No data loss

Saker ShopRite has gained automated payroll processing without losing data set control.

Usability

Saker ShopRite IT personnel who are adding new data sources are mainframe oriented, and they all quickly picked up the Pervasive tool and put it to work.

Flexibility

Pervasive Data Integrator™  works with a wide range of applications—example: COBOL to custom applications.

Reusability

Reusable tools and rules create a self-sufficient team at Saker ShopRite as they move to implementation of other applications/functions within the B2B Exchange.

BI

Management gains new visibility on information.

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Forefront Interviews

ForeFront steps in to improve technology at grocery chain

Saker ShopRite, operating 27 stores in the Northeast with revenue of $1 billion annually, is the largest member of the Wakefern ShopRite grocers’ cooperative. The grocers’ market is highly competitive and improved technology is a key to business survival. Competitive pressures, thinner margins, regulations, the need to capture and document existing processes and the desire to improve the shopper experience propelled Saker ShopRite to develop a B2B Exchange and an automated payroll system.

Data management expert ForeFront was called in to assist the small IT shop at Saker ShopRite. Recognizing that data integration and profiling would be keys to success, ForeFront called on Pervasive Data Integrator™ to handle the integration needed for the projects.

A need for faster, safer and more reliable data

Phase 1

Saker ShopRite’s small IT shop spent a tremendous amount of time assessing data quality and remediation–putting mainframe data into databases, examining and repairing data and then transforming and loading the data. ForeFront realized that faster, more reliable data integration with wide connectivity would be required.

Phase 2

ForeFront also was tasked to assess alternatives for Saker ShopRite’s automated payroll system. Saker ShopRite’s mainframe environment left much to be desired as the company dealt with COBOL/VSAM sequential files, old-fashioned line printouts, the need for a clocking system replacement, inconsistent data and no mainframe extensibility. The challenges also included the need to accelerate Kronos deployment to supermarkets, implement new HR business rules and greater accountability, and incorporate complex business rules.

• Specific challenges that spoke to the need for Pervasive Data Integrator were:
• Variable data quality and an overall lack of solid exchange data infrastructure
• Manual data entry and corrections
• HR Business Rules with gaps and missing processes
• Security and privacy concerns

Pervasive Data Integrator:
'You put it up and just forget about it. It just runs.'

ForeFront, in Phase 1 of its work, conducted an assessment and created a strategic road map for the B2B Exchange Integration. The focus was on outsourcing back-office operations (where feasible) and extending legacy assets. Data to and from an IBM mainframe would move into a new Epicor Enterprise ERP. Integration with Saker ShopRite’s co-op, Wakefern Food Corporation, would be required for a number of feeds from the stores themselves.

During Phase 1, ForeFront assessed the project scope of the B2B network and determined fast, robust, reliable data integration was imperative in order to bring all data from various business areas over to the network. Pervasive Data Integrator was chosen for the task.

With project scope and data integration tool set chosen, Phase 2 of the work—the payroll project—began. The payroll piece was completed in less than six months, with the integration piece being “by far the simplest,” according to Anne Marie Berger. The mainframe process used to take 1-2 hours to run and involve “a couple of million transactions a week.” Now the process runs in 15 to 20 minutes with Pervasive Data Integrator running on a small Windows server. With the business rules now simplified and easily available, Saker ShopRite’s IT staff “can go in there and they can change it themselves, which is very substantive for them.” Berger notes: “It is actually about 20 different processes, inputting data into the GL as well as sending it off to different vendors. We also track items such as compliance with union rules and also garnishments. It’s quite complex in terms of processes.”

She adds, “It’s been about three years since they started and there have been no hiccups yet. You put it up and you forget about it. It just runs. That was the first project we started with, and now we have got the other 15 under way. They are doing most of the data integration by themselves. They only call us in when they get a little worried about some complex scripts.”

Payroll data passes from Supermarket managers into the Co-op Exchange through ETL migration into PeopleSoft HR/Oracle for processing. The payroll data then travels into an IBM legacy system and Epicor Enterprise that can produce custom business intelligence reports. Payroll covers 7,000+ employees and accounts for $2 million per week.

To give an idea of some of the complexities on the Phase 2 payroll project, the additional load that ForeFront was bringing over and outsourcing had about 150 different business rules depending a number of criteria such as which union the person belonged to, whether they were meatpackers or cheese people or if they had worked for them 10 times in the last two years and then quit. In the end, 20+ processes and 150+ business rules were implemented. One average process typically contains over 100 business rules, 50 steps, 20 maps and 20 stored procedures and around 100 calculations. The architecture is RiFL-based.

Pervasive brings data cohesiveness to ForeFront project

The grocers’ market will remain highly competitive and ForeFront, using Pervasive integration and data profiling, is helping to ensure Saker ShopRite’s business survival. ForeFront’s use of Pervasive integration and data profiling has offered data cohesiveness that translates to better opportunities to maximize business results.

Many more applications, including customized ones, to be moved from mainframe

There are some 15 projects associated with the B2B hub, with ForeFront and Saker ShopRite staff having moved on to G/L and A/P projects. Initially 32 applications will be moved from the mainframe; some 60 total are now planned to be moved. Remaining mainframe applications are custom applications for A/R, bad check collections, pricing, etc. COBOL and VSAM are involved.

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