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Trade Depot
Trade Depot is a new UK format aimed solely at the trade buyer. Its main targets are the small builder and trade professional, such as plumbers, electricians and so on. It stocks around 8,000 product lines.
Sites trade from approximately 35,000 ft2, and consist of four departments - joinery, plumbing, decorative and construction. Each department is staffed by experts who are there to offer advice and excellent service. Its offerings include a range of doors and windows, heating and plumbing equipment and kitchens and bathrooms.
Trade Depot is a division of Kingfisher Plc. It was launched in October 2005 to help meet the growing demands of the trade market. Trade Depot has added to Kingfisher’s considerable success, trading alongside B&Q and Screwfix Direct, both well established players within the DIY and trade markets.
The Problem
Trade Depot was launched as a brand new retail format because Kingfisher identified the potential in the building trade market, which it already operates in through its Screwfix catalogue and online business.
The company currently operates two stores and will open around four more this year. However, between 10 and 15 are planned for 2007 and a total of 70 over five years. In opening the first store, Trade Depot wanted to be certain that it chose systems that would enable it to grow easily and rapidly.
The Solution
Trade Depot wanted a solution that could be implemented quickly and provide templates based on best practice already in use within other retailers. The company therefore adopted an "All-in-One" version of SAP for the retail sector called novaRetail, developed and implemented by SAP retail systems specialist CIBER .
novaRetail includes full versions of all SAP Retail modules, but also includes templates of ready-to-run retail functions that enable fast and robust implementation, reducing both cost and risk of SAP Retail implementations significantly. At Trade Depot, the first project went live in 10 weeks.
CIBER implemented SAP Retail in the areas of finance, controlling, master data, central purchasing, store ordering, stock management, providing an interface to Retail J's EPoS solution, and processing data from Retail J into SAP.
The total solution was provided within the standard scope of novaRetail, and has enabled Trade Depot to successfully open two stores.
In order to facilitate comprehensive stock management, Trade Depot and CIBER also decided upon the use of mobile devices directly linked to the central SAP system. Within two months, a complete HHT solution was implemented, allowing for goods receipts, stock counts and adjustments, stock and price checks and returns. Additional store stock management functions are carried out using SAP Retail Store in the branch back-office.
The Choice
The core technologies chosen to sustain Trade Depot during its growth were SAP for enterprise management and Retail J for the point of sale. The company chose CIBER as the implementation partner mainly because of its highly successful SAP retail implementations at Kingfisher’s B&Q stores, both in the UK and internationally.
CIBER was also chosen because of its commitment to delivering low-cost, low-maintenance, and rapid implementations through its pre-configured mySAP All-in-One solution, novaRetail. novaRetail delivered 80% of the core functionality required by Trade Depot, allowing CIBER to concentrate its efforts on the processes unique to the company.
Dave Perry, Trade Depot’s Head of Systems, is positive about CIBER ’s contribution. He says, “CIBER felt like an extended part of our family and were committed the whole way. They were willing to do things our way rather than dictating their own way of working.”
The Benefits
Perry says, “We can definitely say that our stock levels and profiles are more accurate and we are operating perpetual inventory to ensure that we have the ideal stock to meet our financial targets and our customers’ expectations. In short, we know what we have and what we need to sell.”
He adds, “Critically, we now have the infrastructure in place that will enable us to grow rapidly, to 70 stores in five years. We are currently commoditising the solution further so that we can roll out new stores.”
Perry explains, “CIBER have been very successful with this project because they got very close to the business and made sure they understood our processes. They spent a lot of time in the stores with staff to see exactly how they worked.”
He concludes, “We are lucky in that we are working with a partner who is really enthusiastic about the business and understands what we are trying to achieve.”
About CIBER UK
CIBER is a leading SAP consultancy providing world-wide support for a range of high profile clients in the retail sector. We have maintained our reputation as the world's leading SAP Retail implementation partner ever since being the first partner to implement SAP Retail when it was launched in 1996.
CIBER ’s success in the UK 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 The Big Food Group, B&Q, Direct Wines, Dunelm Mill, French Connection, Goldsmiths, and Halfords.
CIBER 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 and four offices in Asia, operates in 19 countries with 8,000 employees, and has an annual revenue of more than in excess of $1 billion million. CIBER is included in the Russell 2000 Index and the S&P Small Cap 600 Index.
