"Commander" and "First Bit" created a mobile application based on "1C," which accelerated the receipt of goods by 34%

2020: Creating a mobile application based on "1C"

On November 3, 2020, it became known that the team "Commander" and "First Bit" created a mobile application based on 1C, which accelerated the receipt of goods by 34%.

Commodore

As explained, the development of its own mobile software and hardware solution "MRM Receiver" made it possible to automate 500 jobs, accelerate the acceptance of the goods of the Commander holding by a third, get rid of equipment downtime, reduce operational and administrative costs and increase the turnover of inventory.

The process of receiving goods to the "Commander" was implemented on the basis of autonomous mobile data collection terminals on Windows CE, Windows Mobile and separate software based on "1C" at the receiver's stationary workplace. The exchange of information between the TSD and the PC was carried out manually. The situation was complicated by the fact that the platforms on which the terminals were made were outdated: Microsoft stopped supporting them in 2011, 1C in 2015. Because of this, it was difficult to finalize the solution to modern standards for a long time, this was not always done. For example, there was no support for EGAIS, all excise alcohol was introduced into the system piece by piece. In the process of work, failures also regularly occurred, the same goods had to be received several times, sometimes the work stopped altogether. As a result, uploading and downloading data, manually entering additional parameters, and waiting for a response from the system took about a third of the total working time of receivers, while sometimes it was necessary to connect other employees to help resolve problems. Due to technical difficulties, staff time was inefficiently spent, there were problems with deliveries - each store needs to receive from 30 to 50 deliveries per day, at a low speed of work, receivers did not have time to process the necessary volume, which entailed queues of suppliers. At the end of the day, freight forwarders who did not have time to unload their cars left unaccounted goods "under honest word" or left with him. The second led to underdelivery and, as a result, a decrease in trade.

To change the situation, representatives of the company "Commander" turned to the specialists of the IT company "First Bit." The company "Commander" regularly previously purchased 1C software products and licenses in the First Bit, contacted about their refinement and configuration.

It was important not only to solve current problems, but also to get a system that already corresponds to the planned changes in the legislation and is available for revision in the future. After all, retail trade food is an industry with an increased degree of state regulation, it often tightens requirements and introduces rules. Market players need to be able to quickly make changes business processes to and their technical support. The development of the program for the data collection terminal (TSD) took Commander 2-3 months for each group of goods, it also took a lot of time to upgrade to the next version on the network - this did not meet the needs of the company. Therefore, one of the main conditions on the part of the holding was the creation of a 1C solution. This choice of platform made it possible to integrate the updated element into the current accounting systems of the enterprise and to finalize the product in the event of the introduction of other markings by regular specialists.

It was also necessary to automate the reporting of the department. It is important for the company to regularly analyze and improve processes, so it was necessary to develop a metric system to obtain information about the time spent on each type of operation carried out by each employee so that there was information for analysis.

The project team was tasked with:

• organize all acceptance functions in one device in the hands of the receiver,
• reduce acceptance time,
• Develop metrics systems for further analysis and regular improvement of the acceptance process,
• Integrate with the company's accounting system.

Having analyzed all the needs and tasks in the "Commander," it was decided to develop its own mobile software and hardware solution "MRM Receiver," which performs the following functions:

• acceptance of ordinary goods,
• acceptance of controlled goods (Mercury),
• acceptance of controlled goods (EGAIS),
• acceptance of labelled tobacco products,
• trust acceptance,
• work with excise alcohol: 1 "peak" per bottle, the ability to cross out a specific brand or re-accept one SKU.

The mobile client operates on TSD ChiperLab RK25, Android 8.0 platform, Mobile Device Management class system for centralized device management. As a result of the development of the "Receiver MRM" there are opportunities:

• automating the search of the supplier and the document by means of a special QR code on the document,
• short-term acceptance,
• processing of return invoices in MRM,
• processing of write-off documents in MRM.

As a result of creating a mobile workplace and automating the "Commander" processes, the following results were achieved:

• 500 workplaces automated,
• accelerated the receipt of goods by 34%,
• the network saved more than 6,500 person-hours per month,
• Reduced operating and administrative costs by 10%,
• reduced equipment downtime by 20%,
• inventory turnover increased by 5%.

The project team used the 1C platform, which is little popular for mobile development as of November 2020.

This project is an important milestone in the development of our IT infrastructure. In addition to directly reducing the duration of operations and labor costs, we got a solution that, in principle, changes the philosophy of building processes inside the store, makes them more mobile. commented by Vasily Korolev, head of the project direction "Commander"