Alex 3.0 Reporting. Overview Training for Merchants. Build customer relationships Make more money Improve every day

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1 Reporting Overview Training for Merchants Build customer relationships Make more money Improve every day

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3 Table of Contents Introduction....5 Welcome....5 About This Course Basics.. 5 Contact us...5 Using Reporting Getting Started. 7 Accessing the Ad Hoc Report selection screens 7 Building your report Links on the selection screen...9 Defining your report parameters Time-based selections. 10 Merchandise selections...11 Geography selections..12 Product Characteristic selections. 13 Selecting your performance metrics Sales metrics...14 Inventory metrics...15 Receipt metrics...16 Markdown metrics. 16 Filtering your results based on metric restrictions...17 Running your report...18 Modifying your report...19 Saving your report..19 Scheduling your report Exporting your report to Excel 19 Appendix Other reports available in Advanced Features. 20 Page 3 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

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5 Introduction Welcome Welcome to SHC Reporting Overview Training for the Merchant Organization. About This Course Basics Purpose This course will introduce you to the report building tool which resides on the Alex portal that was developed to enable Merchant and Inventory Management teams to quickly and easily review data on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for their business. This course is intended for Buyers/Co-Buyers, Category Managers/Assistant Category Managers Assistant Buyers/Buyer s Assistants Inventory Management Associates Merchant team Business Finance Managers Time This is a 2 hour course. Prerequisites Before taking this course, you should have the following: A basic understanding of retail math. A basic understanding of how to navigate Microsoft Windows applications. Access to the Reporting website Course Contents In this course, the following topics will be covered: Overview of the data available thru the reporting system How to build a basic Ad Hoc report within the report building application How to use the different report selection options to drive desired report content How you can drill in on selected metrics to review data at lower hierarchy levels How to pivot report elements to change the way your data is displayed How to save and schedule your report Contact us For help with reporting, refer to the following: Online Documentation and Feedback links Alex3.0Support@Searshc.com For training questions on, please contact Lori Sarrault lgartre@searshc.com, x67861 Page 5 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

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7 Getting Started Below are step-by-step instructions how to access the suite of reports. Access the Ad Hoc Report selection screens Navigate to the Alex portal (alex.intra.searshc.com) and log in Click on the scrolling image to open up your report selection window: Click on the image of the Ad Hoc report to open a popup window for that report: Page 7 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

8 The popup window for the Ad Hoc report provides you some basic information about the report content and how it can be used. This window also contains various links that you will click on to access the following: a. A training video which walks you through the report selection screens. b. A Job Aid which outlines some basic navigation & report content. c. A link which enables you to submit feedback to the support team via . d. A link to access the Sears version of the Ad Hoc report. e. A link to access the Kmart version of the Ad Hoc report.. Click on the Sears link to access the selection screen for the Sears Ad Hoc report. Click on the Kmart link to access the selection screen for the Kmart Ad Hoc report. Page 8 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

9 Links on the selection screen Below are some screen shots of links found on the Sears Ad Hoc report selection screen, with information on the functionality provided by these links. Shared Reports Click here to navigate to the master group of corporate Shared Reports My Reports Click here to navigate to your personal saved reports My Subscriptions Click here to manage your scheduled reports Alex Documentation Click here to access the Help screens History List Click here to navigate to your recently run reports or your scheduled reports Logout Click here to log out of reporting Alex Feedback Click here to contact the Alex support desk Note that some of these selection steps require you to make a selection while other selections are optional Page 9 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

10 Defining your report parameters The following pages provide information on each of the selection steps found on the Alex Ad Hoc report. Time- based selections Step 1 Time Filter (Required selection) Specify the time period you want your report to run against. Choose from Custom Time selections or Standard Fiscal calendar selections. You will want to use Custom Time selections when you plan on saving and scheduling your report. These include: Last closed week Last closed 4 weeks Last closed 52 weeks Last closed fiscal month Last closed 3 fiscal months Current Fiscal year through last closed week Standard Fiscal calendar selections include: Year Quarter Month Week To make a selection do any of the following: Select the time period and click the > button. To make multiple selections, use the Ctrl or Shift buttons to select your time periods, then click the > button. To remove a selected time period, highlight it in the Selected box then click the < button. Step 2 Time View (Optional selection) Specify the time period you want to see represented as rows of data on your report. Multiple selections are permitted. Time View selections work hand-in-hand with your Time Filter selections to enable you to review performance results over time. This can assist you in looking for emerging trends (e.g. Is my sales % change vs. last year steadily increasing or decreasing ). Some possible combinations of Time Filter and Time View selections include: Filter by Last Closed Fiscal Month View by Week Filter by Last Closed 3 Fiscal Months View by Month Page 10 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

