Pepkor Group, a leading retailer in Southern Africa, has selected Google Cloud for the deployment of data analytics solutions to transform its logistical processes.
Pepkor Group has a consumer base of more than 28 million in-store customers and a footprint of 5,400 retail stores.
Pepkor selected Google Cloud to leverage data analytics solutions that will help the retailer transform its logistical processes, placing the right product in front of the right customer at the right time. It will be deploying solutions such as BigQuery, Cloud Dataflow, and Data Studio.
Pepkor can create demand planning reports instantly with BigQuery and Cloud Data Flow, saving up to 80 hours of work per month and increasing staff productivity by 50 percent. Additionally, reports used for route planning and strategic decision making that used to take up to three hours per report, are now generated in two minutes with Data Studio and Google Maps.
The introduction of BigQuery has significantly improved stock replenishment calculation at warehouses through automating the process that generates replenishment reports. Previously, the stock calculation process was done manually and would take up to 300 hours to produce one report. Pepkor produces the report in five minutes.
Gabrie Gouws, Chief Information Officer, Pepkor IT, said: “Pepkor IT is using Google Cloud to enrich lives through innovation. Our Big Data landscape consists of a much broader and deeper set of data than ever before.”
Pepkor deployed Google Workspace to digitize its manual processes related to work requests coming in from the stores, which used to take up to 15 days.
Pepkor implemented a digital system that uses Google Forms, Sheets, Gmail, and Google App Script, and was able to provide real-time visibility on approval status for these requests. The system has reduced the process flow from 15 days to 3 days. The process flow is 50 percent to 70 percent faster, depending on the labour request type.
Niral Patel, Director of Google Cloud Africa said: “Our collaboration with Pepkor is a great example of the power of data to make businesses more efficient, ultimately improving the customer experience.”
