Baucentre (ERP 2)

Prerequisites of the Project

The boundary of 2005-2006 became for Baucentre company the sign period. At this particular time the company management makes the decision on enlargement due to regional expansion. The network of hypermarkets of the DIY format having the Kaliningrad roots by 2011 is planned to be expanded to national scale. According to the master plan of development of the company, sounded in March, 2006, the national network of hypermarkets of the construction and finishing materials "Baucentre" will include 30 shops in the largest cities of Russia. Among them - Krasnodar, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod, Kemerovo, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Novokuznetsk, Tyumen and Perm. The total area of shopping centers will be 300 thousand sq.m.

The company management understood that implementation of this program can cause a so-called "disease of growth". And one of bottlenecks of business is the information system of control automation which already morally and became technology outdated by then. Therefore in the company the decision to implement the new automation system which will provide business development support at least for 5-7 years ahead was made.

Project Goals and Objectives

According to development plans for business by some of the main requirements to the new automation system of steel reserved productivities and scalability necessary for creation of the distributed structure of holding. Besides, a system had to have potential allowing to set uninterrupted data exchange even at unreliable and slow communication channels and to ensure steady functioning with remote objects - the shops deleted with warehouses, branches.

Functional part of a new system had to conform to requirements imposed to the trade automation system: provide accounting of the movement of goods, accounting of requests, the flexible system of discounts, sales management, purchases, finance, a warehouse and customer relations and also to give enhanced analytical capabilities and accurate access isolation to information.

After the main solutions for trade presented in the Russian IT market were considered, the company management Baucentre selected development of Ansoft company – a management system for retail network AVARDA.RetailNetwork. Advantages of the AVARDA.RetailNetwork system over competitors became:

• the highest readiness of a basic configuration for automation of retail network
• existence of a debugged system of replication (data exchange)
• the low requirements to the equipment and the software of servers reducing total ownership cost a system
• large supply of performance and scalability.

The company management Baucentre decided to implement the AVARDA.RetailNetwork system at first in regional office and own retail chain stores of the city of Kaliningrad. As a result of this project it was going to receive full-function industry solution for a DIY format based on the AVARDA.RetailNetwork system. In case of success it was decided to replicate the solution in all other divisions of the company as which are already existing, and those which will be created in the future.

The following tasks were set for an AVARDA.RetailNetwork system implementation project according to plans of the company:

• Provide "soft" transition from the current system to the complete solution for DIY sector which is actively supported by the developer and create the reliable information platform for long-term support of the growing business of the company

• Provide conducting commodity and financial accounting within one information system

• To qualitatively increase efficiency of internal and external logistics of the company

• Provide to clients better and various service in shopping centers, increase loyalty of buyers

• Provide steady data exchange between divisions of Baucentre company by means of AVARDA.RPL replication system implementation

• Provide the centralized support and development of a system in divisions from uniform Competence Center

Interestingly

In selection process of the solution on desire of company management Baucentre stress testing of the AVARDA.RetailNetwork system was held. It passed at the special simulation stand developed by specialists of Ansoft company. During testing work of retail network in the AVARDA.RetailNetwork system was in real time modelled, all data on functioning of a system could be seen on special information displays. Results of the held testing allowed the Customer to be convinced finally that a system completely conforms to requirements of business, has a necessary stock of performance and high-speed performance.

Project Progress

After careful inspection of business processes and drawing up the concept of implementation in January, 2007 project works began. The project team consisted of specialists of Ansoft company and the staff of Baucentre company.

In the project progress specialists of Ansoft company made some additions to basic functionality of a system and configuration setup of jobs according to specifics of the DIY direction is carried out. At a stage of adaptation of the software for requirements of Baucentre company in basic system configuration of AVARDA.RetailNetwork following features are added:

• work with soft checks, a possibility of reservation of goods by means of soft checks

• carrying out cash surcharges for wholesale buyers

• accounting of related services (sawing, kolerovka, etc.)

• the route sheets forming on the basis of requests from buyers

• accounting of discounts for packaging of goods

• a number of the additional service modes automating routine transactions

First of all all normative reference information was transferred to the AVARDA system. After that trade purchasing activity was optimized: integration with the old system of merchandising is carried out, processes of the order and acceptance of goods are automated. Automation of work of the warehouse of Baucentre company located in Kaliningrad became the next stage. Further preparation for system deployment in trade divisions, trial operation in one of shops and directly replication of the AVARDA.RetailNetwork system in all hypermarkets of Kaliningrad followed.

During the project integration of AVARDA.RetailNetwork with a 1C system 8.1 Accounting and also the retail and bank store equipment was carried out.

System deployment of AVARDA.RetailNetwork took place in trade divisions of Kaliningrad in strict accordance with the set working schedule. The last Kaliningrad hypermarket began work in the AVARDA.RetailNetwork system in April, 2008.

