A monumental upgrade
A few years ago, Bic Camera Inc., a large electronics and appliance retailer in Japan, built an integrated information infrastructure that has supported a wide array of analytical tasks for the company.
That infrastructure was based largely on IBM® PureData® for Analytics, powered by Netezza® technology, and it promoted data utilization in all aspects of the business, from the front line to the administrative department. But over time, processing capacity became insufficient — and noticeable.
Because of aging hardware, growing numbers of users and exploding volumes of data, Bic Camera was experiencing delays in its analytics and reporting at peak times — especially at the beginning of weeks and months and at the end of the month, when system access was concentrated.
In April 2019, as support for the system’s underlying hardware neared expiration, the company began to examine new solutions.
Reduced batch time by
from 210 minutes to 15 minutes
System response times improved
for some tasks and requests
Initially, Bic Camera examined a data warehouse service on the cloud. However, the company found that the service had a different architecture than that of the IBM PureData System for Analytics, and the data migration would be time-consuming and costly.
So the company focused on the IBM Netezza Performance Server, which has an architecture that is 100% compatible with the IBM PureData System for Analytics, and decided to adopt it after ensuring that the migration cost and time would be substantially reduced.
Bic Camera ordered the Netezza Performance Server from IBM in March 2020. With the spread of COVID-19, all communication among involved staff occurred online. However, the project proceeded with almost no trouble, and the new data warehouse was fully deployed and running by the end of June, just as scheduled.
Almost immediately, Bic Camera’s integrated information infrastructure showed dramatic performance improvements. For example, batch processing times for inventory valuation and tabulation tasks fell substantially, from 210 minutes to just 15 minutes — a 93% reduction. Throughput of processing business intelligence (BI) reports increased by 150%, and the speed of response times increased by more than 100 times at their peak, or 10 times faster on average.
Bic Camera is planning to gradually incorporate AI into its data analysis with the IBM Cloud Pak® for Data system. It is also interested in the seamless migration from on-premises to the cloud using Netezza on Cloud solution in the future.
Bic Camera will continue to pursue the evolution and development of its integrated information infrastructure as it continues to respond to the changing business needs for data.
Bic CameraExternal Link was established in May 1978 as a sales company for cameras and related products. Currently, in addition to urban, large format stores, Bic Camera is developing various store formats such as select-type specialty stores and non-home appliance specialty stores. Bic Camera is also striving to strengthen its online shopping business. Electronics stores Kojima Co., Ltd. and Sofmap Co., Ltd. are also under the group’s umbrella.
Bic CameraExternal Link was established in May 1978 as a sales company for cameras and related products. Currently, in addition to urban, large format stores, Bic Camera is developing various store formats such as select-type specialty stores and non-home appliance specialty stores. Bic Camera is also striving to strengthen its online shopping business. Electronics stores Kojima Co., Ltd. and Sofmap Co., Ltd. are also under the group’s umbrella.
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2021. IBM Corporation, Analytics, New Orchard Road, Armonk, NY 10504
Produced in the United States of America, June 2021.
IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, IBM Cloud Pak, IBM PureData, and Netezza are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at “Copyright and trademark information” at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.
This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates.
The performance data and client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and operating conditions. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided.