South African Retailer Boosts Its 11 E-Businesses with Distributed ERP Solution

Microsoft Customer Solution Customer Solution Case Study

South African Retailer Boosts Its 11 E- Businesses with Distributed ERP Solution

Overview “Waltons …is going from a position where the Country or Region: South Africa business was struggling with its previous system Industry: Retail and at risk, to a new system that gives it fantastic Customer Profile visibility throughout the business.” Waltons Stationery Company, part of the BidVest Group in South Africa, is a David Rigby, Sales and Marketing Director, BS3 leader in home, school, and office supplies and the country’s largest Waltons Stationery Company, the largest stationery and office stationery and office equipment company. equipment seller in South Africa and part of the BidVest Group, wanted a new, distributed retail and enterprise resource Business Situation Waltons needed a replacement for its planning (ERP) system. The company’s legacy DOS-based legacy DOS-based point-of-sale (POS) system was expensive, difficult to manage, and inflexible. and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to support its existing business Working with Microsoft® Certified Business Solutions Partner and plan for future growth. BS3, Waltons implemented a new system by using Microsoft

Solution Business Solutions–Axapta® for its ERP system, and Working with Microsoft® partner BS3, Landsteinar Stengur for Axapta Retail. Microsoft Axapta is Waltons is implementing a new POS and ERP system by using Microsoft Business helping to make Waltons even more competitive as a business Solutions–Axapta®, Microsoft SQL by automating business processes that were formerly manual, ServerTM 2000, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. and by providing a low total cost of ownership package. The flexibility of Microsoft Axapta to interface with other systems is Benefits  Facilitates better decision making for particularly important given that Waltons has 11 separate e- retailer business initiatives within its organisation.  Comes with a low total cost of ownership  Interfaces with other systems, including e-business  Affords a flexible, user-friendly Situation more functions, scalable solutions, and a Waltons Stationery Company, founded in low total cost of ownership would not be 1949 in Cape Town as a small family easy.” stationery company, is now South Africa’s largest stationery and office equipment Waltons, with 80 stores throughout South company and a leader in home, school, Africa and a growing volume of e-business, and office product supplies. In 1997, wanted an integrated ERP system that Waltons became part of the BidVest Group would cover all areas, from finance to of companies, one of the biggest holding customer relationship management (CRM) companies in South Africa. Waltons, to and that would provide real-time provide its customers with immediate information from POS to back office. access to goods, along with reduced costs, Strategically, Waltons needed the ability to and better service, has massive bulk act locally and make local decisions, and to warehouses in three of its seven regions do so within a national brand. and a huge distribution network. Waltons Retail offers conveniently located retail Previously, credit limits for customers were outlets, which provide customers a broad set at a regional rather than national level; mix of products that include self-assemble this practice created inconsistencies and office furniture, stationery, and computer exposed the group to operational risk. The consumables. new system specification demanded integration between distribution, financial, Waltons spent considerable time internally and retail business models, as well as the to develop a legacy DOS-based point-of- employment of multiple sales channels sale (POS), in-store system into a multi- from one integrated system. branch enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Nevertheless, the company’s IT Reyneke says: “We saw the replacement of department struggled with problems the existing ERP system as an opportunity revolving around database integrity, low to address the weaknesses of disparate bandwidth in some of the regions, time regional processes, as well as disparate delays for ongoing developments, and out- systems and databases. Very few people in of-date business intelligence (BI). the world could manage our DOS-based system, and we only had one such person Francois Reyneke, Group Financial in the company. We needed to implement Director at Waltons, says: “Our business is more effective and efficient business highly competitive, and our continued processes to keep at the leading edge of success demanded that we find a more customer service in South Africa.” flexible, user-friendly application that could support not only our current needs, but also Solution the company through growth or changing Waltons considered 21 different offers from market conditions. Critical to our decision- service providers, from SAP to Sage, making process was the long-term including a locally produced solution, sustainability of the investment. Equally, we before accepting a recommendation by recognised that meeting our demand for BS3, a leading South African provider of end-to-end business solutions. In 2004, integrity and system functionality within the BS3 was named Microsoft® Partner of the Microsoft Axapta environment.” Year for Microsoft Business Solutions– Axapta®. One of the third-party applications is data replication software called Data Director BS3 considered Microsoft Axapta would be from Landsteinar Stengur, also a Microsoft able to offer Waltons a rich application that Certified Business Solutions Partner. Data would give the company the scalability to Director enables the 750 users to work support future business growth. The offline, while it replicates data to a regional solution has already been piloted in server and, from there, to national head Waltons in the Eastern Cape region where office. This solution helps to avoid the there are three stores, and the company is problems and hidden costs caused in now ready to roll it out in the Western South Africa by low bandwidth, a situation Cape, followed by the other five regions of that will take the major telecommunications South Africa over the next 16 months. providers at least three to four years to resolve. David Rigby, Sales and Marketing Director at BS3, says, “Waltons is taking a Rigby says, “Replication has been a pioneering approach by rolling out considerable challenge because it is so Microsoft Axapta. [Waltons] is going from a leading edge and not just because it is here position where the business was struggling in South Africa. We are the first Microsoft with its previous system and at risk, to a partner in the world to implement Microsoft new system that gives it fantastic visibility Axapta on a distributed—as opposed to a throughout the business.” centralised—basis.”

