Catalina
Adds Technology Muscle via Super Data Server Progressive Grocer
AUGUST 17, 2005 -- ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. --
Supermarkets participating in the Catalina Marketing Network can
expect a boost in their ability to offer more effective promotional
communications, incentives, and loyalty programs to their shoppers
as a result of a new server technology being installed by
behavior-based marketing solutions provider Catalina Marketing Co.
Catalina recently deployed the Netezza
Performance Server system (NPS) from Framingham, Mass.-based Netezza
to analyze the growing data volumes captured by its Retail Direct
Online Interactive (RDOLi) data management service. The NPS system
allows Catalina Marketing to quickly store and access more than 350
billion market basket records collected from the Catalina Marketing
Network, which is installed in 17,500 retail locations
nationwide.
"By taking control of our
database service, Netezza is helping us provide our customers with
the best possible service," said Eric Williams, Catalina's c.i.o.
"The NPS system allows us to substantially improve database
performance."
The NPS system is a data
warehouse appliance that is built specifically to analyze terabytes
of detailed data 10 to 50 times faster than existing data warehouse
options, at half the cost. The way it accomplishes this is by
architecturally integrating database, server, and storage within a
single appliance -- eliminating time-consuming trips that data
usually makes back and forth between a server's hard drives and
CPUs.
According to Netezza, deploying
the NPS system enables Catalina to increase analytic query
performance at a lower total cost of ownership, while at the same
time offering retailers a more detailed and historical view of their
data. Using the new system, Catalina can accommodate 70 times more
queries on five times the amount of data with the same business
intelligence applications previously utilized by the company,
without incurring additional operational costs.
The NPS system also allows Catalina Marketing's RDOLi
data management service to accommodate a greater number of end
users, who access the system to perform queries and reporting.
