Faced with the struggle of managing the availability and cost of workforce for its customers, RONA contacted Nmédia with the challenge of launching a project to optimize the management of financial forecasts for its stores. This time management tool had to meet the need for forecasting “employee hours” and sales over several months and enable it to be adjusted according to many external factors such as competition, weather, time of year, etc.
Web portal as a time‑management tool to speed up the process
Some twenty signals enabled RONA teams to forecast the hours to be assigned. The store managers made projections for each department, which had to obtain approval from other hierarchical levels. For these forecasts, RONA teams used Excel files. They emailed information to each other, which posed problems of accessibility and standardization, as well as risks of error at different several levels, because of these numerous loops and back‑and‑forth emails, processing and approving these forecasts in one cycle could take up to several months.
It was, therefore, essential for RONA to have access to a private platform that could be used by store GMs, regional vice presidents, and others. Nmédia was thus able to create this platform, named RONA RFM (Retail Forecast Management). Developed in Microsoft’s Azure cloud, this tool took the form of a web portal that enabled each player to enter their forecasting information easily and get real‑time approval and feedback from their direct hierarchical superior (N+1). In addition to the twenty accessible data sources, Nmédia’s teams could program certain constraints, such as minimum hours, number of people per department, etc. This solution and these steps have reduced forecast approval cycles from several months to 24 hours. This data, sometimes sensitive, is available every week to employees with access while being protected.
Better time forecasting to reduce costs
This tool for planning and managing working time has enabled RONA to be more proactive and to meet the challenges posed by this forecast through better collaboration and alignment between the head office and the branches. The company’s stores saw a significant evolution in the months following the implementation of these new practices. They achieved their objectives, identified stores or areas requiring special attention, and saw their sales figures increase significantly.
The RONA RFM platform has since undergone extensive annual maintenance by Nmédia. The project was also selected as an OCTAS finalist in the “Business Solutions—In‑house or Custom Development—Large Enterprise” category, titled “Optimization of Financial Forecast Management—Retail Sector.”