Microsoft Axapta is providing Waltons with Rigby says the solution includes another one integrated and Web-enabled business global “first.” Waltons’s “Back to School” logic, three-tier and scalable system range is the most comprehensive available, architecture, and open source code. The and provides schools with pupil packs solution’s integrated development according to individual specifications. environment conforms to all relevant Waltons also supplies schools with most technology standards and interfaces. For every requirement, from chalk to school data storage, the software has been desks, wholesale or retail. To improve the integrated with Microsoft SQL ServerTM POS service and integrate it seamlessly 2000 and, for messaging, with Microsoft with the back office, BS3 suggested that Exchange Server 2003, both of which are Waltons invest in a Microsoft Axapta add- part of Microsoft Windows Server SystemTM on and use Landsteinar Strengur’s (LS) integrated server software. Retail solution.

Reyneke says, “Microsoft Axapta, being Rigby adds, “LS Retail is the world’s well supported around the world, is able to leading retail solution on the Microsoft offer us the benefit of a large number of [Business Solutions] Navision® platform, third-party applications, thus ensuring data [and] Waltons is the first site worldwide where the Landsteinar Stengur Retail was a very manual process. With Microsoft solution has been implemented on a Axapta, a great deal of the administration Microsoft Axapta.” work for trade agreements has been automated, which is helping to make Benefits Waltons even more competitive than Facilitates Better Decision Making for before.” Retailer Key to a business such as Waltons is the Comes with a Low Total Cost of capability to empower users to do real-time Ownership analysis and make better, faster decisions. While the new functionality was the Microsoft Business Solutions–Axapta principal reason to choose Microsoft provides a range of functions including: Axapta, Walton’s benefited additionally from a cost-effective solution to its licensing ● Designer for multidimensional data needs. Waltons, having the advantage of cubes. being part of a larger business group that ● Integration with Microsoft SQL Server likely would also embrace the ERP solution 2000 Analysis Services for analysis and Microsoft offers, was able to realize a low reporting. total cost of ownership for its own solution. ● Analysis views through embedded pivot Following the example set by Waltons, tables. three other BidVest Group companies have ● Balanced scorecard with key followed suit. Waltons remains the biggest performance indicators. single user, however, to date. ● Up-to-date business information in real time. Reyneke says, “Scalability and reliability were two important considerations, but Waltons’s primary business is distribution, price helped to determine our final choice. and Microsoft Axapta provides multi-site After all, SAP, for example, is very much a warehousing management, inventory first-tier solution and could probably give us management with dimensions, order- a similar result, but was far too expensive handling with trade agreements, order- by comparison.” promising, and item and lot number reservations and tracking. Interfaces with Other Systems, Including E-Business From a supply chain management Waltons wanted something more than a perspective, Microsoft Axapta will provide system that only catered for its basic demand forecasting and inter-company business needs. Microsoft Axapta offers trade, full procurement management, unlimited collaboration with market partner self-service Web sites, suppliers, customers, and other partners. performance monitoring, and electronic The ability of Microsoft Axapta to interface information exchange. with other systems is particularly important given that Waltons has 11 separate e- Rigby says, “Previously, the management business initiatives within its organisation. of trade agreements with major customers Rigby says, “The e-business front ends He says, “While it is true that Waltons was were already established, but Microsoft already committed to Microsoft technology, Axapta now takes care of the back-office we had an open mind in choosing a new integration. Previously, the e-business ERP solution. Having Microsoft Axapta initiatives were very complicated to gives us a much more powerful manage, and the back end was infrastructure—with other applications unresponsive. We have just gone ‘live’ with seamlessly integrated. We can now take a the new capability and are able to handle single view of our business. The support new business quickly and effectively.” from BS3 has been another bonus, particularly with training of the users.” Critical to the Waltons’s Microsoft Axapta solution is the customer interface, and the Apart from implementing the new Microsoft CRM Integrations for Axapta technology, BS3 has also undertaken a provides a range of functions to handle: change management programme for Waltons. Rigby says, “Unless people can ● Sales force and marketing automation. relate to the technology, it won’t deliver the ● Telemarketing and questionnaires. benefits. Usability has been critical in the ● Sales management. adoption of Microsoft Axapta by Waltons. ● Customer self-service Web sites. We are continuing to train, retrain where ● Computer telephone integration. necessary, and then evaluate our success. ● Document management. Training is very high on the agenda going forward to complete rollout of the system.” Laurence Slotto, IT Manager for Waltons Stationery Company, says, “Web functionality is available throughout the system and is as integral to the system as any other piece of functionality, such as sales or purchases.” The company is now considering developing its e-business services even further by making a future investment in Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004.

Affords a Flexible, User-Friendly Application Waltons was seeking the security of a long- term relationship with a leading technology vendor that could demonstrate strong support on the ground from a local partner. Reyneke found the right combination in Microsoft and BS3. For More Information Microsoft Business Solutions offers a wide For more information about Microsoft range of integrated, end-to-end business products and services, call the Microsoft applications and services designed to help Sales Information Center at (800) 426- small, mid-market and corporate businesses 9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft become more connected with customers, Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- employees, partners and suppliers. 2495. Customers who are deaf or hard- of-hearing can reach Microsoft text For more information about Microsoft telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) Business Solutions, go to: 892-5234 in the United States or (905) www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com

For more information about BS3 products and services, visit the Web site at: www.bs3.co.za/solutions.html

Software and Services  Solutions  Products − Microsoft Business Solutions–Axapta − Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 − Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 © 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case − Microsoft SQL Server 2000 study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Axapta, Navision, BizTalk, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation or Microsoft Business Solutions ApS in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft Business Solutions ApS is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Document published April 2005