Indian Retail majors to sharpen services

Indian corporate giants Reliance, the Tatas and the Birlas, who are bracing up for a major entry into organised retail, are leaving no stone unturned in their pursuit to create customer loyalty. These companies are now not only leveraging modern technology in space and floor planning, demand forecasting and replenishment which is currently at the top-of-the-mind recall of most IT companies, but also talking to various logistics service providers to achieve end-to-end logistics support for transport of goods from manufacturing facilities to their stores.In order to bring down the cost of merchandise to end customers, optimise inventory and enable demand forecasting and faster stock replenishment, these retail giants are in talks with enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions vendors like the US based JDA Software Inc.SAP India currently provides retail solutions to Pantaloon, Tata's Trent and ITC Chowpals and is looking at updating solutions to provide best practices module to Reliance Retail, said a SAP India spokesperson.As for logistics support, these retail giants are talking to Radhakrishna Hospitality Services, Gati and Blue Dart to source end-to-end logistical solutions.Raju Shete, managing director, Radhakrishna Hospitality Services said that his company is in talks with major retailers to provide end-to-end solutions.Abel Correa, country head, JDA Software India Private Ltd says, “We are currently in talks with two major retailers with whom we will enter into tie-ups by next month. The Birla Group is currently evaluating software solutions to support their retailing strategies.” Shopper's Stop Ltd had sourced JDA solutions from JDA Software Inc in 1998 for space and floor planning, demand forecasting and replenishment.During phase I, JDA Software India will provide solutions to the transaction systems and the merchandise management system.Phase II will involve providing solutions at the point of sales in order to bring about optimisation solutions. In Phase III, retailers will collaborate with their suppliers for visiblilty of their workforce and merchandise.“In order to implement these solutions, it becomes imperative for retailers to have trained skilled people and resources who understand statistical tools well,” Correa added.
courtesy:financialexpress
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