OREANDA-NEWS. July 01, 2011. The financial departments of the AUCHAN Russia retail chain, representing the interests of one of the world’s retail leaders, the French AUCHAN Group, in Russia, have improved their business processes with Oracle E-Business Suite. The project was conducted by a united team of experts from the AUCHAN Group, AUCHAN Russia, and IBS Borlas, reported the press-centre of IBS.

The main goal of the project was the securization and automation of processing and account settlement, and payment of invoices covering general economic expenses, capital investments, and other investments, with consideration of Russian legal regulations. IBS Borlas was chosen as the consulting company because of its impressive expertise in similar IT solutions, as well as its previous positive experience in cooperation with Borlas Ukraine in the process of implementing Oracle E-Business Suite at AUCHAN Ukraine.

Stephane Chlopek, Head of Accounting Methodology Team and Project Manager for AUCHAN Russia, said that the following targets had been set for the project group:

Reduction of the amount of administrative work connected with accounting and settlement of accounts (process automation);

Simplification of the payment process and improvement of its security;

Facilitation of the capability of printing key reports and VAT registers in accordance with the requirements of the Russian legislation;

Shortening of the monthly account balancing process;

Increasing the efficiency of the internal control system of processing and settlement of accounts.

The project was launched in March 2010. During the first stage, from March to May, the future business processes were defined as a part of the projected system’s operations, and the architecture of the solution was expanded upon: applications to be implemented, adjustments, and additional developments. During the second stage, from June to November, the implementation was effected. On November 8, the system was put into commercial operation; in December 2010, the work on the project was finished.

As Sergey Uglitskikh, Project Manager on the part of IBS Borlas, said, “First of all, the project was difficult due to having to organize the participants’ cooperation. Two teams from AUCHAN Group headquarters in France (groups of operational and technological specialists) united their efforts with two teams from AUCHAN Russia (group of technological specialists and key users) and the team of consultants from our company. As a result, we acquired invaluable experience in organizing work with the involvement of different languages, cultures, and traditions, as well as the experience of joint work with reputed European experts. Also, the project was carried out in the planned time and within budget.”

The system created based on “Creditors” and “Financial Management?” modules of Oracle E-Business Suite as well as their Russian localization and additional expansions worked out by IBS Borlas experts in accordance with AUCHAN Russia’s wishes. During the course of the project, the following processes were automated: the recording of incoming bills and invoices, the bill payment approval process, the creation of electronic bank payments, bank statements processing, VAT accounting and reporting, and accounting for bills, invoices, and payments. In addition, an interface for financial documents protected by a data encryption algorithm sent from Oracle applications to the bank counteragent information system was created. This facilitates financial information security.

The system has been implemented as a part of the central accountants’ office, five regional accountants’ offices, and the AUCHAN Russia Payment Center, and on the whole covers 19 operating units. The current number of users is more than 50.

Summing the project up, Thierry Leconte, Financial Director of AUCHAN Russia, said, “The system based on Oracle E-Buisness Suite has permitted us to improve a number of business processes in our financial departments. We have increased the speed of bill processing, approval, and payment, facilitated business process data transparency and conformity with Russian legislation, reduced the risk of errors, and made the process secured through payment data encryption. Security, speed, precision, lower labor costs, and reliable control are the key effects we have achieved.”

In his turn, Oleg Garankin, IBS Borlas General Director, said that he was satisfied with the successful completion of the project and added, “We are grateful to AUCHAN for its trust and the chance to carry out such a complex project for the creation of a localized system for AUCHAN Russia’s financial departments, which was simultaneously integrated into the AUCHAN Group’s united corporate management system. The international team of representatives of AUCHAN Group, AUCHAN Russia, and IBS Borlas has proven its conformity with the highest work quality and end software solution requirements.”