ERP Implementation in UAE for A Leading Garment Retailer & Wholesaler
Business Background
As an international retailer of the finest fabric, ABC LLC (Name changed) offers a choice of international fashion labels and in-house ABC LLC, the widest collection in formals, semi-formals, smart casuals and accessories
ABC LLC’s business message is – “The definition behind power dressing ideas for men - Empowering the new breed of executives with fashion ideas that define the new look, the new personality and the latest styles.”
Founded in 2004, with headquarters in the United Arab Emirates. ABC LLC stretches its fabrics across Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran. And another 20 stores are lined up in Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait to put ABC LLC on the world fashion map.
Objectives of ERP Implementation
ABC LLC Group’s organizational structure before ERP implementation was a decentralized one, where individual Branches in each country or geographical areas operating with different legal structures. Apart from accounts every thing like stock, dispatches and receipts were maintained manually using register or Excel. There was no way to do any analysis or consolidation of stock or accounts figures as business grew faster than the systems. The stocks were managed more on trust than on facts. Hence, this became a hurdle for growth. In order to expand the business with better efficiencies and controls, the company decided to go for a web based centralized ERP to enforce controls and processes laid down by the MD and operation manager.
Solution Choice
Management wished to use proven state-of-the-art technology that will provide the ability to plan, control and account for all of ABC General Trading Company L.L.C’s activities and resources. ABC LLC wished to go for a ready to use retail solution with strong back end ERP that could be customized to its proposed strict audit controls and management processes.
The company evaluated several ERPs, and finally chose Ebizframe, an ERP solution from Eastern Software Systems Limited. Ebizframe was preferred because of its state of art technology, good track record, and low entry and implementation cost and a clear implementation methodology and transparent costing system.
Pre ERP Scenario
The key factor of success in fashion business by selling items within 90 days from the date of purchase was difficult as stock availability of one branch was not viewable to other branch. ABC LLC had independent Server or computer in each Branch in each Country with LAN connection in branch office. No transfer of data was possible. The only data stored in terms of software was accounts all other like stock, receipt, purchase etc was maintained manually on a register or excel. The time consumed to do the entries was enormous. Consolidation of reports was very difficult and a manual effort as each branch had different systems.
ERP Implementation
Implementation of ERP started by January 2007. A full fledged Gap analysis and SRS was done and signed off before actual implementation on ground began. ABC LLC went fully live by March 2008 in 4 branches. Later, it was rolled-out to 4 branches in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Ebizframe was customized as per finalized documentation and some re-engineering of their business processes that was also adopted as the organization moved from a decentralized system semi computerized systems to an on-line centralized system in a controlled operations environment. POS, Purchase, Sales, Inventory, HR & Payroll, Fixed Asset and Finance modules are online now. The system works both for retail as well as wholesale trading. The inventory and all related activities are controlled by bar-codes which have been designed to take into account various ABC LLC, designs and pricing etc.
Retail and trading support various pricing and marketing schemes. A wholesale customer can simply scan his choices through a wireless handheld scanner and when he reaches the counter he has his invoice ready without any wait. Customer Loyalty programme has been designed and implemented after the major modules went live.
Another challenge of any organization was the monthly stock taking and adjusting the variance. The functionality of uploading the stock from PDA’s to ERP and reworking the expected stock on any given date prior to system date opened new possibilities where the daily routine transaction can continue and stock taking can be performed at ease.
Provision to do transaction based on carton code in each transaction form reduced the data entry drastically. This functionality helped the user to select one carton code instead of minimum 12 items in each carton. This also enabled the organization to get stock both in pieces and in cartons.
Benefits Derived
Retail operations have become much smoother with common business practices and schemes being administered centrally. Wholesale customer feels much satisfied as his/her waiting time has become nearly zero. After implementation of ERP, ABC LLC has been able to achieve better monitoring of stock movement and valuation. The primary objective of reducing inventory ageing has been achieved successfully with visibility across the enterprise and countries. Due to t he centralized stock ageing report, “dead stocks” have become nearly minimal.
The functionality of auto bank reconciliation where by vouchers get generated automatically upon selecting the cheque number against actual deposit or clearance from the bank helped the accounting department in a big way.
Better quality control and better customer relationship is possible as all the data is available online along with the custom made loyalty system. Finance with its features like consolidation, multi-currency options gives it a better control and flexibility over financial reporting. Many MIS reports are available on click of button. There is better monitoring of operations.
IT Infrastructure
Ebizframe has been implemented on HP G5 server with 4 GB RAM each for database and application. At present there are approx 50 users all across the GCC countries using Pentium-IV desktop PCs with 512 MB RAM. They have kept the server at Dubai office connected using ADSL line. Since lease line / Static IP is very expensive in GCC, they have adopted the “NO IP” concept for making the application available on the net.
Future Plans
ABC LLC General Trading is looking at more sophisticated MIS reports and some more customization with its experience in usage of this system. This customization will be specific to the countries requirements where ABC LLC is planning to implement it in near future (China, India, Pakistan etc). It will be looking at enhancements in ERP functionalities as the business grows and new products and services are added to its portfolio of business.
What Next!
If you are looking for an ERP Solution to improve the productivity and efficiency of your organization, please contact us now or view a demo of ebizframe ERP by filling the form on the right hand side.
