Related Project
The client is the pioneer in the Beauty Industry in the Middle East. The group has its own showrooms and offices all over the Middle East, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah (UAE); Jeddah, Riyadh, Al Khaobar and Abha (Saudi Arabia); Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Egypt, and Jordan.
Established in the year 1975, the group offers total solution to Salons and Beauty Parlors along with the supply of Personal care products.
“All under one roof for Salons and Beauty Parlors” is one of the uniqueness of our client.
The 27 haute couture showrooms of the client, spread in fourteen countries of the Middle East region are indicative of its leadership position as the holistic supplier of products for Salons and Beauty Parlors.
The Group’s organizational and accounting structure before ERP implementation was a decentralized one, where individual branches in each country or geographical areas operated with different legal and ownership structures. Each branch was given operational freedom within their respective territory, within the Policy and Procedural Framework of the Group. The only way to check the process and procedures of each branch was the monthly MIS reports sent to HO. Thus it was more of a post facto analysis. In order to control this widely spread business, the company decided to go for a web based centralized ERP to enforce controls and processes laid down by the Board of Directors. The Group decided to acquire a commercial off-the shelf product that could be configured to provide the full range of business functionality required by our client.
The Management wished to use proven state-of-the-art technology that would provide the ability to plan, control and account for all of the Group’s activities and resources. The company evaluated several ERPs, and finally chose ebizframe, an ERP solution from Eastern Software Solutions Private Limited. ebizframe was preferred because of its state-of-the-art technology, good track record, and low entry, implementation cost and a clear implementation methodology and transparent costing system.
The Group had an independent server or computer in each Branch of each country with a LAN connection in the Branch Office. The branch data was copied to the HO server every month after monthly closing of the branch accounts. Two dedicated employees were fully involved in transferring this data from the branches to HO and vice versa. Since each branch worked independently, consolidation of reports was not possible and it was more or less a manual job. Data entry for inter-branch transactions was repeated in each branch. One of the key objectives of the business: to reduce “dead stock” was a difficult task as stock availability of one branch was not viewable to the other branch
Implementation of ebizframe started in May and the Group went live within 7 months in 3 branches. Later, it was rolled-out to another 4 branches within UAE and 9 branches in Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. ebizframe was adopted with some customization and re-engineering of their business processes that were necessary as the organization moved from a decentralized system to an on-line centralized system in a controlled operations environment. Complete Retail Solution (Point of Sales) with tight integration of back end operations of Purchase, Sales, Inventory, Finance, HR & Payroll and Fixed Asset are online now. The system allows flexible sales and distribution policies, market promotion schemes in retail and inter-branch reconciliation easily.
After implementation of ebizframe, our client has been able to achieve better monitoring of stock movement and valuation. It has resulted in lower turn around time of sales order from branches. Better quality control and vendor monitoring is possible as all the data is available online. Finance with its features like consolidation, multi-currency options gives it a better control and flexibility over financial reporting. Many MIS reports are available at the click of a button. There is better monitoring of operations as well. Due to the centralized stock ageing report, “dead stocks” have been minimized. Data entry in duplication due to inter branch transactions has reduced dramatically due to avoidance of multiple entries for the same transaction. For example, all sales to branches automatically become a purchase in the respective branch.
They have kept the server at their Sharjah office connected using dedicated leased line. Another leased line is also made available for email and browsing. The second line was made available due to heavy download and upload of mails and data by the media department. Each branch connects to the main server using 2 MBPS ADSL line dedicated for ebizframe.
The client has recently moved to decentralized Point of Sales to overcome telecom related issues between HO and remote branches like those in Saudi Arabia. It is very eager to implement the full Production Module and it is looking at more sophisticated MIS reports and some more customization with its experience in usage of this system. It will be looking at enhancements in ERP functionalities as the business grows and new products and services are added to its portfolio of business.