Hypercity's IT Path for Retail growth in India

Hypercity Retail India Pvt. Ltd. that is planning expansion to 20 more sites across India by 2009, is scouting e-procurement and technology partners. The retail outlet is scanning space between 50,000 and one lakh square feet area for each of these stores. It plans to house super markets, convenience stores and also hypermarkets. "Hypercity is undertaking new projects. Since these are large scale expansions, we are looking at e-procurement service providers for civil and also various service providers for IT projects," says project controller at Hypercity, Dayanand Sonar. Though hedgehog.com had done e-procurement for Hypercity when it opened its first retail outlet at Malad, Mumbai, the company wants to try out other partners this time around. Queries on why does it not want to go along with hedgehog.com, were met with mute responses or I don't know shrugs. For its new outlets, Hypercity would invite tenders for requisition unit, project management, interiors, refrigeration systems, store fixtures, accessories, asset management, etc. Listing out the benefits of e-procurement, Sonar informs, "It saves a lot of time, encourages global participation in bids, is convenient to negotiate with global vendors for follow-ups, besides doing away the lethargy of manual work." Veneeth Purshottam, IT head at Hypercity says that it has deployed ERP solutions from JDA(JD Armstrong) at Malad. The same ERP solution would be deployed across all the 20 outlets, he adds. JDA will also cater to the front end needs of all Hypercity outlets. At present, Symbol provides wireless services at Malad. Hypercity also has a self scan service called 'I-Scan', this handheld barcode scanning device lets customers scan their merchandize as they take them off shelves. When they are ready for checkout, customers don't need to stand in a queue as their merchandize is scanned and billed - saving time and improving customer experience, Purshottam explained. We also use scanners for stock-take and price checks on the shop floor. They have the main data center in Mumbai and the disaster recovery cell in Bangalore. The disaster recovery project is currently in progress and is expected to be completed by March end, said Veneeth. Hypercity has also partnered with JDA to use the Intactix space planning module. Intactix helps the store managers visualize how to stock shelves using optimal sales and margin expectations. They manage the inventory and distribution through JDA-MMS (Merchandise Management System from JDA). They have rolled out replenishment applications called E3. The mathematical software helps HyperCITY analyze inventory trends, helping the enterprise refill its shelves faster at lower costs, forecast better, and address the critical element of product availability. The stores are all connected to the data center using the VPN network of SIFY. We also have leased line connections as backup from the stores to the data center wherever possible. We may consider RFID at a later stage, Purshottam concluded.

Courtesy: cxotoday.com

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