11 Merchandise Selections Step 3. Product Merchandise Filter (Required selection) Specify the Merchandise you want to report against. Expand your selection options (by clicking on the + sign) to drill down and find the specific merchandise you want to review performance results for. You can choose to view performance results for Total Sears or Total Kmart, or you can drill down to the lowest level and view performance results at the Sears SKU level or the Kmart Vendor Pack ID level. Chose to multi-select at any level of the product hierarchy. For example: Choose a single Business + multiple Divisions in another Business. Choose multiple Category-Groups + Categories across Divisions. Step 4. Product Merchandise View (Optional selection) Specify the merchandise you want to see represented as rows of data on your report. Multiple selections are permitted. Merchandise View selections work hand-in-hand with your Merchandise Filter selections to enable you to easily review performance results at any level of your Merchandise hierarchy. Possible combinations of Time Filter & Time View selections include: Filter by Business View by Division Filter by Division View by Division and Category-Group Step 5. Load Items from file (Optional selection) This step enables you to type in or upload a group of Items, Item/SKUs, KSNs or Vendor Pack IDs. You can choose to type in a single item or list of items into the value box, or you can import your list of items from a saved csv or txt file. When typing in Sears item or SKU numbers into the value box be sure that you include the Division number (e.g for division 18, item number 23456, SKU 019). Multiple entries can be typed in here but should be separated by a semi colon. The Alex Documentation screens contain detailed instructions on the required format of your import, and how to import this in to the report selection screens. Use this selection step to quickly and easily review performance results for a select group of items that may not align with your product hierarchy (e.g. How are my new items performing within the division ). Page 11 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

12 Geography selections Step 6. Geography Filter (Optional selection) Specify the selling locations you want to report against. Expand your selection options (by clicking on the + sign) to drill down and select specific store formats, regions, districts, or selling locations. You can choose to view performance results for Total Sears or Total Kmart, or you can drill down to the lowest level and view performance results at the selling location level. Chose to multi-select at any level of the location hierarchy. Step 7. Geography View (Optional selection) Specify the locations you want to see represented as rows of data on your report. Multiple selections are permitted. Geography View selections work hand-in-hand with your Geography Filter selections to enable you to easily review performance results at your desired level. Some possible combinations of Geography Filter and Geography View selections include: Filter by Store Format View by Region Filter by District View by Selling Location Step 8. Load stores from file (Optional selection) This step enables you to upload a group of stores from an Excel file that you have saved as.txt or.csv. Use this selection step to quickly and easily review performance results for a select group of stores that may not align with the standard location hierarchy. Many users maintain Excel files that represent one of the following: Top 50 stores for my division A select group of stores that are carrying a new program New Stores A specific multi-cultural store grouping relevant to my business For detailed instructions on how to create and save your Excel file and how to import this in to the report selection screens, please review the Load File Format instructions in the online Alex Documentation help screens. Page 12 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

13 Product Characteristic Selections Step 9. Product Characteristic Filter (Optional Selection) Specify the Product Characteristic (Attribute) you want to report against. Expand your selection options (by clicking on the + sign) to drill down and select specific Merchandise Restrictions, Product Attributes, or Product Sub-Attributes. Chose to multi-select on any product characteristic. Note that two new product characteristic groups have been created: Master Brand o Kenmore: Combines Kenmore Pro, Kenmore Elite, and Kenmore product into one Kenmore Master Brand o Craftsman: Combines Craftsman Professional and Craftsman product into one Craftsman Master Brand. o Diehard: Combines Diehard and Diehard Gold into one Diehard Master Brand Master Season o Combines all Spring and Summer coded seasonal product into one Spring/Summer Master Season o Combines all Fall and Winter coded seasonal product into one Fall/Winter Master Season o Combines all Basic/Continuous coded product into one Basic Master Season Step 10. Product Characteristic View (Optional Selection) Specify the product characteristics you want to see represented as rows of data on your report. Multiple selections are permitted. Product Characteristic View selections enable you to easily review performance results grouped into logical groupings outside of your regular merchandise hierarchy. The intent of enabling this functionality is to allow you to more easily review performance metrics in ways that assist you in managing your vendor or brand profile, and assist you in understanding how to best tailor your assortment toward the specific merchandise that drives the most sales revenue. Some often-used selections on this step include: View by Vendor View by Brand View by Color or Size View by Season View by Import Code / Procurement Method Page 13 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

