Venus Wine and Spirits Merchants has installed a Tableau business intelligence solution. This world-class software fits seamlessly with its STL IT platform and is already providing the wholesaler’s executives with vital insights into business performance across its multi-faceted estate.
Venus is a £100m, family-run alcohol wholesaler which distinguishes itself through a passionate commitment to customer service and nurturing strong relationships with its suppliers and brand owners.
Over the years, it has expanded from delivered wholesale into cash & carry, and added new sites. To support and streamline its increasingly complex operation, it has progressively relied on STL’s systems, which were designed specifically for wholesalers. Venus now has an end-to-end IT platform that incorporates STL’s merchandise management, sales order processing, wrist-held RF and tilling solutions.
Combined, these systems hold a vast and rich mine of information. However, extracting and combining all of it in a way that could add value to strategic planning and decision-making was prohibitively labour-intensive. Recognising this as a lost opportunity, Venus turned to STL for a solution. Along with its expert business intelligence partner, NexTech, STL recommended the Tableau system.
Tableau helps users transform data into actionable insights in just a few clicks. Its flexible, intuitive platform makes it easy for colleagues to collaborate, build dashboards and perform limitless ad hoc analyses and – crucially – its rich yet simple graphics make it very easy for users to interpret their results.
Laki Christoforou, Chairman of Venus, said, ‘If your IT systems are functioning properly, they will quickly accumulate an abundance of performance and customer data. But that doesn’t really help you unless you can use it outside of its silo to improve the way you operate as a whole. By making it easy to mine, combine and query all our data across our estate, Tableau helps us to see our data – and our business – in a fresh light.
‘This will help us improve our collaboration, efficiency, creative thinking and strategic planning. In turn, this will drive a superior customer experience and help us maintain our competitive edge.’