ITs a Lifestyle Now

Today, India is considered to be among the top five retail industry markets

worldwide and is the fastest growing one. Over the last five years, the sector

has become more organized as its gaining popularity. Thanks to big retail

chains which actually changed the dynamics of retailing in India. In 2009,

retail trade contributed 12% to the Indian GDP, while in 2010 it is expected to

contribute about 22% and grow up to a $700 bn dollar industry. And the good news

is that organized retailing is gaining traction and today it has almost 20% of

the overall market share.

What made all this growth possible and that too in such a short span of five

years? If we keep aside all the socio-economic and demographic changes, and just

concentrate on the basic medium which provided solution steering the way modern

organized retailing works, it is nothing but technology that has made this model

work. Retailing is one big example wherein IT has truly proved itself as the

business enabler. And riding high on technology is Indias one of the fastest

growing retailing chain, the Landmark Grouppromoter of brands like Lifestyle,

Spar, Maxwhich is currently on a rapid expansion mode. And with intelligent and

well planned IT implementations, the company is confidently driving its growth,

beating its competitors.

Aligning IT with Business



As the organization is expanding its presence, scaling up of the IT

infrastructure as well as security aspects are two big challenges for its IT

team. To meet the current business demands, Landmark is now busy with

refurbishing its entire IT set-up. "The existing set-up cant support our growth

and expansion plans. Hence, we are upgrading the entire infrastructure and

aligning it with our business processes for maximum results," says Sudesh

Agarwal, VP, IT, Landmark Group.

Within the next one year, Landmark will have a completely new IT infrastructure	Sudesh Agarwal, VP, IT, Landmark Group

As part of the plan, Landmark is restructuring its networking, storage,

security, data back-up systems, and creating a DR site as well. Presently the

company has its own data center based out of Bengaluru that is managed by

thirty-five servers and takes care of its pan-India operations. Critical servers

running the core applications have a proper back-up system on the IBM Tivoli

platform. All stores, warehouses, and offices belonging to the group are

connected through WAN and IPN VPN connectivity as a back-up.

The company has already implemented CRM and online gift voucher tracking

system (GVTS) in all its outlets and these are managed centrally. Other key

applications that have been deployed already include financial management system

based on Oracle Financial solution.

However, the company is still running on legacy systems for some of its core

business applications like PoS, warehouse management, and merchandise system.

"We are soon going to upgrade all these applications and deploy a live and

integrated system for better management and business productivity. Within the

next one year, Landmark will have a completely new IT infrastructure based on

state-of-the-art technology," informs Agarwal.

Piyali Guha



piyalig@cybermedia.co.in