Radio Flyer Pulls Insights from Data

Radio Flyer (www.radioflyer.com), maker of the famous "little red wagon", is more than 92 years old. Its business intelligence (BI) system wasn't that old, but it was based on an aging enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Among other problems, electronic reports contained static data that couldn't be manipulated to conduct "what-if" and other types of analyses. Radio Flyer needed a better approach to business intelligence.

The company wanted a single data warehouse that centralizes the information kept in separate parts of the ERP and supply chain systems. It wanted an end-to-end solution that extends from the aggregation of data to the analysis and presentation of data to business users. And it wanted a solution that provides dashboards and scorecards for at-a-glance views of data, standard reports for more in-depth information, and ad hoc reporting for advanced analysis.

Radio Flyer chose a Microsoft Business Intelligence solution (www.microsoft.com) to expand on its existing sources of information as well as disparate supply chain systems. Data from those sources goes through a process of extraction, transformation and loading into a staging database and then into the data warehouse. Data is then moved into one of two consolidated data marts, one for sales data and one for supply chain data. SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services produces data cubes that are used in three ways: to produce about 30 standardized reports; to fuel dashboards and scorecards that contain key performance indicators; and to enable direct querying and detailed analysis of the cubes.

Both the cubes and the data warehouse contain six years of historical data, in addition to continuously loaded new data. The data is refreshed automatically, providing new customer and product information as soon as it is available, so it can be used immediately in analysis. Business users access the BI tools through an intranet site.

For business users, the solution provides the clear insight into business status that Radio Flyer sought in order to enable better decision making. For example, users can quickly create ad hoc reports so that they can view the top-selling models by customer, based on gross sales or sales margin.

The solution enables executive management to see not only how the company is currently selling to its customers, but also how sales are forecast for the rest of the year, producing an accurate picture of how each product line could finish the year. Management can also see data for customer satisfaction and profitability.

"Dashboards and scorecards give us insight on a real-time basis," says Robert Pasin, president and chief executive officer, Radio Flyer. "Our executive team looks at this information first thing in the morning and whenever we need to. It's allowed us to react more quickly to changing business conditions."

Business analysts and other business users, in contrast, see information related to the specific customers that they track whether they work in sales and marketing, supply chain, or product development areas. They can use the BI tools to manage day-to-day operations as well as to perform historical trend analysis.

Users get that information more quickly than before, in part because they are less dependent on the IT staff to generate reports. The system also saves money by making the company more productive. For example, seeing daily inventory information by warehouse location and product enables executives to manage inventory more efficiently, for example, moving excess inventory to locations where it may be needed and thereby reducing inventory costs.

Tom Cesario, director of IT, Radio Flyer, expects the benefits to grow. "The Microsoft BI solution provides a foundation to support us as our customer base expands, as more new products are introduced, and as new customer service capabilities are rolled out." 

Company at a Glance
Radio Flyer, based in Chicago, Ill., was founded in 1917 and is the maker of the famous "little red wagon" as well as contemporary wagons, tricycles, scooters and other toys. 

Age Spots
The 15-year-old business intelligence software produced business reports, but the majority of them were printed and distributed manually, so users couldn't readily interact with the data. 

All Aboard
Users of the BI system span multiple business functions. For example, the New Product Development team can use new insights into the performance of recently released toys to plan product strategy. 

Gaining Independence
Business users access data cubes and build their own Microsoft Office Excel-based reports, making them more self-sufficient for their analytical needs.