IT current-state · Northwind Retail

Legacy retail reporting landscape

Sales and supplier files converge on a shared drive, move through desktop workbooks, and reach regional teams through a manually refreshed portal and emailed report packs.

Northwind Retail current IT landscapeThree zones show collection, processing, and dissemination through manual file handoffs. COLLECTIONPROCESSINGDISSEMINATION Point-of-Sale Exportsnightly · CSV Online Store Exportorders · flat file Supplier Price Listsexternal · XLSX Shared Driveno version controldepartment folders Spreadsheet Handoffslocal workbooks · macrosmanual reconciliation On-prem RDBMSinventory · finance Reporting Portalmanual refresh Email Report Packsweekly · PDF Regional Managers12 store regions CSVEXPORTXLSX COPYLOADXLSXPDFEMAIL LEGENDdata flowpain-pointexternalbottleneck

THE HEADLINE

Two manual bottlenecks

  • The shared drive has no version history.
  • The portal depends on a person-led refresh.
  • Spreadsheet copies break traceability.

File-based exchanges

  • Stores export nightly CSV files.
  • Suppliers email changing workbooks.
  • Regional packs leave as PDF attachments.

System that remains

The on-premises relational database remains the inventory and finance source of record while the surrounding handoffs are modernized.