DEBENHAMS ACCELERATES BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE PROCESSES WITH NETEZZA

Terabytes of Crucial Retail Trading Data to be Analysed by Netezza Performance Server Data Warehouse Appliance Every Week

Bracknell, Berkshire, 31 January 2006—Netezza Corporation, the data warehouse appliance market leader, today announced that the department store group Debenhams has selected the enterprise-class Netezza Performance Server® (NPS®) data warehouse appliance. The NPS system will analyse terabytes of trading data generated by the 120 Debenhams stores across the UK and Republic of Ireland, as well as by its fully transactional website. The company will be replacing an existing data warehouse with the NPS system for its improvement in total cost of ownership / performance, and plans to achieve significant competitive advantage with faster and more informed buying decisions.

Steve Kircher, IT Director at Debenhams explained, “Using the Netezza data warehouse appliance we can shrink query times. Until now, we have traditionally started loading trading data from the previous week into the data mart every Sunday. This could take the entire day to complete and sometimes into Monday morning. The NPS system is capable of executing this task in a fraction of the time.”

Dave Kloc, General Manager for Netezza, Northern Europe added, “This vast improvement in performance will allow Debenhams to stay highly responsive to customer needs and demands, as well as enabling the company to make intelligent business decisions. Not only is the NPS system far more flexible, but it’s quick to install, very easy to use and, at half the cost of other data warehousing options, offers a significantly lower total cost of ownership. All this will provide Debenhams with the ability to build new applications faster and for a lower cost while meeting the demands of their business users.”

The Netezza Performance Server system is the market-leading data warehouse appliance built specifically to analyse terabytes of detailed data. The NPS system stores, filters and processes terabytes of records within a single unit, analysing only the relevant information for each query. Netezza has placed the CPU power next to the data, allowing the NPS system to speed through processes that would occupy most data warehouse systems for hours, or even days, thereby enabling dramatic increases in productivity across the organisation. Customers who have recognised the performance benefits of Netezza’s approach include Amazon.com, Caudwell Communications, CNET Networks, Orange UK, Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation, The Carphone Warehouse and The TJX Companies.


About Debenhams

Debenhams is Britain’s favourite department store group, with 120 stores across the UK and Republic of Ireland, employing over 19,000 people and visited by 15.8 million customers each year. In addition, Debenhams has over 23 overseas franchised stores. It currently has 20 exclusive designers, designing over 48 different ranges across fashion and home wares. These include J by Jasper Conran, Butterfly by Matthew Williamson, Star by Julien Macdonald, Rocha.John Rocha and St George by Duffer. In total, Debenhams sells over 500 international brands and are the UK’s number one retailer of many international brands including Clarins and Yves Saint Laurent; Denby, Meyer, Portmerion and LeCreuset; Ben Sherman; Playtex and Lepel. Visit www.debenhams.com.

About Netezza Corporation
Netezza is the market-leading provider of enterprise-class data warehouse appliances that deliver breakthrough performance and ease-of-use at a fraction of the cost of traditional data warehouses. The Netezza Performance Server system enables Fortune 1000 customers with terabytes of dynamic, detailed data to dramatically simplify even the most complex Business Intelligence (BI) initiatives. By architecturally integrating database, server and storage within a single appliance, the NPS system delivers 10 to 50 times the performance at half the cost of existing systems. Based in Framingham, Mass., Netezza has offices in Washington, DC, the United Kingdom and Asia Pacific. The Company is backed by leading venture capital firms, including Matrix Partners, Charles River Ventures, Battery Ventures, Orange Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Meritech Capital Partners. For more information about Netezza, please visit www.netezza.com.

 

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