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Devyani International Limited (DIL), an associate company of RJ Corp,
launched Disney Artist retail stores in India in 2007 for selling Disney
Artist school stationary products, coloring products and social stationary.
Currently, there are fifteen stores that are spread across northern India
including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi NCR. However, in the long term RJ Corp
plans to scale up to 150 outlets over the next 4-5 years.
The arrival of the world famous Disney brand in India meant that DIL had to
comply with international standards followed by Walt Disney. DIL therefore was
facing the mammoth challenge of finding a technology solution that could not
only cater to the expansion requirements but also establish the entire set-up in
a short span of time. Another concern area was to ensure management visibility,
and minimizing the total cost of ownership.
DIL was looking at setting up more than 1,200 Stock Keeping Units that would
keep multiplying in the future. The immediate need of the hour was to use a
proven end-to-end solution that met the requirement of a quick and successful
implementation. Moreover, the solution used had to be flexible and reliable for
when the organization scales its operations.
Concern Areas
The first and most critical challenge was time and tool management, which
implies using tried and tested retail practices through a capable and robust
software. Also, management of growing number of SKUs, the head office, and
planning through software was a pressing challenge.
Replication of data and consolidation in an environment where stores are
geographically spread all over India was another concern area. The time gap
between the final decision of software selection and the first store going live
was only one and a half month, therefore it had to be implemented in a record
time span.
LS Retail was chosen by DIL simply because the solution was globally adopted
and was already operational in leading international brands. Sukesh Gera, IT
head at DIL says, We keep our processes simple and well defined. Our
implementation strategy was simple. We wanted to see the beauty of the software
completely and therefore, we had instructed DVS from day one that we will not go
for any process/logic modifications in the software to suit our requirements.
Instead, we will implement the best practices of retail as per software. Instead
of modifying software, we improved our practices to suit the requirements of
software which automatically improved our working.
In a Nutshell
Gera puts the benefits in a nutshell: There has been great saving in time
to process and extract information. Reports are more accurate and at our
fingertips, so we can see how well all areas of businesses are doing. Transfer
of stock is so much easier, and all items are traceable. We can see the cost of
each item, and price changes can be made much more easily. The solution also
helped us increase productivity and performance while addressing the full range
of information requirements throughout the operation.
The solution proved to be a vital tool for DIL at the head office as it
helped them control and maintain data common to all stores. LS Retails single
application architecture for DIL meant that most functions are available at
store level, head office level, or both. This flexibility helped DIL to
configure the application according to their demands and build on their
competitive advantage without requiring expensive or custom-made solutions.
Stuti Das
stutid@cybermedia.co.in
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