1. SAP Customer Success Story
Retail
WALGREENS
Linking StRategy and execution
with SaP® Businessobjects™ tooLS
Quick factS
“Getting the right information in front Company SAP® Solutions and Services
• name: walgreen co. • SaP® Businessobjects™ enterprise
of people quickly and easily is the key. • headquarters: deerfield, illinois software
SAP BusinessObjects software enables • industry: Retail • SaP Businessobjects web intelligence®
• Products and services: Prescription software
us to connect our HR strategy directly medication, over-the-counter healthcare • SaP Businessobjects desktop
items, and general merchandise intelligence™ software
to actionable insight and execution. • Revenue: uS$63.3 billion
• employees: 238,000 Why SAP
This is truly transformational for • already the reporting and analysis
• web site: www.walgreens.com
Walgreens.” standard in other divisions at walgreens
Challenges and Opportunities • Reporting created from a single,
Joseph F. King, corporate Manager, hR Planning, • accelerate reporting processes by using comprehensive source
Systems training and consulting, walgreens integrated software • integrated solutions that complement
• advance the hR team’s goal of ensuring each other
retention of high-performing associates,
in both store front-end and pharmacy Benefits
positions • Put employees with the right talent
• create a single, consistent repository of in key positions
employee data by implementing a uniform • continue the company’s historical
solution growth trend
• improve talent management by simplifying • help management identify areas where
access to information it needs to focus more attention
• examine trends in employee turnover
Objectives • get the right information in front of
• feed data from multiple sources into a people quickly
central employee data warehouse
• integrate transaction systems and provide
a single source of business insight
• Provide critical insight into the
effectiveness of retention policies

2. with 238,000 employees, 23,000 pharmacists, fiscal year 2007 software which was already used
by other divisions within walgreens.
revenue of uS$63.3 billion, and more than 6,000 stores across although walgreens health Services
the united States, deerfield, illinois–based walgreen co. runs has the largest deployment of the divi-
sions, the hRiS group manages and
walgreens, the leading retail pharmacy chain in the united States. distributes the foundational employee
every day, nearly 5 million customers walk through the doors of a data that keeps all the stores humming.
“our corporate focus is on store growth,”
walgreens store. Many are there to pick up prescribed medications says king. “to support that focus, hR
– walgreens pharmacists filled more than 580 million prescriptions needs to understand where the talent
comes from, how best to leverage it, and
last year. others take advantage of a broad merchandise selection what kind of talent we’re losing due to
averaging 25,000 different items per store. turnover. SaP Businessobjects soft-
ware delivers the insight we need to
ensure that we retain high-performing
the retailer’s mission is to provide the reporting process was cumbersome associates for merchandising as well as
most convenient access to healthcare and time-consuming for the hR infor- our strategic pharmacy area. getting
services and consumer goods in the mation systems (hRiS) group, which the right people in place for store growth
united States. with 33 consecutive years had to use several desktop tools to is a key area of emphasis for us,” sum-
of record sales and earnings, the com- merge the disparate data sets. king marizes king.
pany’s growth strategy is clearly working. recalls, “we would get mainframe data,
along with text files from other sources, hRiS now has a comprehensive
Joseph king, corporate manager of and we’d literally spend hours on a one- system that feeds data from multiple
hR planning at walgreens, works by time project. it was a nightmare.” information sources through an extrac-
a key walgreens strategy for future tion, transform, and load (etL) process
store and earnings growth – attracting Meeting the Challenge into a central employee data warehouse,
and retaining top talent. he is excep- against which reports generated with
tionally glad to have SaP on his team. after first attempting to solve its staffing- SaP Businessobjects tools are run.
related reporting and analysis challenges information sources include payroll; hir-
Prior to implementing SaP® by using an enterprise resource planning ing; benefits automation; learning man-
Businessobjects™ enterprise software, (eRP) package, and then with a replace- agement; and transactions related to
part of SaP Businessobjects business ment database, hRiS reassessed its position, location, and status. a rich
intelligence (Bi) solutions, walgreens requirements. “we identified all the set of semantic layers created with SaP
used a mainframe-based legacy system information sources we had related to Businessobjects tools enables hR to
to drive all hR-related activity at the firm. hiring and retention, including who used create timely, accurate reports on
the company later introduced multiple the information and how they were using employee population and staffing
web-based applications for time clocks it,” says king. “we envisioned a future requirements. “our design goal was
and hiring, as well as for tracking changes in which all data associated with an to integrate the different transaction
in the position, location, and status of employee would come from a single, systems and provide a single source
employees. the resulting reports were consistent data repository,” adds king. of business insight into the entire com-
sent to store operations management pany,” says king. “SaP Businessobjects
and to specialty groups such as insur- the company’s requirements analysis software has been pivotal in helping us
ance, benefits accounting, and tax. the led to SaP Businessobjects enterprise, meet this goal.”

3. “HR needs to understand where the talent comes from, how best to
leverage it, and what kind of talent we’re losing due to turnover. SAP
BusinessObjects software delivers the insight we need to ensure that we
retain high-performing associates for merchandising as well as our strategic
pharmacy area. Getting the right people in place for store growth is a key
area of emphasis for us.”
Joseph F. King, corporate Manager, hR Planning, Systems training and consulting, walgreens
Enjoying the Results By using SaP Businessobjects tools Planning for the Future
to examine trends in employee turnover
hR’s focus on putting employees – for example, if quality employees in the near future, walgreens plans
with the right talent in key positions is are leaving and, if so, for what reason – to implement SaP Businessobjects xi
essential to helping walgreens continue walgreens assesses store performance solutions as the standard for all groups
its historical growth trend. king notes that against hiring and retention goals. “we that use Bi software. for now, king
one strategy is to hire assistant manag- use metrics from SaP Businessobjects is more than pleased with the benefits
ers or management trainees with col- tools to see if we’re supporting our goal already realized. “in the highly competi-
lege degrees. “not so long ago, about of store growth,” said king. “we are. tive retail pharmacy environment, exe-
a quarter of our management hires had we’re keeping the good performers,” cution is all-important – and getting
four-year degrees,” he explains. “now adds king. the right information in front of people
that number is over 60%. we’ve made quickly is the key,” he says. “SaP
a conscious effort to bring in more and then there’s the “key list.” although Businessobjects software enables us
campus hires, with the long-term goal not a strategic application, king notes to connect our hR strategy directly to
of building the management pool. SaP the key list has made people’s lives eas- actionable insight and execution. this is
Businessobjects software makes it ier. he says, “every month, administra- truly transformational for walgreens,”
easier to query the data and get a snap- tive assistants in more than 200 district reports king.
shot view of where we stand on this offices around the country manually
important metric.” assembled a list of assistant managers
“We’ve created a report in SAP BusinessObjects software that shows turnover
by region and district over a 12-month period, compared to the overall chain
average. This provides critical insight into the effectiveness of our retention
policies and helps management identify areas where it needs to focus more
attention.”
Joseph F. King, corporate Manager, hR Planning, Systems training and consulting, walgreens
employee turnover reports are also and pharmacists, complete with
critical. “we’ve created a report in address and phone number. that way,
SaP Businessobjects software that if the district manager received a call
shows turnover by region and district that someone was sick, it was easy to
over a 12-month period, compared to find someone else with a key to close
the overall chain average,” says king. the store. with SaP Businessobjects
“this provides critical insight into the solutions, we prepare these lists cen-
effectiveness of our retention policies trally and distribute them electronically
and helps management identify areas to the various district offices. the
where it needs to focus more attention.” assistants love us,” enthuses king.

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