Liquor Marketing Group (LMG), an Australia-based non-profit independent organisation, has used the Informatica Platform, an open, unified and economical data integration platform, to change its data strategy and gain trusted access to real-time information.

Developed by California-based Informatica Corporatio,n along with data integration partner Servian, the Informatica Platform allows organisations to maximise their return on data by increasing the value of data while lowering its cost.

Before implementing Informatica Platform, LMG, which has around 1,700 on and off-premise member liquor outlets with different point of sale (POS) systems, was finding it difficult to gather both the customer sales data and member purchase data from its existing data provider.

It was taking six weeks of time for LMG to deliver and share the information with members, which resulted in reactive decision cycles, adverse effects on stock volumes, delayed supplier rebates and reduced cash flow.

LMG was in need of a solution that could integrate data from various members and business streams, besides automatically provide information about sales, promotions and stock levels, which it found in Informatica Platform and used it as its data integration backbone.

LMG spokesman said with competition in the packaged consumer goods industry becoming increasingly fierce, it is imperative that LMG has information for members, such as sales and promotional data, at its fingertips.

"Informatica was able to demonstrate how LMG could tailor the technology to suit the business, which includes faster and more trusted access to real-time data, giving LMG better control of critical decision-making and ultimately improved business practices," spokesman said.

Informatica Asia Pacific Japan senior vice president Graham Sowden said the Informatica Platform will provide LMG with comprehensive data integration capabilities across the extended enterprise, which will facilitate accelerated supplier rebates, help increase cash flow and empower the organization to be proactive in its decision-making.