Microsoft Dynamics Customer Solution Case Study

Retail Company Accelerates Growth with Increased Visibility

Customer Profile

Listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange, ODEL PLC (ODEL) is one of Sri Lankas premier lifestyle brand. Founded in 1990, the clothing and fashion products retailer employs more than 650 staff across its network of 15 stores in the country. Software and Services Microsoft Dynamics - Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 o Financial Management o Supply Chain Management Benefits - Enhanced inventory management - Empowered customer responsiveness - Gained capability for more detailed product categorization - Improved merchandizing decisions - Increased management visibility - Streamlined supply chain management

We strongly believe in leveraging technology as a vital enabler of our business success.Being one of the first to adopt ERP technology in the Sri Lankan retail market, we have gained a head start against the competition. Having experienced what Microsoft Dynamics ERP can do for our business, I am confident that we now have sufficient and the right information, at the right time, to propel the business forward.
-- Ms Otara Gunewardene, Chief Executive Officer, ODEL PLC

ODEL PLC (ODEL), Sri Lankas leading fashion retailer, wanted a scalable solution that will enhance both management and operational visibility across its 15-store network. With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, ODEL empowered its aggressive growth plans with enhanced inventory management, comprehensive sales analysis capabilities and increased management visibility.
Situation
As one of the industries most dependent on its customers whims and fancies, success in retail requires a dedicated focus on myriad business processes that stretch from the store to the headquarters. For ODEL PLC (ODEL), its focus on delivering the highest quality products and services at affordable prices, backed by superb customer service, has buoyed its success since its 1990 inception. From its first 1,165 square feet store manned by two staff to its current burgeoning network of 15 stores employing more than 650 staff the company is the only public-listed fashion retailer in Sri Lanka, with an Initial Public Offer (IPO) oversubscribed by 65 times. Positioned as Sri Lankas foremost lifestyle, INstyle Brand with global reach, ODEL stores offer a myriad product array ranging from ladieswear, menswear and kidswear to perfume and cosmetics, shoes and handbags, luggage, stationery and food. For the year ending 31 March 2011, ODEL achieved a turnover of US$ 30.14 million (Rs 3.3 billion) with 68 percent growth in group pre-tax profit over 2009/2010. Led by Ms Otara Gunewardene, a CEO who strongly believes in leveraging technology to enable her business, ODELs success can be attributed to its innovative use of technology to empower its end-to-end business processes. To support its ambitious growth plans, ODELs management knew that it needed an integrated back-end system that would enhance management visibility and enable the agility to compete effectively in the complex retail industry. A review of its current system in 2007 revealed a DBMS-based database which was unable to support ODELs fast-growing volume of transactions. With six stores clocking 250,000 transaction lines a month, its database soon buckled under the pressure and became increasingly unstable. To free up space, ODELs staff had to perform frequent data maintenance activities like moving the data to backups, deleting old data every month-end, reindexing the database etc. This affected the real-time availability and visibility of critical business data, which limited the sales analysis required to support business decision-making. The existing system also could not meet ODELs growing need for more extensive inventory management functionalities. According to Mr Chaminda Deepal, Manager, IT Systems and Infrastructure, ODEL PLC, In view of our impending

For more information on Microsoft Dynamics, visit www.microsoft.com/asia/dynamics or email: mbsasia@microsoft.com For more information about Sundaram Infotech Solutions Limited call +91-44-28514066 or visit http://www.sundaraminfotech.in/ For more information about ODEL PLC call +94 (0) 11-4625700 or visit http://www.odel.lk/

team from Sundaram Infotech, whose global implementation experience help to ensure seamless integration of Microsoft Dynamics and LS Retail for our environment, beamed Chaminda. ODEL implemented the Financial Management and Supply Chain Management modules of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0, together with LS Retail. The implementation took three months.

to see more detailed sales performance by individual stores, item categories and product groups across different periods. This enhanced visibility speeds up decision-making and keeps us agile in todays dynamic marketplace, said Chaminda. Management reporting has been enhanced, with the Hourly Sales Distribution report providing hour-by-hour visibility into store performance across different periods of the day. Combining these new perspectives, ODEL can also leverage Microsoft Dynamics highly configurable functionalities to proactively roll-out special pricing and promotional programs to stimulate store sales. With 20 promotions running at any one time, we need the capability to create unique product codes for tracking. With Microsoft Dynamics, we can now effectively plan our promotions in advance by pre-setting the start and end dates of the promotions in the system, which autotriggers the special pricing onto the POS systems across our stores on the first day of the promotions, said Chaminda. With a supply chain that extends beyond 40 countries, with more than 1000 suppliers and 200 plus factories both globally and locally, ODEL, with the help of Microsoft Dynamics, is now in a better position to manage vendor negotiations and enforce discounts through purchasing contracts. Security and control are also enhanced, with access to critical business information such as cost prices restricted only to managers.

