OREANDA-NEWS. August 17, 2012. ECCO-ROS, an exclusive distributor of Danish shoe brand ECCO in Russia deploys Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail in order to come to a new quality level of customer service, improve management performance and develop the retail store chain.

This project is unique because for the first time based on Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail, a uniform solution for the automation of geographically dispersed chain of the ECCO stores in Russia will be made to replace intermediate cash accounting software that is currently being used. This will enable ECCO-ROS to reduce costs for operation of the systems and management of the company as a whole, optimize business processes in the retail stores, improve merchandise flow management, and improve reliability of information flows inside the chain. In addition, the distributor expects to increase sales for the account of the offered Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail expanded opportunities for marketing activity management, and implementation of a new customer loyalty bonus system the deployment of which will be supported by the implemented system.

“Activities of ECCO-ROS are based on the ECCO reference models and general management principles, including the key principles - innovativeness and manufacturability. These ideas also find reflection in management of the IT-infrastructure of our company. Today, we implement a non-trivial project in Russia, and we believe that the implementation experience will be of interest in the retail business”, says Sergei Prokhorov, IT-Director at ECCO-ROS. “For instance, one of the features of the implemented solution is that we will get an opportunity for complete synchronization of the POS-terminal operations even in case of absence of communication or failures in the communication channels. It is an important criterion for retail business”.

GMCS is a project partner, a winner of the competitive tender for the implementation of the project on the automation of the ECCO-ROS retail chain, which expertise in the field of retail is presented by successful projects for the leaders of this market. One of the key decision-making factors in the selection of the partner was the quality of projects implemented by the partner, and the partner’s focus on customer satisfaction”, explained Sergei Prokhorov.

At present, the GMCS specialists completed creation of a solution concept model for customer accounting and service. According to the proposed model based on Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail, the following processes will be automated: acceptance, shipment, return, and selling, including selling of goods on credit and via ECCO Internet Shop, payment and cash services, product range and stock management, inventorying and adjustment of entries of stock changes under wrong heading, warehouse. The system will enable to control personnel performance including opening and closing of shift, strict accounting of labor hours of the employees through a biometric authorization system, as well as accounting of visitors. The auxiliary processes will also be automated such as accounting of corporate clothes and footwear, and consumable materials.

Emphasis is placed on the automation of marketing activity processes and loyalty management program. Based on Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail, the processes of management of advertising campaigns, handling of saving discount cards, bonus and gift cards will be automated.

“The final project objective is to create a conceptually new, innovative and scaling solution for retail that will be able to replace front office software (disconnected, as a rule) for integrated customer accounting and service system that will form a uniform information space from cashier to manager. The Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail tools enable us to accomplish all tasks stated by a customer”, comment Sergei Kotov, Retail Solutions Department Director at GMCS. – “We specially focus on the quality of the future solution, simplicity and flexibility of its use. ECCO-ROS will be able to independently customize the system later in case of any change or occurrence of new business-processes thereby reducing costs for support and development of the system”.

The system is scheduled to be put into operation in the pilot regions (stores in Moscow and Saint Petersburg) in December 2012. In future, the uniform customer accounting and service system is expected to be deployed in all remaining stores of the ECCO retail chain that is presented today by more than 300 stores in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

ECCO-ROS is an exclusive distributor of Danish shoe brand ECCO in Russia. Since 1991, the company offers to Russian consumers the world’s popular ECCO shoes. As at 2012, the ECCO chain comprises of more than 300 stores in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan and continues to actively develop. The company’s office is located in Moscow; management of the proprietary stores in the regions and interrelation with regional partners is performed from the office.