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As the country makes huge progress in the retail segment, the jewelry industry is also preparing to gradually adapt to the changing environment. Gitanjali Group, which is fast moving towards its goal of becoming a leading player in the jewellery retail business, has a management that has been instrumental in allowing technology to drive the business.

Gili was a part of the group's initial foray into the branded products segment. The group has identified technology to play a major role in two of the key areas of business operations-the retail operations and the manufacturing process.

Confronting Challenges
As the IT head, the challenge that I faced was of convincing the management to go for the change. For us, as the FoxPro/VB packages had been functioning well till date at a very reasonable cost in its limited capabilities, the huge spend on an ERP solution was not justified, says George. Gitanjali's management, extended complete support and has been very positive for a change. We have been able to use technology to drive the retail segment as well as get sophisticated machines at the manufacturing level.

While keeping in mind the changing dynamics in the retail segment, it took them some time to decide what our "To be process" should be like. Finally IMAS, a product from Golden Key Company, Australia to power out the retail initiative was chosen. IMAS runs on OS/400 with DB2 as the database.

This is the vendor's first implementation in India. It is active in Australia, South East Asia and Europe.

Geetanjali Group's business is conducted at over 1,000 locations in the country. Thus, needs and requirements were multifaceted. The new software (ERP) was deployed by objectives like managing supply chain requirements; craving out a proactive vision respective to customer needs; implementing dynamic CRM; and also to be able to support our business associates to conduct seamless integration.

Branding Jewelry
As we are into sale of branded jewelry, we follow different certification standards. We need to keep track of each and every certificate through the ERP so that there is no error while it is sent out, and also to control any possible malpractice as a preventive measure.

	"During an evaluation process, the group found IMAS to be the only software that did not dictate how to do business, rather focused on adapting to functioning without much of customization"
	-Sam George, CTO, Gitanjali Group

As communication expenses have dropped over the years, we have plans to deploy the solution at 1,500 retail outlets, and close to 500 backend users in a phased manner over a period of two years.

Managing Manufacturing Process
The group has a software team of 10 engineers that has, over the last year, developed a customized software project code name-Nebula. It takes care of our manufacturing needs by mapping all the processes involved, right from customer order to the delivery stage.

I would say that we have used the best available technology like CAD/CAM tools to design our jewelry, and also that we have been able to get the products finished using latest laser precision machines, cutting down considerably on the production and delivery time.

We have also adapted Six Sigma principles on our production floor in order to see minimum errors in the manual processes.

The entire task, covered in the manufacturing process, has to be in line with the different best practice policies adopted by the group in line with the industry and government regulation for the well being of the work force.

Urvashi Kaul
urvashik@cybermedia.co.in

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