To drive technological, strategic and operational transformations, the company invested in Qlik Sense in the cloud and in the democratization of data access
Being a Data Driven company demands studies, investments, choices of the best technological solutions, strategy and partners. Based on these guidelines, Leroy Merlin, a network of construction and decoration materials, became a success story in creating a business culture data driven in Brazil.
To reach this stage, Leroy Merlin identified, in 2018, that the Brazilian operation was technologically behind and that it needed to transform, explains Jeremy Chatelain, Data Team Manager, who came to Brazil to lead this transformation project.
“We detected the need to update our technological infrastructure and programs in order to migrate to new models of data storage, flows and visualization. That's when we started our partnerships with IN – Business Intelligence and with Qlik, through the acquisition of 200 licenses on premise of Qlik Sense,” says Jeremy.
Cloud BI and SaaS model
The success of this step led Leroy to start a gradual process of increasing the number of licenses that culminated in a new objective: to accelerate and make BI tools available to more users in stores, especially for a group of employees who are in daily contact with customers, democratizing access to data. Another goal was to increase the speed of updating the database.
In view of the proposed migration to Qlik Sense in a SaaS (software as a service) model, the company proceeded with a new phase of the project, which was successfully conducted in about 3 months. Currently, Leroy Merlin has around 2,000 BI platform users and the goal is to continue to expand that base gradually. Leroy Merlin's perspective is to make the BI environment available to approximately 30% of employees who need to make data-driven decisions.
data driven marketing
“Our central objective is, in short, to make money from data. Leroy became a data driven company when it started using data in marketing campaigns and increased the conversion rate of communication actions; when it started to use data in store opening decisions; when analyzing data to optimize the range of products sold; and also when using the data to measure the ROI of those decisions,” emphasizes Jeremy.
As a data driven company, data allows the automation of marketing actions, such as sending e-mails, without interference from employees. In other words, decisions are taken based on the parameters entered into the system. “Today, 100% of the marketing campaigns that Leroy Merlin carries out is based on a data intelligence strategy. We customize and segment our actions based on dynamic criteria. We regionalize and segment the audience for each campaign in order to guarantee a professional approach and targeting our customers' satisfaction”, explains the executive.
Leroy analyzes the data to understand customer behavior, identify the stage of construction or renovation in order to refine communication. “We do not carry out massive marketing campaigns for the products. We want to be smart with our customers”, highlights Jeremy.
GeoAnalytics for promotions and new business model
Qlik Sense's GeoAnalytics features allow for the crossing and analysis of geo-referenced data, in addition to the formulation of increasingly complete maps and visualizations. This geographic intelligence functionality is applied to understand who the customers are around the stores, to optimize the definitions of offers, discounts and the product mix.
In addition to its use in marketing actions, GeoAnalytics is supporting Leroy Merlin in the implementation of a new neighborhood point of sale model in Brazil: Leroy Merlin Express, whose pilot project was inaugurated in Campo Belo, in the south of the capital. São Paulo, to assist the public in daily maintenance and emergencies during renovation or construction. “The data will be essential for evaluating this model in order for us to replicate it in other locations,” says Jeremy.
Data Literacy and the Corporate University
The data driven culture construction process includes data literacy work conducted by the Corporate University of Leroy Merlin. Users undergo training and follow-up in order to gain familiarity and maturity in data analysis, reading charts and generating insights.
“Brazilians are not resistant to change and are dedicated, creative and motivated. We need to invest in democratizing the ability of employees to read data and use the applications made available on our platforms. We also identified the need to train professionals internally to become scientists and data analysts, as it is difficult to hire people in a hot IT job market”, ponders Jeremy.
Top 3 and future perspectives
The company believes that it has carried out a rapid and qualitative transformation, which continues to evolve. In 2018, the Brazilian operation was technologically lagging behind compared to Leroy Merlin's operations in Europe and Russia. “Thanks to this process, Brazil is currently among the Top 3 for technical maturity of the group in the world. We totally reversed the situation with the transformation we implemented, which includes strategic decisions in BI and the migration to Google Cloud, among other technical updates”, adds Jeremy.
This position meant that the Brazilian operation was included in the leadership of the Group's global projects in the areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence, alongside France and Russia.
“Having trustworthy partners who help us open our minds is one of the factors that guarantee the success of this work. Business Intelligence and Qlik are present in our daily lives, supporting us and actively participating in the co-construction of this success story”, concludes Jeremy.
In the assessment of Roberto Guerra, president of Grupo IN, of which IN – Business Intelligence is part, “the partnership with Leroy Merlin proves the value of Business Intelligence for business, shows the commitment of the IN team and the importance of proximity with the client. We started with 200 Qlik Sense licenses and the number of users grew exponentially. It is sensational to contribute to the evolution of the project, with returns higher than the goals initially outlined”, he emphasizes.
IN – Business Intelligence was elected Latin America Master Reseller of the Year 2020 by Qlik, due to its excellence, performance in customer service, sales growth and contribution to data literacy (Data Literacy) in Brazil.
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