, Team Manager at Business Analytics & Insights.
Expertise and information network
Many of the change processes are aimed at increasing awareness of data and building up expertise in managing information. “It is therefore no coincidence that we have bundled all actions under the programme name ‘Citta’, which is Sanskrit for ‘awareness’. We have recently taken one of the major steps within the programme by setting up two knowledge centres”, says Evert.
One of the knowledge centres specialises in capturing, storing, managing and delivering data, the other in converting that data into meaningful information from which specific insights can be extracted at a later point. In this context, we have also created new functions and roles, such as information coach and persons in charge of publishing information. The latter provides precise definitions of terms such as ‘customer’ or ‘turnover’, and places this in a glossary, models the data and determines their value. Colleagues in all the different roles together form a high-performance and far reaching network that manages information in a uniform manner.
Evert: “At the moment, one pilot network is already operational, specifically for product information management. It taught us a lot about the right tools, methods, processes, and how to achieve optimal cooperation and synchronisation between employees in various roles. These lessons will certainly be useful when starting up other information networks.”
Data reservoir within sight
At Colruyt Group, we see major opportunities for extracting even more added value from information than we are already doing at the moment. After all, in a large organisation such as ours, there is still a mass of data to be collected that we do not currently have at our disposal that could provide us with some useful insights. “If we want to capture more data in the future, we also need to look at ways of storing the data as efficient as possible and making it easily accessible to users,” says Evert. “We have been working with a data warehouse for several years now, which has both advantages and disadvantages. For example, ‘filling’ that warehouse is fairly labour-intensive. You first have to structure the data and enrich it with a number of characteristics, which is impossible for us to do for all the data. As a result, the stored data are of high quality but incomplete. Because we lack certain data, we often have too little historical data to be able to draw valuable insights.”
If we want to get more out of our data wealth, it is important to capture and store more data faster. That’s why we have decided to re-think our current data warehouse and to expand it with things such as a data lake. We are now calling all this together the ‘data reservoir’.
Evert: “In a data lake you can, so to speak, dump a massive amount of raw data, without first having to provide structure or enrichment. You can compare our current data warehouse to a filing cabinet and the reservoir to a large container full of papers. It is quite possible that you will have to make a little more effort to find something specific in here. The big advantage remains that you at least have the data. Our data scientists are also able to derive numerous insights from a lake.”
Opting for top technology
At Colruyt Group we often develop tools and applications in-house, but for the data reservoir we have chosen to use technology that is available on the market. After all, we have found that it is not the tool itself that makes the big difference, but rather the way in which you implement the tool and what you do with it. “We are definitely going to opt for state-of-the-art technology, which we want to test by mid-2020,” says Evert. “The intention is to gradually integrate our existing data warehouse into the reservoir. First we will clean up the warehouse and get rid of duplicate data.”
Information advantage
The value of data is perfectly illustrated by the explosive growth of large tech companies such as Google and Amazon. Because of their information advantage, they can deliver cheaper, faster and more efficient or more personalised services, as well as entering new markets all the time. As a retailer, we also want to build up an information advantage, to serve our customers even better and to create new services. “We have actually been working on this for years and we have already marketed quite a number of impressive achievements,” says Evert. “More than 2 million Colruyt customers receive brochures with personalised offers. Furthermore, our shared Xtra customer card not only offers customers convenience, but also allows our different store formulas to exchange important customer data.”
Privacy guaranteed
However valuable it may be, at Colruyt Group we do not view data simply as a commercial item. Like all our activities, the way in which we handle data is strongly inspired by respect for our stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers and the wider society. We have always regarded customer data and personal data as strictly confidential information that we never sell on to third parties. Evert: “In recent years, we have further refined our processes and systems and created tools that put customers in control of the data we keep about them. This transparent approach is widely appreciated and is also a way for us to make a sustainable difference.”
