PivotLink | Case Study

Bauer Nike is the world’s leading manufacturer of hockey equipment. A subsidiary of Nike since 1995, the 75-year-old company sells a complete line of skates, helmets, sticks, apparel, and accessories to ice rinks, hockey shops, and professional teams internationally.

Challenge

As in most sales organizations, Bauer sales representatives need a precise picture of what’s selling, and why, to meet their goals. The company was using an ERP system to report sales data, but it was difficult to produce and distribute reports to everyone who needed them. If a sales rep wanted to analyze a specific type of data, IT had to get involved.

Solution

In evaluating data analysis and reporting solutions, Chief Information Officer Paul Dachsteiner looked at price, functionality, and ease of use. “Compared to the other three products we looked at,” he said, “PivotLink excelled in all three areas — especially ease of use.” Detailed, easy-to-customize reports from PivotLink helped the company respond more quickly to customer requests and increased sales by providing quick and easy access to order information. According to sales representative Bill McKay, “I use PivotLink for 10 or 15 minutes a day and I get everything I need.”

Results

Reports customizable by business users, on the fly
Easy-to-use, Web-based interface
Anytime, anywhere access to data by business users
Dramatically improved customer service, increased sales
Reduction in sales costs by hundreds of hours
The most up-to-date information, on demand

SmartWool
"The key factor that drove us to PivotLink's solution was usability. We needed a solution that would easily allow all levels of management, from president to sales managers, access to reports and ad-hoc queries."
- Kevin Lotz, IT Director

Anchor Blue
"There is a tremendous amount of data and it is important to be able to crunch that data all the way down to the item level and all the way up to class level. We never had that kind of visibility before."
- Harrison Kang, IT Director
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Car Toys
"PivotLink is terrific, so flexible. People can use it in whatever way they want. A merchandising clerk may only need it to check one thing a day; the senior VP of merchandising, who does heavy analysis, might look at inventory turns, inventory levels, and gross margin return on investments; and our replenishment team uses PivotLink to track sales trends and demand so they can make better buying decisions."
- Tom Lockwood, CIO
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