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 Postie
Plus Group
Postie Plus Group businesses are longstanding,
sound and complementary in terms of product range, target markets and locations.
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Postie Plus Group Limited (PPGL) is a New Zealand success story. Made
up of men's, women's and children's clothing specialist Postie+, Manchester
specialist Arbuckles, baby product retailer Babycity and the successful
school uniforms business ‘SchoolTex’, PPGL businesses are longstanding,
sound and complementary in terms of product, target markets and locations.
As one of the largest clothing retailers in New Zealand, PPGL has around
120 stores and employs close to 1200 people.
The Problem
PPGL realized that their existing systems were unable to support their
plans for further expansion, through organic growth as well as acquisition
within the Oceanic market. They were running multiple systems due to acquisitions,
as well as a number of systems built in-house, which meant it was becoming
expensive to maintain, unmanageable and not able to keep up with PPGL’s
rapid growth, hence the need to look at a more robust and integrated solution
like SAP.
In addition, the management team around CEO Ron Boskell realized that
significant efficiency improvements in the supply chain could be achieved
by improving their backend systems.
The Solution
CIBER ANZ was chosen to implement their novaRetail preconfigured SAP
solution, based on worldwide retail best practice, with functionalities
including complete Merchandise Management, Logisitics Execution and Data
Warehousing as well as Implementation of the Financials module which, amongst
others, includes Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger and
Management Accounting.
The implementation project started on August 1 and after a record implementation
time of only 15 weeks, SAP financials was live across the group. The remaining
Retail functionalities went Live in April 2007.
The implementation process was a very standard one including a detailed
scope, proof of concept, blueprinting, configuration, testing, training,
Go Live and post implementation support. The project went live on time and
within budget. IT Manager Claudio Ghirelli of Postie Plus Group said “The
key to the project was due to the fact we kept to the original scope and
we kept as close as possible to the best practice configuration as described
by the CIBER consultants”.
Why CIBER?
A competitive appraisal of several outstanding systems led to selection
of the novaRetail system from CIBER ANZ leveraging ‘mySAP ERP’
as the best fit for PPGL’s needs and providing streamlined realtime
reporting across their retail spectrum.
CIBER’s novaRetail system leverages SAP’s mySAP ERP product
in combination with a CIBER template-based methodology, which decreases
implementation time and ensures adherence to established industry best practices,
yet offers the flexibility to tailor the solution to PPGL’s specific
needs.
“We regard the relationship with CIBER as a strategic partnership
and will collaborate very closely with them now and in the future.”
said Mr. John Burnell, Chief Financial Officer of Postie Plus Group. “CIBER
added a lot of value to our business, not only through their expertise in
SAP, but also through their international retailing experience.”
The Benefits
As a result of the implementation, PPGL were able to bring all of their
information technology (IT) systems onto a common platform to enhance inventory
management, reporting and sales forecasting activities and position the
firm for continued strong growth. PPGL have also recognised improved back-end
support for group merchandising and supply chain operations, not to mention
a very successful working relationship with the CIBER team.
About CIBER ANZ
CIBER’s success in Australia and New Zealand has been built on
the retail industry’s main priority today: integration of systems,
data and processes to provide a seamless retail management and customer
experience across multiple channels. Our customers include numerous high
profile brand names such as B&Q, Direct Wines, Trade Depot, Dunelm Mill,
French Connection, Goldsmiths, and Halfords.
CIBER ANZ is part of CIBER, Inc. (NYSE: CBR), a leading international
systems integration consultancy providing superior value-priced services
to both private and government sector clients. CIBER’s global delivery
services are offered on a project or strategic staffing basis, in both custom
and enterprise resource planning (ERP) package environments, and across
all technology platforms, operating systems and infrastructures. CIBER serves
client businesses from over 60 U.S. offices, 20 European offices, four offices
in Asia and 3 offices across Australia and New Zealand, operates in 18 countries
with 8,000 employees, and has an annual revenue of more than $950 million.
CIBER is included in the Russell 2000 Index and the S&P Small Cap 600
Index.
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