14 Selecting your performance metrics The following pages provide information on how to define the performance metrics you wish to include on your report. Sales Metrics Step 11. View by Sales Metrics Specify the Sales-related metrics that you want to include in your report. Selections made in this step drive the content of your report, and will be displayed initially as columns of data on your report. There are a variety of Sales Metrics available in for you to choose from. In order to modify your report selection: Select the metric name and click the > button. To make multiple selections, use the Ctrl or Shift buttons to select your metrics, then click the > button. To remove a selected metric, highlight it in the Selected box then click the < button. o When you remove a metric from the Selected box that metric moves back over to the bottom of the list of metrics available to choose from in the left-hand window. Note that you can display any combination of Unit, $, or calculated metric on the same report, and that there are a number of calculated metrics that you can choose from. These include: Balance of Contribution (BOC) metrics these metrics enable you to quickly ascertain each data component s percent to the total. o For instance, if you have created a report with a national geography filter & a region-level view by, the BOC reported will represent each region s percent to the national total. % Change vs. Last Year (LY) metrics these metrics assist you in understanding your growth or decline for a comparable time period last year. Since these are independent selectable metrics you can add these to your report without having to include your last year actual performance results. $ and Unit variance vs. Last Year (LY) metrics these metrics enable you to quickly determine if you are achieving more or less volume than you were during the same time period last year. Out-The-Door (OTD) metrics these metrics calculate your average sell price per unit sold Retail / Sales in Units). Sales per Store metrics these metrics calculate the average sales volume per store (in units or dollars) and can be useful when analyzing performance at a total region or district total level. Markdown (MD) Depth metrics this metric enables you to ascertain the volume of clearance inventory you are currently carrying in your stores. Page 14 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

15 Inventory Metrics Step 12. View by Inventory Metrics Specify the Inventory-related metrics that you want to include in your report. A variety of Store, Distribution Center (DC), and Total Inventory metrics are currently available for you to select from. This group of metrics also includes a variety of calculated metrics, including: Balance of Contribution (BOC) on Store Ending Inventory % Change vs. Last Year $ and Unit Variance vs. Last Year Unit Sell-through When reviewing the list of inventory metrics you will notice that some metrics have (+/-) in their name, while others have just (+) in their name. The reason for this is to allow us to account for the presence of positive (+) and negative (-) on-hand amounts in our inventory data, and to allow the user to determine whether or not they want to include the negative inventory values in their numbers. Inventory metrics with (+/-) in their name are derived by summing up all values and including both the positive (+) and negative (-) onhands in the total. Inventory metrics with (+) in their name are derived by ignoring all negative (-) values and summing up just the positive (+) on-hands in the total. A popular combination of Sales and Inventory metrics on a report which assists you in ascertaining whether or not you have distributed your inventory appropriately to meet your current sales trend includes the following: Total Sales Units Total Sales Units per Store Total Sales Units TY/LY % Change Store Ending Inventory Units Store Ending Inventory Units TY/LY % Change BOC Sales Units BOC Store Ending Inventory Units Additional inventory metrics have been requested by business users and will be available for you to include on your reports in the near future. These include: Average Inventory (across time, merchandise or geography) Turnover SMROI (Sales Margin Return on Inventory Investment) Stock to Sales Ratio On Order (in Units and $) Page 15 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

16 Receipts Metrics Step 13. Receipts Metrics Specify the Receipts metrics that you want to include in your report. Selections made in this step drive the content of your report, and will be displayed initially as rows of data on your report. Currently this group of metrics reports information on Receipts that have shipped to Selling locations (Stores) only...dc Receipts metrics have not yet been built in. Use these metrics to understand the volume of Receipts that have landed in your store in a given time period and know that these could have been shipped directly from the vendor or from an SHC Distribution Center. Values reported in this group of metrics include: Store Receipts Units Store Retail Store Cost % Change vs. Last Year on all of the above Markdown Metrics Step 14. Markdown Metrics Specify the Markdown metrics that you want to include in your report. Selections made in this step drive the content of your report, and will be displayed initially as rows of data on your report. Values reported in this group of metrics include: Clearance Markdown $ Clearance Markdown % Change vs. Last Year Clearance Markdown $ variance vs. Last Year Event Markdown $ Event Markdown % Change vs. Last Year Event Markdown $ variance vs. Last Year Total Markdown $ Total Markdown % Change vs. Last Year Total Markdown $ variance vs. Last Year Additional Markdown metrics will be available in Alex in the near future that will enable you to obtain a more robust estimate of your inventory liability in relation to current and future markdowns. This includes: Markdowns by Reason this breaks out Clearance and Event Markdowns into sub-types and enables you to see specifically which events are driving your markdown volume. CMMS strategy information for Kmart will enable you to create reports which include future clearance markdown plans by item. Page 16 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

