Enhancement of customer service supported by speedy product searching and construction of even more flexible system
Tokyo — SAP Japan Co., Ltd. has announced that Yodobashi Camera Co., Ltd. has brought into full operation a project using SAP NetWeaver MDM (Master Data Management), which integrates the master data essential for execution of business processes and unification of information.
The integration of master data to solve problems regarding business process execution and management is a key issue in all kinds of industries. For example, if address and name attributes are compared between supplier masters and product masters, and data are managed by ascertaining whether records have been duplicated, process errors that cause data inconsistency can be avoided. In order to resolve this issue, MDM prevents data redundancy and inconsistency through integration and streamlining of master data, which tends to become duplicated before storage, while running in system environments that combine multiple applications.
Yodobashi Camera has now installed MDM as part of a project to support the systemization of a wide range of product information, as well as sales promotion. Management of the huge amount of product and customer data handled by Yodobashi Camera encompasses a diverse range of venues, from actual outlets to online stores. In the current project, MDM was utilized as a search engine for locating specific products through KIOSK terminals installed in Yodobashi Camera outlets.
Yodobashi Camera decided to utilize MDM, which is one capability of the SAP NetWeaver platform that constitutes its system infrastructure, after considering compatibility with mySAP ERP, which Yodobashi Camera had already installed, the ability to specify search conditions flexibly, and search speed. The project was implemented in 12 months, including a period of functional evaluation. Yodobashi Camera considers the project to be a tool for enhancing customer service at its outlets.
From now on, in accordance with the concept of designing and developing flexible systems based on enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA), Yodobashi Camera will utilize the system, with MDM at its core, as a central repository for managing product data. In order to unify the process of generating and updating product data, which will enable higher productivity in master data management and even better customer service, Yodobashi Camera plans to expand the project over a broad range of areas.
