Clients Briefs
BVG Airflo
BVG-Airflo is a multi-channel retailer of footwear and clothing, fishing tackle and home and garden products through mail-order, Ecommerce, newspaper branded reader offers, B2B distribution, retail shops and export. Growing expansion and acquisitions meant that their old system could not give them access to the data they required in the time they needed it. The Columbus solution now gives BVG-Airflo the ability to make the right strategic decisions about which products to trade in a rapidly changing market. This has been a key component in their success.
"We are really pleased we chose Columbus to guide us through the implementation. Their open, honest and outspoken approach was exactly what was needed to ensure the project was a success."
Bo Concept
Bo Concept is a global leader in interior design. A key requirement was the efficient logistics between the BoConcept stores, factories, and suppliers. It does not matter if customer orders furniture in a store in Tokyo, New York or Paris, the clerk needs to give them a date for when the made to order furniture will be delivered. They selected Columbus because of the experience in the retail sector and the global nature of their business. The solution controls the flow of information throughout the chain. It is updated daily with product information, delivery times, etc., so that they always have current information in the stores. Now the seller has the confidence when placing the order that the furniture will be delivered in time.
"The ColumbusRetail Solution was a great choice for us."
HDS Polska
HDS Polska has stores in over 650 locations in 15 countries selling News and Gifts, Food and Beverages and Duty Free. With so many shops and products the effective flow of supplies is essential. They were using a number of out of date systems which were unable to give the business the information required. With Columbus they now have a fully automated solution that enables them to analyze real time information for better decision making. The business is now more effective and efficient and productivity has greatly increased.
" The automated reporting now gives managers access to a huge amount of vital analysis."
Pepco
Pepco, with over 230 stores selling discounted consumer goods, aims at delivering exceptional customer service with extremely competitive pricing. Pepco has plans to open a further 200 stores over the coming years but was unable to do so with their current solution. The business was run on a large number of spread sheets that were time consuming and prone to error. With ColumbusRetail they now have a single view of all stores and all operations. They are now able to ensure that the shelves are filled with products that consumers want, when they want them, customer service levels have increased and operations has control over inventory turnover rates.
"ColumbusRetail has transformed mountains of disorganized information into valuable business intelligence that has helped Pepco make well-informed decisions and spot evolving customer trends fast."
ID design
ID design is the purchasing arm behind three retail chains with over 110 stores and 250,000 invoices posted annually. They were looking to significantly enhance their daily communication and billing to gain a better control of inventory, logistics and internal procurement. They were keen to take advantage of e-commerce, data warehousing, Supply Chain Management, EDI and better communication options. Through selecting ColumbusRetail they are now able to have an accurate picture of stock, delivery times, prices and orders. That gives the shops quick access to important information that helps them in sales situations. They have also strengthened logistics significantly which has ensured faster delivery of their carpets, furniture and curtains to customers.
"The Columbus solution contains all the right building blocks to give ID design a great foundation for the future."
Spar Kjøp
Spar Kjøp is a major catalog retailer selling textiles and clothing, gifts and games through both mail order and their 18 stores. They have 700 employees and expedite 400,000 packages per year, with an average of 2,000 daily. The communication between ColumbusRetail and the warehouse is therefore vitally important. It is critical that they pick and send the right goods. The key benefits of the new solution is the automated warehouse, the increase in ecommerce activity and streamlining of the entire value chain including stores, internet site, inventory, invoicing, accounting, personnel and payroll bringing cost optimizations at every level.
"The new integrated system provides us with a competitive advantage in the marketplace."
Tallina Kaubamaja
Tallina Kaubamaja is one of the oldest and largest department stores in Estonia with a wide range of products including everything from food and fashion to furniture. Recently, the company outgrew its existing system, which had trouble handling the new trends and increased volume. Furthermore, it was unable to support the country's conversion to EURO in 2011. Columbus helped Tallinna Kaubamaja implement a retail solution, which it has used since January 1st, 2011 in all 9 subsidiaries. The system has over 300 users and enables Tallinna Kaubamaja to run the business more efficiently with less risk. New functionalities are quick and easy to add.
"It was obviously a risk to change our business solution on the same day the country changed the currency, but everything worked seamlessly. Much of this success is down to the hard work of the implementation teams from Tallinna Kaubamaja and Columbus."
Swiss Farms
Swiss Farms is a sophisticated convenience store, a drive-through take-away and a pick warehouse —all in one. In the beginning this hybrid structure was a competitive advantage, but as the company grew the POS system, for example, couldn't handle real-time price management. Information was scattered amongst multiple systems, and the application infrastructure couldn't support or cost effectively scale to meet the aggressive franchise growth strategy. After years of running on a variety of integrated point solutions, Swiss Farms is now converting all its operations to Columbus and one system. This will enable Swiss Farms to manage its business based on real-time performance indicators with visibility across both franchise and company locations. The solution is focused on digital signage to post specials, a new POS system to deal with pricing on specials, web order processing and business intelligence.