17 Filtering your results The step below provides information on how you can filter your report so that only rows of data that meet certain criteria are included on your report. Metric Restrictions Step 15. Metric Restrictions (Optional Selection) Use this step to filter the volume or content of the data that will be displayed on your report. You can also use this step to create a report that will set the criteria to identify your top or bottom performing items or locations, then display only those items or locations on your report. The screen shot below displays an example where items are being filtered out of the report if their list sell price is less than $100: The screen shot below displays an example where the metric restriction step is being used to identify the top 50 items based on Total Sales Units for the user s selected Time period, Merchandise, and Geography. Page 17 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

18 Running your report The steps below walk you through what to do to bring up the report after you have finished with your report selection options. Run Report Run your report When you have completed all desired selection steps, click the Run Report button at the bottom of the screen. While your report is running you will see the following screen: Click the Check status again link to force a refresh on the run status indicator. The system will do this automatically a number of times per minute if you do not click this link. Click the Go to my History List link to navigate to your history list. This is where you will find a list of all reports currently running plus all those you have run in the current week. o Note that your History List will be purged each week on Saturday evening.when you are on the History List screen, click on the Name of a report to open that report. Click the Show report details link to bring up a summary screen which provides detailed information on the selections you have made for this report. When you have finished reviewing your report details click the Executing report link on the page header to return to your report. Click the Cancel link to cancel your report request. After a short wait time your report will be displayed, but while your report is running you can choose to go back to the report selection screen and create a new report, Page 18 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

19 Modifying your Report Below is a screen shot of a report with some key modification buttons highlighted: To Save your report: Click on the Save Icon o Save your report to your personal folder (My Reports), or save your report to the folder named Shared Reports Client Saved Reports if you wish to share this report with others. Name your report Edit the report description (if desired) Click the OK button To access your saved reports click the My Reports link, then click on the report name. Scheduling your personal report to run automatically: Go to My Reports and find the report you want to schedule. Click on the Subscriptions link Under History List Subscriptions, click Add Subscription Pick an appropriate Report Schedule day and time (e.g. Monday at 9am Eastern time) Scroll down and click the OK button. Your report will now run automatically on the day and time you scheduled. To access your scheduled report after it has run, go to your History List and click on the report name. Exporting your report: to Excel Click the Export to Excel Icon Determine whether or not you want your exported report to be formatted (e.g. merged columns) or exported as plain text. o Note that the default is to be exported with formatting. Click the Export Button Page 19 of 20 Updated 5/11/09

20 Appendix Other reports available in : Assortment Productivity = Identify areas where balance of sales, gross margin and floored inventory are not balanced, from a selectable variety of item attributes. Attribute Contribution = Provides data on the growth and productivity of your merchandise by enabling you to compare items grouped by price and attribute across balance of sale/margin/floor-count metrics. Attribute Performance Overview = Analyze how your Sales and Selling Margin are trending by comparing performance in those areas across two different time periods concurrently grouped by product hierarchy or characteristic. Best and Worst = Display select financial metrics, flagging the best and worst performers by setting the font format to either red or green. Requires a view-by selection of Product Hierarchy and Product Characteristic within the same report. BOC Graphs = Graphically depicts the BOC (Balance of Contribution) of each of an attribute's component to total performance broken out by merchandise hierarchy and region. Item Scorecard = A report showing item-level performance across a variety of key performance metrics. Multiple product characteristics are selectable, there by enabling you to group your items based on these product characteristics. Multi Period BOC Graphs = Graphically depicts the BOC of Sales Dollars, Sales Units, and Ending Inventory by attribute, across multiple time periods, for a selected product merchandise hierarchy. TY / LY Waterfall = Graphically represents how much each distict product attribute grouping contributed to TY/LY performance growth or decline of Sales, Selling Margin, and Inventory. Weekly Trend = View the performance of key metrics by week by product hierarchy or attribute for all weeks of a selected fiscal year. For more information on these reports please review the data posted to the Alex Documentation Help screens. Advanced Features of MicroStrategy Reporting and There are many advanced features available via Micro Strategy in the suite of reports. This includes (but is not limited to): Sending your report to another user via an attachment in an . Create your own metric from available data elements (e.g. Regular + Event Sales). Create a graph of your report, then export the graph as a pdf file. Change the formatting of your report on screen. Once you feel comfortable with the basics, try working with some of the above options. These are available to you as additional links on your report view window. Page 20 of 20 Updated 5/11/09