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Description of the case  Modern retail enterprises need complex control systems which combine all business processes and enable the enterprise to enhance its efficacy by employing additional competitive tools.At a certain point in its development company "Optima" faced problems: warehousing operations, bookkeeping and tax accounting, financial activity and customer relationship had been carried out in different systems; all this taken together resulting in impaired indices and overall bad performance of the enterprise, with no prospects of adding to the competitive advantages. To remove these obstacles it was necessary to apply a solution capable of combining all business processes into the uniform information system.
Purposes and tasks The major task set before the IT department of "Optima" was to find and implement an appropriate solution that could have formed a uniform corporate information system thereby raising competitive advantages in the demanding market of retail. The solution should reduce the period of time reserved for entering of the goods into the market, create tools of the analysis and operational planning of interaction with manufacturers and customers, solve problems of further scaling of the system in the conditions of constant growth of a trading network, increase sales volume, expand market channels and reduce costs.
Choice of the optimal solution As a result of the analysis of IT market, the optimal system for realisation of tasks for retail was selected - SAP ERP 2005 for Retail. Company PILOT was chosen as the partner for implementation. Such way of finding a solution was based on several factors. First of all, considerable experience in introducing SAP systems into the Russian market played its role; and second, functional of the solution met all requirements set by company "Optima" - optimisation of the processes of financial planning and managing of warehouse stocks, and mutual relations with customers. In addition, due to the flexibility of SAP for Retail structure it is possible to reduce expenditures on program completion. The solution meets the main requirement of company "Optima": it allows to unite all business processes, regional shops and offices of the company within the limits of the centralised system.
Functionality of the solution SAP ERP offers considerable expansion of functionality in the spheres of financial and personnel resources management, material support and logistics, sale and service of other corporate services. The system allows prompt implementation of new solutions for business, provides communication between workers of the enterprise and the processes, gives personified information and functionality, which allows to raise labour productivity and to guarantee acceptance of right solutions. The system can be easily adapted to changing business requirements, with higher efficiency and at less cost.
Description of the solution: The project of implementing SAP ERP 2005 for Retail by company "Optima" has been divided in two stages: business analysis and implementation. The first stage took 2 months. This stage was necessary for obtaining full understanding of the system capabilities and choosing certain model for reorganisation of the company’s business processes. The second stage lasted for 9 months and consisted of four stages: designing, realisation, preparation for putting in productive operation and maintenance during commercial operation course. First stages of solution introduction were accompanied by some complexities, for example, inconsistencies between terms of business and SAP. Close interaction between experts of the companies PILOT and Optima at the stage of putting into productive operation allowed for reducing "shock" time at further stage of full transition to new system, in the conditions of reorganisation of divisions of the company and leaving from "scrappy" automation.It took less than a year for the experts of PILOT to create system that satisfies all wishes of the customer and to move "Optima" on a new qualitative level. During project development, means for centralised management of all trading chains, including a warehouse, accounting and marketing departments have been elaborated and adjusted. For realisation of all tasks the means allowing to conduct various activities has been introduced, such as bookkeeping and tax accounting, accounting of expenses, assets, to supervise purchases, to manage commodity flows and a warehouse complex, transportation, to trace wholesale and retail sales. Program capacities allow to plan and supervise sales and assortment of all shops, and therefore to promptly answer to changes in the market. Owing to that, it becomes possible to build competent marketing policy in relation to manufacturers and suppliers, to increase sales and to expand commodity markets. Due to wide system scalability it can develop in the conditions of constantly growing trading network, cutting down expenses.
Results of implementation  Overall efficiency of business processes at the enterprise has increased. Warehouse operations are being normalised. The applied solution allows to trace work of all personnel as a whole, which means that all discrepancies can be noticed and addressed in due time. Due to the prompt solution of issues, competitiveness of the enterprise raised. The quantity of users of system increased. Due to the scalability of system up to 80 %, from the point of view of IT, time for opening a new shop was reduced. The transparency and integration of business processes allows to put exact quality and efficiency indicators before each employee in all divisions of the company. Further system SAP should solve problems of scaling in the conditions of expansion of a trading network.
Andrey Shemjakin, the director of IT department of company "Optima" All works have been performed by the company experts in a short time. It took only one year to launch system in commercial operation, and for the work of such scale it is rather short term. Besides, this company renders complex services, which is good advantage. SAP solution has united IT infrastructure of Optima. At this stage, users master work in system, learn available tools. In future, we plan to expand capabilities of the introduced solution by adding to it components of budgeting and a registration of personnel.
PILOT was established in 1992. Since the time of its creation the main activity of the company has been developing and delivery of the complex solutions and equipment for automation of trade enterprises During years of work, the company has been saving up precious practical experience, having implemented hundreds of large complex projects "on a turn-key basis" in various fields. Company PILOT is partner SAP.
"Optima" - the largest retail chain of a drogerie format, representing supermarkets trading in perfumes, cosmetics, household chemical goods, goods for self-care and the personal hygiene; the second type of activity - distribution of mentioned goods. Presently, there are 60 stores of the company working in Udmurtiya, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Perm and the Perm region.
SAP - the world leading supplier of program solutions for business management, intended for all types of the industry and for any market. SAP solutions for business management help enterprises all over the world to improve mutual relations with customers, to expand joint activity with partners and to increase efficiency of the companies.
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