ERP Cream for Coffee Day, Tata Tea

Let's look at it this way. Experiencing coffee while whiling away time may

now be a tad faster in terms of service. For India's largest coffee

conglomerate, the Rs 300 crore Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading (ABC), it would

mean greater visibility and control of its backend.

The company, which has an export business, 'Xpress' counters, FMCG

outlets and the popular chain of Café Coffee Days, has gone in for an ERP

solution from SAP to aid and abet its expansion plan. Coffee Day currently has

its presence in 60 cities, with 241 cafes across the county. By March next, it

plans to have 350 outlets and would subsequently add about 100 to150 cafes every

year for the next five years. It's also opening its first European café this

November in Vienna.

Most of ABC's business is expanding at the same rate or even faster than

the cafes. But Coffee Day is trying to be the first to implement SAP, division

wise. "Without technology or technological assistance, we are not going to

be able to control the wide number of cafes we have got. We wanted proper

control, an integrated system, online information. We had no choice but to go in

for an ERP solution," director of Café Coffee Day Naresh Malhotra said.

So the company's sales will now be integrated with its inventory, the

inventory with its finance, and the suppliers with its logistics network.

"We have cafes as far as Guwahati and Shillong. We will be opening in

Darjeeling and Gangtok shortly. We need to know the stock gap. The moment

something is sold, the information will now get updated at our central warehouse

in Bangalore," he added.

The SAP implementation has just been kicked off and it will take three to

four months before it goes live partially. Part of the company's CRM is

inbuilt into the point of sale. In future, it is going to integrate it with SAP

CRM, but this is not part of the present deal. It has also initiated a retail

billing system for speedier service, ensuring the right inventory levels and

stock ups. The total IT spend in ABC is about Rs 2 crore a year, but considering

its geographical diversity and spread of business, more splurge on automation is

the right way ahead, Malhotra said.

Meanwhile, tea major Tata Tea also announced the successful 'go-live' of its

mySAP ERP solution for their branded tea operations in India.

Goutam Das