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Customers |
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Success Stories |
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CVS |
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Fnac |
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Intermarche |
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Castorama
Kingfisher |
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Provera |
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Carrefour |
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Louis Delhaize |
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Carrefour MAF |
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Match |
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Testimonials |
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| Success Stories - PROVERA |
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Provera France delivers measurable
results using ibs DEALS from
Soft Solutions |
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| Shortly after its creation,
Provera France realized that it needed an advanced business information
tool to support its vendor negotiations. Working closely with Provera,
Soft Solutions successfully implemented its ibs DEALS application and
its ibs REFERENTIAL retail data model on a very aggressive timeline.
Today, over 6,000 suppliers and 300,000 items are managed with the new system,
which supports 59 Cora hypermarkets and 156 Match supermarkets. |
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| The
Business Challenge |
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| The Louis Delhaize group found
itself facing a considerable challenge in their French market, where it had
previously shared a purchase center with the Casino group. Provera France was
created to manage Louis Delhaize’s French activities, which included the
purchasing activities supporting the Cora hypermarket, Match supermarket and
Ecomax discount brands. The new entity faced the urgent need for significant
improvements in their information systems. More specifically, the business
required an integrated solution to support vendor negotiation across all of
their brands. |
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| THE
SOLUTION: ibs DEALS and ibs REFERENTIAL FROM SOFT SOLUTIONS |
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| Recognizing that the
Casino-designed tool used prior to its formation would not meet its new
requirements, Provera turned to Soft Solutions. Soft Solutions had previously
implemented its comprehensive solution, ibs DEALS, at Provera’s
Belux and Hungary purchasing centers, and Provera was pleased with the value it
delivered to their business. |
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| Complicating the implementation at
Provera France, however, was a very tight timeline for the project. The
solution had to be implemented in six months to support the critical
September-October supplier negotiation period. In order to meet this very
aggressive deadline, Soft Solutions deployed additional trained consultants and
tightly managed all aspects of the project. This was all the more remarkable
since Provera’s very specific business model required Soft Solutions to
add a new component, Contract Editor, to its base application. This new
functionality is now offered as a standard part of ibs DEALS for
customers with similar business requirements. |
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| "Soft Solutions worked closely
with us at each step of the project, particularly with the customization
required tosupport our center’s work processes,” explains Jean-Robert
Desherault, general manager of Provera France’s fooddivision. |
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| "Our business is about negotiating
with suppliers, drawing up contracts, billing trade funds and accurately
postingthem. These are simultaneous processes that must be carefully
coordinated. Today, all these tasks are managed by ibs DEALS, which has
become the major tool for our activities. It, in turn, is connected to our
accounting systems toensure timely data consistency.” added Jean-Robert
Desherault. |
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During the implementation of
ibs DEALS, Provera France realized that it also needed a retail master
file for managingitem, supplier and price data. The group turned again to Soft
Solutions and selected its ibs REFERENTIAL in January2003.
“We
required an integrated master file in order to have a single shared data source
for all our banners,”explains Desherault. |
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| While the time frame for
implementing similar integrated solutions usually takes several years,
Provera’s objective wasto be fully operational by June. Provera France and
Soft Solutions mobilized their resources, including over 60 peoplefrom Soft
Solutions who worked closely with the Provera staff. The objective was met,
with ibs REFERENTIAL goinginto production in May 2003. |
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| “It was a major challenge,
implementing a fullyoperational solution, and in record time, to boot,”
underlines MenouarLounes, ibs REFERENTIAL’s Manager at Provera
France. “We exist in a business environment that requires speed, andSoft
Solutions’ ability to react to our needs was quite satisfactory.”
Today, ibs REFERENTIAL is enabling Provera Franceto support over 6,000
suppliers and their respective price lists, which have grown from 200,000 items
to over 300,000items. A single entry simultaneously updates the information
systems of 59 Cora hypermarkets and 156 Matchsupermarkets in France. |
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| “When the separation from
Casino took place, it could have been predicted that we would need several
years to haveour new information system fully implemented. Thanks to Soft
Solutions, our two core systems were rolled out in lessthan a year and a
half” beams Desherault. “Soft Solutions empowered us with an
extremely comprehensive ibsREFERENTIAL that is perfectly suited to our needs.
Implementation was rapid, and exceeded our expectations!”Desherault
continues. |
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| “When the separation from
Casino took place, it could have been predicted that we would need several
years to haveour new information system fully implemented. Thanks to Soft
Solutions, our two core systems were rolled out in lessthan a year and a
half” beams Desherault. “Soft Solutions empowered us with an
extremely comprehensive ibs REFERENTIAL that is perfectly suited to our
needs. Implementation was rapid, and exceeded our expectations!”Desherault
continues. |
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| This tight collaboration
continues, as Provera France is currently working on extending ibs
REFERENTIAL to theirCaribbean operations. According to Desherault, Provera
France is considering enhancing its information systemsinfrastructure further
by implementing other application modules from the Soft Solutions Suite. Having
generatedsignificant return on investment to Provera France, the partnership
between Louis Delhaize Group and Soft Solutionswas recognized at the 2003
Retail Trade Show in Birmingham, UK as the “Retailer/Supplier Partnership
of the Year”. |
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| About
PROVERA |
| Created in September 2002 by Louis
Delhaize retail group, Provera France is the purchase center for all of its
bannersin France (59 Cora hypermarkets, 156 Match supermarkets and Ecomax
discounters) and in the Antilles (4 Cora, 17Match and 52 Ecomax). The European
Louis Delhaize group also supports two other purchase centers, Provera
Belux,and Provera Hungary, as well as several other banners operating in
Belgium, Luxembourg, Hungary and Romania. Itsyearly sales are approximately 11
billion euros. |
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| About
Soft Solutions |
| Soft Solutions is a leading
provider of web-based retail merchandise management and decision support
software. Ourcustomers are multi-divisional, multi-format Tier 1 retailers and
suppliers including Carrefour, CVS, Canadian TireRetail, Capelli New York,
Auchan, Group Louis Delhaize, B&Q, Kingfisher, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute,
and GaleriesLafayette. Soft Solutions ibs SUITE conforms to the latest
industry and technology standards, includingGS1, and iscompatible with multiple
databases and industry application server packages. With consistent delivery of
measurabletop and bottom line business results, Soft Solutions is uniquely
positioned to provide global best practices andindustry-leading solutions for
the fast paced, competitive environment of retailers worldwide. For more
information,please connect to
www.ibs-softsolutions.com |
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| For more detail information,
please view the following PDF: |
| - Provera France - Soft Solutions
: ibs Deals - ibs Referential |
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