At Johannes Fog, they have worked to create a healthy and attractive assortment with a focus on profitability in their business. Among other things, they have reduced the number of product numbers from 25,000 to 14,000.
Case: Johannes Fog
Johannes Fog goes from data to insight
“Inact Now makes it incredibly easy for us to gain insights from our data”
-Interview with Business Partner at Johannes Fog, Louise Dahlenborg Starup
We have used Inact Now a lot to analyze the business
How did your journey with Inact start?
I clearly remember when we started with Inact. Back then, almost nine years ago, we didn’t question what we were measuring, we just focused on getting some data into your system. Now that we use Inact Now, it’s incredibly easy for us to get insights from our data.
Our initial focus was to phase out the assortment that was discontinued. This was followed by a more transparent approach to supplier negotiations. Now we can be much more specific and go in-depth with specific product groups and products.”
We have used Inact Now a lot to analyze the business and ask ourselves: Are we even selling these products? Are we even making a profit on them? Are we making any revenue on them? And towards our suppliers, what is the composition of their products?
The interplay between Inact and BI
How do you work with Inact today?
We currently use Inact Now alongside our BI. We have established a task force internally in the organization, where we are a team of relevant stakeholders (procurement, BI, product maintenance, etc.) who meet and review each task and decide whether the task is best placed in Inact Now or BI. This has allowed us to include all aspects, such as how quickly we need to have a solution ready.
We recently had a challenge about how to identify items that suddenly drop in performance. It turned out that Inact already had a solution to this problem because they had seen the same issue with other customers. This really highlights one of the great advantages of Inact, their experience from other customers and the speed of both development and performance.
In the internal task force, we have resolved some of the battles we used to have between BI and Inact Now
Now everyone has a voice and both pros and cons are on the table. Of course, we have limited resources in BI, so it can sometimes be an advantage to get a solution fast in Inact Now instead of owning it internally in BI.
My colleague was surprised that it was so fast - we have not been used to that before
How do you use Inact in practice?
In general, I’m very keen that what we do and spend time on must be something that works for the people who actually need the solution, otherwise it won’t work – we can have lots of fancy reports and key figures, but if they can’t act on it in the store, then it doesn’t make sense and we won’t succeed.
A concrete example of how we use Inact Now in everyday life is a list of our items within clothing with a specific assortment code. Here I can quickly pull a report for them because we have the daily updated figures through Inact Now. My colleague was completely surprised that it was so fast – we haven’t been used to this before, where we had to create these reports manually.
It’s really a genuine feeling that you want to move us forward.
We had a problem where we had some data that we needed to use in another software, and you had some input on how we should do it to get the best result. Here I could feel that Inact can really see and understand Fog’s business and not just think Inact – but see the whole landscape.
That’s something unique – sincerity and a focus on your customers. It’s clear what you want and we’re not looking for what the hidden agenda is. It’s really a genuine feeling that you want to take us forward.
Business Review
How is your collaboration with Inact?
You are great at holding our hand when we change focus. We use our Business Reviews with you to discuss the smartest way to get to the solution to our problems. I think it’s really cool that it’s not just two people who have developed an IT system, but that you can talk business and talk into our business.
In addition to this, I have experienced a great respect and understanding for the way we do things at Fog. You adapt to our pace, and for me it has been really important that what we do is done properly and that we don’t just add new things before the other things are properly anchored.
Results
A healthy and attractive assortment
Interplay between Inact Now and BI
Johannes Fog has successfully established an internal task force to decide whether their tasks should be placed in Inact Now or BI. This results in them discussing all aspects of the tasks, such as how quickly they need to have a solution ready.
Ongoing advice and sparring
Louise Dahlenborg Starup mentions that at Fog they feel in safe hands when changing business focus. Their Business Reviews are used to discuss how to come up with the best and smartest solution to the challenges.
Johannes Fog
Johannes Fog has been selling building materials since 1920 and today consists of a Home & Design House located in Lyngby, Denmark, and nine timber yards and construction centers across Zealand.
