Briscoe Group Ltd
Briscoe Group (BGR) retailing interests include 40 Briscoes Homeware stores, 32 Rebel Sport stores, 13 Living & Giving stores and 1 Urban Loft store with a consolidated revenue of $408 million. Briscoes Homeware is a discount store selling exclusively homeware product with Rebel Sport being the largest sports equipment and apparel chain in New Zealand. Living and Giving and Urban Loft are specialty homeware stores offering lifestyle and gift options that combine quality and value.
The Problem
Briscoe Group was running a very modified ERP system, which had changed so much it had become difficult to upgrade and also restricted their ability to easily upgrade in the future . Briscoe Group was looking for a vendor to provide the group with a worldwide recognised “tier one” solution based on best practice retail processes, that would provide an excellent merchandising solution, which they saw as the key to their ERP solution. Briscoe Group was also experiencing considerable growth and required an ERP system that would meet the needs of the business now and into the future.
The Solution
CIBER ANZ was selected by Briscoe’s to implement CIBER’s out of the box ERP retail package called novaRetail. novaRetail is a fully integrated and pre-configured packaged solution from CIBER, based on SAP best practices. novaRetail solutions enable companies to cost-effectively implement an optimised SAP Retail solution with a proven methodology and change management toolset that helps to reduce cost and risk through the project. CIBER was chosen to implement a number of SAP functionalities including Master Data Management, Merchandise Management and Planning, Sales and Distribution, Purchase Orders, Logistics, Finance and Business Warehouse. “Our selection process led us to conclude SAP was the right software system for us to move forward with and that CIBER was the right partner to ensure an optimal implementation ”, says Geoff Scowcroft, CFO Briscoe Group Ltd.
Why CIBER?
After deciding to upgrade their existing ERP system, Briscoe Group examined several key ERP vendors before choosing CIBER. “SAP was the best fit for us, and CIBER were quickly establishing a strong local presence, leveraging its international retail experience as well as SAP’s global expertise” says Geoff Scowcroft, CFO Briscoe Group Ltd.
The Benefits
CIBER’s novaRetail solution has successfully integrated with Briscoe’s existing point of sale software, and provided the systems platform to facilitate further expansion and growth in the future. The project went live with financials in April 07, with Trial Go-Live of the 6,000 articles within the ‘Manchester’ category in August 07 and the full Go Live occurred in October 07. The go live at Briscoe’s went very smoothly which was due to extensive testing and good planning. Briscoe’s CFO Geoff Scowcroft said “ERP solution implementations are never ‘easy’ however we managed a relatively smooth implementation to SAP with the expert assistance of CIBER ANZ. The quality of their consultants was consistently high and they were always prepared to work with us to find solutions to problems as they arose. A key to their expertise, we feel, is their knowledge of retail businesses and therefore their ability to understand issues from a retail perspective rather than a pure IT systems viewpoint.”