Continuation of cooperation. Automation of the logistic center

Having estimated quality of the project, the management Baucentre decided to continue cooperation with Ansoft company and to implement a management system for warehouse logistics of AVARDA.WMS in the new logistic center. The logistic center of the company is the largest Kaliningrad center of class "A", its area is 15000 sq.m. In a project deliverable using the AVARDA.WMS system processes of acceptance, placement, selection, shipment and other transactions of the logistic center are automated.

The constructed solution completely supports processes, specific to the DIY direction, – considers expiration dates (paints, dry mixes), sets (plumbing fixtures, furniture), measured goods (linoleum, coverings) and other features. Also in the course of AVARDA.WMS system implementation especially for Baucentre company following features are added: placement of rolls without unloading in an acceptance zone, variation of selection of goods on expiration dates and other transactions.

Thanks to high degree of functional readiness of the AVADRA.WMS system and professional work of a joint command the new logistic center began work in the AVARDA.WMS system in only 3 weeks after implementation start, and process of filling of a warehouse with goods took place ahead of schedule.

Project Results

So far by means of the industry DIY solution based on the AVARDA.RetailNetwork system activity of office, the distribution center and nine hypermarkets located in Kaliningrad, Krasnodar and Omsk is automated. At the same time in the AVARDA.RetailNetwork system more than 600 users work.

Already now it is possible to say that the main objectives of the project were solved. In particular the following results were achieved:

• The unified information system, productive and scalable, meeting all requirements of the DIY direction and capable to support the growing business of the company is created

• The efficiency of obtaining information on merchandising from remote business units is increased. Users of a system always have up-to-date data on the current purchases, stocks and a remaining balance of goods. The relevance of data is several minutes now

• Data processing rate is increased

• The modern and convenient tool for customer service is received: the service center is automated, accounting of services and the customer services accompanying trade is implemented, different types of reservation of goods are implemented, work with soft checks is entered, there was a possibility of use of bonus maps and gift certificates, new discount types are entered. Besides, thanks to the system of replication, there is a possibility of service of wholesale buyers in hypermarkets even in the absence of communication with office

• The information security of the company is increased. The management of an information system allowing to manage from uniform Competence Center access rights and roles of users is entered.

Successful automation of the Kaliningrad objects of Baucentre roused the management to further cooperation with Ansoft company within product introduction of a line of AVARDA. The industry solution for DIY based on the AVARDA.RetailNetwork system is going to be used in all divisions which will begin to function in the future.

Responses

Ksenafontov Yury Yuryevich, CEO of Baucentre Kaliningrad company:

"With system implementation of AVARDA our company received a new boost to development: we managed to overcome obstacles which constrained complete implementation of ambitions of such large and dynamically developing company as Baucentre.

The AVARDA system is stable and reliable, convenient for users. Systems capabilities are allowed us to have almost online reliable and up-to-date information on all divisions, to manage more effectively purchases and deliveries of goods, to ensure information security of the company and to get other advantages. But increase in loyalty of buyers to whom the Baucentre company could provide service at higher level became the main result of implementation.

In the project progress the Ansoft company confirmed the reputation of the reliable partner. Implementation took place smoothly, any of our divisions for a minute did not stop accomplishment of the functions upon transition from the old accounting system to new. Of course, we should go still a long way of the development of it still new to us, solutions. The Baucentre company has large-scale plans. But it is flexible to system capability of AVARDA to adapt to the growing requirements of business and also existence in our company of the specialists who had training in Ansoft company allow us to look forward with optimism".

Zatoplyaev Alexey Borisovich, CIO of Baucentre Rus management company

"The decision on the choice of the automation system of the trading activity for our company was difficult. Based on experience of completions and operation of the system existing at us there was a clear idea of what functionality we want to see. Unfortunately, we could not find the ready-made solution in the market. And at the closest competitors in this tender (and 3 more systems were considered) the number of completions read off scale for imaginable volumes. The solution AVARDA of Ansoft company was for us the closest on architecture, the most ready on basic functionality, capable to meet requirements, critical for our business, and highly managed in the project of its implementation. That else it is important that we as it seems to me, gained synergy effect of consolidation in uniform model of our own knowledge and desire of Ansoft company to put on the market the developed vertical solution in the field of the DIY sector. What do we have as a result? The flexible platform for support of further development of the company. Steadily working decentralized solution with the centralized mechanism of administration and very reliable replicator providing information exchange between different installations of a system. Ownership of information on actual balances of a trade inventory in shopping centers is one more advantage of our solution. Now a system works only in one region – in Kaliningrad. In the closest plans deployment of AVARDA in retail chain stores of other our regional divisions".