Saleh & Hasan Noori
Noori Supermarkets operates four hypermarkets in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The brand is in a strong expansion mode, and plans to run as many as 800 POS terminals in the next couple of years. The company’s goal is to provide the highest-quality products and services to their customers. By offering frequent deals, rewards, and promotions across various channels, Noori has built up a loyal customer base, which is constantly expanding.
Moving away from an outdated system
While looking into scaling their operations, Noori realized that their current IT systems would not be able to handle the increasing volumes of transaction. At the time, the company had a number of disparate systems that were running in silos. This setup required a heavy volume of manual integration of data and processes, which often led to inefficiencies and errors. The organization thus decided to search for a single, integrated ERP system that could run both the front-end and back-end processes.
End-to-end oversight
After investigating various solutions, Noori selected LS Nav as the best fit, making it the first externally sourced IT solution for the hypermarket chain. Godrej Infotech Limited, an LS Retail partner, was selected as the implementation and support partner due to its vast experience in executing projects of a similar nature. The main reason for the choice is that LS Nav is an all-in-one system: the solution streamlines operations across the whole business – including head office, stores, and warehouses - in a single system. Additionally, LS Nav fulfills the business’s need of obtaining real-time, consistent and accurate reports and dashboards that can be accessed directly by various categories of end-users.
An implementation in two phases
Under advice by Godrej, the implementation took place in a phased manner. During Phase 1, a single hypermarket and back-office was selected to go through the entire cycle, from requirements to go-live. Once this first implementation was completed successfully and user acceptance testing was done, the solution was rolled out to the other hypermarkets in scope. This is a robust, tested and fail-safe approach of rolling out to multiple stores, which led to significant cost savings for Noori.
A successful project
All counterparts co-ordinated well all deliverables and timelines of the implementation, leading to a successful system go-live. Microsoft Sure Step Methodology was used by Godrej, which took care of providing regular tracking, reporting, and quality check activities.
Valuable features
Today, Noori has tools to handle automated inventory, proactive purchases, efficient cost accounting and cash and till management. The Central Purchase Planning module leads to increased transparency and visibility as regards the organization's operations, and helps in negotiating discounts with the vendors. Damage control, expiry checks and tracking of fast-moving consumer goods items have been streamlined, leading to significant cost savings for Noori. The average time of a single POS transaction has reduced by around 50%. There have also been significant reductions in waste due to efficient inventory management processes.
Optimization of warehouse operations
The company has benefitted from the implementation of an Automated Data Capture System (ADCS), which keeps the ERP system updated with real-time events at the warehouse via hand-held devices. This system has optimized warehouse operations, and the productivity of personnel has improved considerably since this feature was introduced.
Always up to date
The back-end LS Nav data replication model ensures that product prices, quantities and availability information are always synchronized between the head office and stores.