Family Dollar Stores is a discount store chain headquarted in Mathews, North Carolina. The company operates 3,600 locations in 39 states and provides consumers with values in low cost, basic merchandise for family and home needs. In 1999, it posted net sales of $2.75 billion.

Retek Training Needs

Family Dollar Stores implemented Retek Foundation in 1999. In the summer of 2000, it was prepared to upgrade to Retek 9.0 and implement RMS and RDF. Implementation was originally scheduled for late August 2000 but was delayed until October 2, 2000.

Training audiences included: Merchandising/Expense departments (including Re-buyers and Allocators), Accounts Payable and DCs. 

Challenges

One of Family Dollar’s key Retek trainers left in the middle of pre-implementation. Company staff had to document a lot of material in a very short time without the trainer who had the most Retek/training knowledge. They needed help with documentation and training delivery, and they needed a plan to teach the DC Supervisors/Super Users how to use Retek and as well as train it.

TEC Services and Products Delivered

In order to quickly produce the much-needed training documentation and materials, TEC wrote the documentation and Family Dollar’s trainers assisted with researching questions, testing and validating the documentation. This helped Family Dollar’s trainers learn the material firsthand while becoming familiar with the documentation template so they could eventually write some of the material themselves. 

Customized materials and services provided by TEC included:

TEC met or exceeded every scheduled deadline for documentation and training materials.

Results

On October 2, 2000, Family Dollar successfully implemented its next Retek phase! Said Christie Whiting, technical training manager at Family Dollar Stores, about TEC: “We are very pleased with the experience we had with TEC and we’d be happy to provide information to future TEC clients.”