"In a data warehouse, data is king," says Mr Wain. "In a conventional operational IT system, people regard the data storage as a peripheral to the processor. In a data warehouse, the data storage is as important as the processor. We have found that integrating our storage, and effectively managing that storage, is the key to an effective information system."
Effective data storage was so important to David Jones that it made its disk supplier decision very early in the sales process. "We went with HDS disks because the company understood our business needs. HDS painted a picture of how they would install the disks, and how the storage would fit our data strategy. No other company came close - they all wanted to sell us technology, rather than solutions. If all suppliers were like HDS, our life would be much easier."
Once the disk decision had been made, Digital Alpha servers were benchmarked for their ability to run efficiently with the storage. "We were very impressed with Digital's clustering solution. In conjunction with the HDS drives, it gave us a fail-over system that meant that the system would have very high up-time," says Mr Wain.
David Jones has installed an HDS 5700E disk drive system, with 1 Terabyte (1000 Gigabytes) of disk space, running off three Alpha 8400s. One server is used for the data warehouse, one for the retail systems, and one for development. Most of the disk capacity is used for the MAS data warehousing system, which is still growing. Mr Wain envisages that David Jones's storage requirements will grow substantially by the middle of 1999.
As well as running the retailing and data warehousing systems on Alpha processors, David Jones runs Digital Intel-based servers, running Microsoft Windows NT, for the company's email system, which is based around Lotus Notes and a common Windows'95 desktop operating environment on over 1000 PCs. There are also 2000 character based terminals for the retail system, and over 2000 electronic cash registers, which are also connected to the network.
Each store runs two small Unix servers set-up in a fail-over environment, connected to the Sydney data center by high-bandwidth data links. Other software includes Oracle Financials and the Staffworks human resources package. These applications are currently running their own separate storage systems, but integration with the HDS disk is being considered.
An IT Team
In September 1998 David Jones announced a growth in annual profits, up significantly from the previous year. Stock market analysts said they expected further profit improvements ahead, driven by an improved merchandising mix, higher price points and fewer product lines.
Management is pleased, the shareholders are pleased, and Sean Wain is pleased. IT is an important part of the new David Jones, and the investment is starting to pay off. "We still have a long way to go, but we are already seeing the benefits of a streamlined inventory and better management."
The real credit should go to the team, says Mr Wain. David Jones has an IT department of over 100 people. Virtually all of them are based in head office, on the top two stories of one of the two large David Jones stores in Sydney's bustling downtown retail district.
"We have a great bunch of people," says Mr Wain. "They do things as a team. There is a real sense of purpose in what they are doing, because they know that IT has a very real effect on the company's bottom line. The systems effect the very core of the company's operations, and everybody knows that."
"Too many organisations do things the wrong way round. We believe it's important to get the business right, and then look at how IT can help the business. The role of our IT systems is to improve the performance of the company, and that is starting to happen. Fortunately, senior management understands the importance of a good IT backbone to the company's bottom line, and its good to be able to repay their faith with tangible results."
Graeme Philipson is a freelance IT consultant and journalist based in Wollongong, Australia.
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