MONTVALE, N.J. -- A&P here has licensed software that will enable the retailer to build an intranet for sharing a wide variety of data across the enterprise, ranging from human resources data to point-of-sale activity reports, according to a source familiar with the situation.
No specific timetable was available for the rollout.
The system will attempt to address a number of problems associated with distributing reports throughout an organization, according to the source.
The ability to flag reports that are out of the norm -- for example, if a cashier has a high number of voids in a day -- means managers do not have to sift through volumes of information in which activity is normal. "As a manager, you need to focus on what is out of the norm, not spend a great deal of time searching for those exceptions," the source said.
By making this information available electronically, information can be disbursed much more quickly, easily and consistently, the source said.
A&P officials were not available for comment.
"This is really a tool for communication and collaboration within an organization," according to the source. "The objective is to be a portal for all of a company's information. It eliminates the need for the user to log into 12 applications during the day to find out the information they need."
The software, from Tomax Technologies Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, would be used to provide for the distribution of all types of information, according to the source.
"This could be human resources reports, help desk reports, any type of documents that need to be routed throughout the organization."
The system can be established to route documents to users based on their job description, the source said. "Often, e-mail is routed to a person because they have a particular job. But what happens if Mary Jones changes jobs and no longer needs to view those e-mails? With this system, reports can be distributed based on a person's job requirements. So when Mary changes jobs, the person who takes her place will then get all of the relevant reports."