"We are now able to manage our business according to the wants and needs of our customers."
Markevičius and Co
Markevičius and Co is a wholesaler and retailer of oils, lubricants and petroleum products. They were looking to optimize processes and gain greater insight into the business to improve efficiencies. The company represents ExxonMobil with an extensive network of distributors and partners selling over 1000 different products. Their old system was unreliable, requiring re-keying of data and many manual processes. It was also difficult to access meaningful data to make good business decisions. With the new solution from Columbus they have been seen significant benefits:
- 50% increase in accessible information required for the management
- 70% reduction in reporting time
- 50% increase in efficiency
- Elimination of the duplication of data
- Optimized business processes leading to an increase in efficiency
"We were impressed with the expertise and professionalism of the Columbus team. They listened to our needs, communicated effectively and responded promptly to our questions."
ATEA
ATEA is a large IT solutions and services supplier with over 6,000 employees in a number of countries. The solution they were using required a lot of manual re-keying that caused errors and delays. They were growing quickly but their system was unable to grow with them. They selected and implemented a solution from Columbus and have now eliminated many of the manual processes. A key benefit has been the increased service they have been able to offer their customers and because of the new solution they have won even more business.
"The quality of the customer service has increased greatly which has led directly to a rise in customer service which has led to more customers."
Minordija
Minordija is a supplier of high quality food ingredients and raw materials to the bakery and confectionery sector. They were looking for a solution that would help them generate new business though more streamlined sales and marketing processes as well as a solution to run their business and give them increased access to their information. The new solution from Columbus has helped them improve the relationship with their customers as well as improve their inventory management.
"The project teams from Minordija and Columbus we all extremely professional and helped ensure a smooth implementation."
Comfy
Comfy is a home appliance retailer with 76 stores in 36 cities offering over 10,000 different products. Comfy were using 15 separate systems across the business and the integrity of the data was being compromised. With the company growing they required one solution to manage the whole business. They selected Columbus due to their experience in retail and supply chain. They have seen some great benefits including:
- Timely and accurate data to ensure better decision making
- Streamlined business processes have let to improvements in operational efficiency
- Tools to enable them to deal with the complexities of compliance
"I would like to commend Columbus for the work they have done with Comfy. We chose Columbus for their great knowledge of the retail sector and we were not disappointed."
L'Etoile
L'Etoile, a world leader in perfumes and cosmetics, selected Columbus to help them optimize their supply chain. L'Etoile had been using multiple systems but this was leading to inefficiencies through too many manual processes and mistakes. A key motivating factor was their constant desire for customer excellence. Their new solution has given them the structure, processes and flexibility to ensure that the customer has access to the right products at the right locations. And with 200,000 customer taking advantage of the E'toile loyalty cards and discounts they can also do it at the right price.
"The success of the "L'Etoile" is based on our high standards of customer service. The flexibility of the Columbus solution helps to drive satisfaction levels."
Savage
The rapid expansion of the business and the move to larger warehouse facilities meant that fashion brand Savage was out growing their business processes and their IT systems. A key requirement for Savage was to speed up the warehouse process with advanced IT systems. Savage selected ColumbusSCS to enable them to improve efficiencies. This has included voice recognition in the warehouse, narrow isle technology and transparency of information to enable real time reporting. All this led to:
- Increased processing speed and volume of shipments
- Reduction in workforce
- Orders and shipments completed on the same day
- Increased acceptance of goods
- Almost 100% warehouse efficiency
- Huge reduction in complaints
"The team at Columbus showed great professionalism and expertise through the whole project."
OBI
OBI is a chain of 540 Do It Yourself stores with 38,000 employees. The philosophy of OBI is around excellence in the Supply Chain and therefore they wanted to ensure that they had the most efficient processes and technology in their distribution centre and warehouses, OBI selected ColumbusSCS which has led to the speeding up of handling and an increase in turnover. One of the benefits of the Columbus solution was that they were able to deliver an end to end solution where the ERP and Supply Chain Solution were connected. There is now total transparency of goods in the supply chain and with their new warehouse practices including methods such as cross docking they have:
- Considerably reduced the time of goods in transit from supplier to store shelf
- Increased the efficient use of storage space
- Harmonized the procurement process
- Increased turnover
- Increased speed of warehouse handling
"The automation of many of the distribution processes has led to increased operational efficiencies and greater visibility of the business."
Fortuna
Fortuna is a leading distributor of tobacco products with 13 regional branches, collaboration with over 6500 retail outlets over 40 cities. Rises in the price of raw materials along with increased competition in the market led Fortuna to look to improve their efficiencies and update their information systems. Fortuna selected industry expert Columbus and now has a solution that runs throughout the business that helps manage costs, drive efficiencies and connect the supply chain that has led to increased business and a great outlook for the future.
"Columbus was selected for its expertise in retail, global presence and experience of implementing successful projects."