Benefits

growth, we wanted an integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that would help to streamline processes and increase transaction speeds. Besides cost efficiency, we are also looking for extensive reporting capabilities to enhance our management visibility and speed up decision-making. It also needs to scale as we grow.

With Microsoft Dynamics, ODEL gained enhanced inventory management and comprehensive sales analysis capabilities. All these contribute towards enhancing both management and operational visibility, thus ensuring faster and more accurate merchandizing and business decision-making. As a result, customer responsiveness and service levels are also enhanced. Like other retail businesses, inventory management is a critical component in empowering ODEL to get the right products to the right places, at the right time. The integrated Microsoft Dynamics system replicates data between the Pointof-Sale (POS) terminals, back and head offices. This provides accurate inventory data to ease stock transfers between stores, adjustments, write-offs, discrepancy management and stock-take. Instead of making calls to each store to check on stock status, Microsoft Dynamics empowers our retail staff with real-time, accurate inventory information at their fingertips. This enhances their responsiveness to customer queries, which enhances our services levels and customer satisfaction levels, said Chaminda. By capturing comprehensive product details ranging from size, colour, type etc. on each item card, Microsoft Dynamics enables ODEL to categorize its products hierarchically by product type, divisions, item category and more. With Microsoft Dynamics, our merchandizing department can now effectively track the sales performances of each product category and gather insights into fastmoving products. This empowers timely merchandizing decisions to ensure that we always present our customers with an unparalleled selection of fashion and lifestyle products, explained Chaminda. The arduous task of managing its extensive merchandising mix is now a breeze with Microsoft Dynamics. As a single application that stretches from our stores to the headquarters, Microsoft Dynamics gives us powerful visibility into our extensive merchandizing mix across our 15-store retail operations. Our management can now easily navigate from the financial reports and drill-down

Solution

After an extensive evaluation, ODEL chose Microsoft Dynamics NAV and LS Retail, an end-to-end retail solution powered by Microsoft Dynamics NAV. LS Retail is a fully integrated retail solution that delivers a single application to cover business functions from the store to the headquarters from the Point of Sales (POS) terminals, store systems, inventory, merchandising to all back office functions. Its comprehensive range of functionalities meets the needs of retailers of all sizes, without having to build, manage and maintain multiple applications and interfaces Together, Microsoft Dynamics and LS Retail give us comprehensive merchandising and replenishment capabilities that would enable faster and more accurate decision-making across our multi-store network, said Chaminda. ODEL was also impressed with Microsoft Dynamics highly configurable functionality, which supports its pricing and promotional requirements; powerful drill-down features which enhance management visibility and last but not least, the proven Microsoft brand, known for its reliability and scalability. According to Chaminda, Microsofts direct presence in Sri Lanka, as opposed to the absence of SAP and Oracle in the country, demonstrated Microsofts commitment. Microsofts direct presence and involvement in solving issues during the implementation process, was a great comfort to ODEL, he said. ODEL selected Sundaram Infotech Solutions Limited (Sundaram Infotech), a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner, for its extensive Microsoft Dynamics expertise. We are pleased with the hardworking

Looking Ahead

A pleased Ms Otara said, We strongly believe in leveraging technology as a vital enabler of our business success. In fact, adopting the latest technology is a key ingredient in ensuring our success and competitiveness in the local and the international marketplace. Being one of the first to adopt ERP technology in the Sri Lankan retail market, we have gained a head start against the competition. Having experienced what Microsoft Dynamics ERP can do for our business, I am confident that we now have sufficient and the right information, at the right time, to propel the business forward, as we continue to expand our presence in the region and beyond. In May 2011, ODEL opened its latest store in Kandy, Sri Lankas hill capital. With four stores opened within six months in 2010, we have ambitious plans to add more stores to the chain during the current financial year. We are very pleased with our Microsoft Dynamics system, whose scalability empowers our ability to grow even faster while keeping our focus on anticipating our customers needs and ensuring that they return to us every time, said Chaminda.

All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published August 2011.