Festival Foods Selects Cloud-Based Master Data Management Solution
Wisconsin grocer Skogen's Festival Foods has selected the Symphony RetailAI Master Data Management solution to establish a data foundation to sustain its rapid growth as it executes on its end-to-end technology road map, starting with Symphony RetailAI Promotions Optimization.
Festival Foods’s systems have been deployed since the grocer operated only 10 locations. Now, with almost 40 stores, the grocer realized that it had outgrown its current technology. The company’s initial goal was to run more effective and cost-efficient retail promotions. However, it soon recognized it needed a more analytical approach, where it could apply science to promotional decisions instead of trusting intuition, and decided to replace its underlying system before adding new capabilities. In doing so, Festival knew it could also centralize store-level responsibilities so that teams could focus less on tactics and more on creating an exceptional shopping experience.
“As we grow, we’re committed to doing so in a way that leverages leading-edge technologies with AI and machine learning, while staying true to our customer-focused culture,” noted Jeff Main, Festival’s VP information technology. “In fact, culture was our No. 1 priority, and Symphony RetailAI certainly fit that requirement with its roots in grocery. Plus, the breadth of Symphony RetailAI’s offering was exactly what we were looking for, covering everything a grocery retailer needs today. Furthermore, because Symphony RetailAI’s platform is cloud-based, it’s going to eliminate IT management headaches you’d typically have with an on-premise solution. Instead, we’ll have a more reliable system across the board, with less downtime and more confidence in the integrity of our data.”
Retailers using a single master data management solution can achieve on average a 50% reduction in data maintenance costs and a 100 times faster time to market. Symphony RetailAI Master Data Management aims to be a productivity driver for Festival, thanks to streamlined vendor onboarding and the ability for suppliers to manage their data and collaborate within the shared-insights platform. Festival’s data input workflow will be simplified, with enforced requirements and formatting standards to ensure accuracy and eliminate errors. The grocer will also be able to capture more data attributes than previously.
“Our initial goal of improving promotions led us to a broader understanding of the importance of a data foundation,” said Rick Baranczyk, Festival’s business analytics senior director. “The confidence in our analytics will drive better decision-making and allow us to be nimbler as we grow the business. We’re confident that with this master data management solution in place, we’ll soon be able to optimize our promotional spend to promote the right products at the right time in the right markets. That single version of the truth will also eventually allow us to ensure the best assortments are on the shelf in each market.”
“A solid data foundation feeds the entire retail value chain, and it is critically important to have in place to support strategic growth,” observed Chris Koziol, CEO of Dallas-based Symphony RetailAI, a global provider of integrated AI-powered marketing, merchandising and supply chain solutions for fast-moving consumer goods retailers and CPG. “We know that one of Festival Foods’ driving forces is customer satisfaction and providing an amazing guest experience. With a newfound mastery of its data and resulting downstream system efficiencies, Festival Foods will be able to deliver on that commitment even more than before. We’re excited that the team has invited us to be its partner in continued innovation as we help Festival Foods create an integrated retail value chain that delivers actionable insights across marketing, merchandising and supply chain.”
Festival Foods will be well positioned to integrate additional capabilities from Symphony RetailAI, among them Assortment Optimization, Demand ForecastingAI, Replenishment Planning and Allocation.
De Pere, Wis.-based Festival Foods, an employee- and family-owned company, operates stores throughout Wisconsin.
