FEATURE: ERP
Implementing an Epicor ERP upgrade for analytics has helped
South Africa’s Allied Mobile procure better with vendors, track
millions of units and brought visibility into margins generated by
shops. By Arun Shankar.
Organisational gains
Allied Mobile operates in 38 African countries distributing
mobile devices from vendors Nokia, Samsung, HTC, LG,
Sony, and Ericsson.
According to Ewan McCulloch, General Manager IT at Allied
Mobile, a key benefit is the ability to track the status of more
than 2 million products in stock across Africa. This includes
knowing the exact location of every serialised item, no matter
the country. “The Epicor ERP system essentially runs the
company,” says McCulloch. “Business operations like ours are
incredibly complex and intricate. Working within countries
across the continent requires meeting varying governmental
compliance regulations and transacting seamlessly with
partners and operations, despite dealing with differing
languages and currencies.”
replenishment,
replenishment
time, promotions
and timeframe for
transactions,” explains
Monzer Tohme,
Regional Vice President
Sales, Middle East and
Africa, Epicor.
According to Tohme,
other requirements
from Allied Mobile
included the need
for smart decisions
by key managers by
reducing the delays
in reporting, business
process improvement,
Ewan McCulloch, General
usage of IoT devices
Manager IT at Allied Mobile
for real-time tracking,
and integration with
vendor procurement systems. “Today we have full integration
with these vendors in terms of placing purchase orders. Allied
Mobile’s customers can place direct purchases with them
and accordingly track their purchases.”
The project implementation of Epicor ERP at Allied Mobile
was broken down into phases and milestones were linked
to specific business challenges and business achievements.
Tohme explains that an ERP implementation is a joint
effort between the vendor and the end user. If the end
user is not ready and does not have the right people in
place, the project cannot move fast enough to achieve the
vision of the end user.
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Monzer Tohme, Regional Vice President Sales,
Middle East and Africa, Epicor
Epicor ERP gives end-to-end standardisation. It tracks everything
through the entire system and gives an extremely accurate picture
of nearly every business process, procedure and transaction in real
time. It is easy to use, making it simple for new users to get up to
speed, while instilling comfort in business decisions based on the
depth and efficiency of the analytics provided.
“Epicor ERP is a very efficient and flexible mid-market
management tool,” explains Alex Thomson, Finance Director
at Allied Mobile. “There is little room for error since every item
is scanned into the system. This has allowed us to track the
status of cartons, shipments and sales down to the purchase
of a handset sold to a buyer in Zambia. Human error has been
virtually eliminated at almost every level.”
Epicor ERP provides accurate analytical data highlighting
everything from inventory validations and cash flow to the gross
profit margins of products sold from a specific bin located at a
particular retailer. The solution has been replicated across all
countries and is an essential part of establishing an Allied Mobile
company in every African country. n
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