APOLLO 9.0 RELATIONAL DATABASE
A major European Retailer needed a better way to manage its catalogue of over 2000 planogram’s.
They had been using static planogram files in Apollo 8 but found this was becoming unmanageable due to lack of staff resources. The key requirement for the Retailer was to link their current SQL database with Apollo. This database held product dimension and sales data and they wanted it to update the planogram’s automatically with movement and new product data.

With the help of Apollo 9 the Retailer was able to utilise this data by creating an Apollo relational database on the SQL server which stored the planogram’s. The Retailer was then able to run various SQL queries which updated the planogram’s and added new products to the relational database Product Master.

As Apollo 9 allows users to create their own hierarchies, the Retailer was able to create one that stored their planogram’s in a much better way as previously they had been stored in Windows folders on a network server.

The hierarchy was setup in this way:

• Format of store, e.g. Super, Hyper, PFS, Local, Metro
• Category Planogram Category, e.g. Beer, Milk, Soft Drinks
• Size Fixture Size, e.g. 1m, 2m, 3m

With this setup the team of space planners could find and update planogram’s very easily. By simply clicking on a category type, Apollo would instantly show all the planogram’s for that category; a second click on a format type would then show all the planogram’s for that format of store - this was much easier than searching through lots of folders in Windows Explorer!

This coupled with using Apollo Planogram Accelerator (APA), the Retailer was able to add and remove products very quickly on a global scale.