Madura Garments : Tech in Time, Saves...

As a part of Aditya Birla Nuvo, an AV Birla Group company, Madura Garments is
the name behind leading fashion brands like Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen
Solly, Peter England, Byford, Elements and SF Jeans. And if thats not enough,
the company is also a preferred global supplier of international brands like
Marks & Spencer, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo, and Ralph Lauren. The group is also
involved on the retail front, distributing the brands through its retail chain
Planet Fashion and Trouser Town.

Last year, the company decided to bifurcate its business into two
divisionsretail and trade (where large orders are booked directly by
customers). It was looking for a comprehensive retail solution and decided to
implement Oracles Retek, in November last year. What is especially significant
and unique is that for the first time in the world, Retek and SAP (used in the
wholesale business) have been interfaced with each other, says NP Singh, senior
vice president and CIO, textiles and apparel business, Aditya Birla Group.

For deploying Retek a team of fifteen members from various departments was
formed. Retek has been rolled out in forty Allen Solly stores with plans to
deploy the solution in all Louis Philippe and Van Heusen stores by March end
this year. The Retek solution assists retail merchandise management, allocation
of stock to store, setting up promotion, and merchandise, item, and demand
planning.

NP Singh,  senior vice president and CIO, textiles and apparel business, Aditya Birla Group

Retek rolled out in forty Allen Solly stores with plans to deploy the solution in all Louis Philippe and Van Heusen stores by March end this year Considering Retek has not been deployed in Indian retail businesses so far, finding a system integrator partner equipped with the right skills to implement the solution was a challenge

Whats important to note is that Retek is being interfaced with SAP for
financial transaction posting as Retek does not have a financial module.
Therefore, whats happening is that at the end of the day, data pertaining to
sales and stocks get transferred to SAP for financial analysis and report
generation. All expenses pertaining to stores are also directly entered in the
SAP system, says Singh.

Challenges

Considering that Retek has not been deployed in Indian retail businesses so
far, finding a system integrator partner equipped with the right skills to
implement the solution was a challenge. Moreover, without a finance module for
Retek, interfacing with SAP was also a tough task.

The most critical challenge for the company was dealing with change
management in terms of processes, user training and ownership. Since the trade
business was accounted for in SAP, the retail business was now being done in
Retek. Thus the users had to learn to adopt and own the new ERP solution, says
Singh.

While Retek has been implemented at the back-end, it has been interfaced with
Shoper from Tally Solutions in the front-end. For Peter England People stores,
Retek has been interfaced with a front-end called 360 Commerce. For retail
analytics, Madura is using Retek which has a data warehouse called RDW and a
presentation layer known as Micro Strategy. Meanwhile, the financial analytics
is being done out of SAP by using Business Information Warehouse (BIW).

In the future, we plan to use Cognos which would extract data from RDW and
BIW, adds Singh.

Post deployment of Retek, retail data is easily available in real-time
allowing users to take informed and faster decisions. Real-time visibility of
data ensures that users plan and set up promotions online, thereby helping
increase sales. Since data comes at the end of the day, data collation and
analysis leading to report generation could only be done the next day. With
Retek, data is available immediately, helping stock movement and sell-through as
it enables the people to see the buying patterns, meaning whats in demand and
whats not, says Singh.

Stuti Das

stutid@cybermedia.co.in