IBM Cognos, InfoSphere Help MarineMax Drive Smarter Retailing 
MarineMax, the country’s largest recreational boat retailer, is using IBM business analytics, BI and MDM solutions to power its push to smarter retaining – and cut inventory costs, increase ROI and speed up planning cycles from months to weeks.
MarineMax, the country’s largest recreational boat retailer, is using IBM business analytics, BI and MDM solutions to power its push to smarter retaining, MarineMax officials said.
Among the documented benefits so far ate an ability to cut inventory costs, increase ROI and speed up planning cycles from months to weeks, according to Jeremy Wilson, MarineMax’ vice president of information technology.
Prior to working with IBM, MarineMax critical data was dispersed in many different spreadsheets and systems, which made it difficult for business leaders and frontline employees to access and share information on sales, costs and inventory.
“IBM business analytics and performance management is helping us achieve a smarter and more efficient operational model,” Wilson said in a statement. “The company is now better able to strengthen collaboration between finance, human resources, marketing, and store operations.”
MarineMax's analytics and performance management system includes IBM Cognos BI and IBM Cognos Planning, IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management (MDM) Server, IBM WebSphere Commerce and IBM WebSphere DataStage.
MarineMax’s Documented Benefits
from BI, MDM, Analytics Investments
Wilson and IBM executives have noticed benefits from BI and analytics at just about every level of the company:
MarineMax Store Managers use self-service reporting and can more easily access a variety of data on their individual store’s performance. This access, in turn, helps managers make quicker and better decisions about their merchandising and promotions strategies. Store managers can also monitor performance of team members, take corrective action when necessary, and deliver the information to the store, region and company levels to determine the effect of that information on payroll.
MarineMax’s Operational Units can more easily and efficiently work together using the same numbers to develop integrated budgets and plans and evaluate the company’s performance against those plans.
MarineMax’s Corporate Finance Department can easily enforce a consistent, company-wide budgeting process, as well as focus on long-term planning and strategic performance analysis.
MarineMax Executives can obtain a comprehensive and real-time view of performance, as well as compare that to historical and projected performance.
