Office 1 Superstore – the biggest Microsoft Dynamics implementation in retail sector in Bulgaria

About the company

Office 1 Superstore Bulgaria is part of Office 1 Superstore International – global franchise store chain, specialized in retail of office supplies and equipment.

The franchise is currently present in the following eight countries: Bulgaria, France, Germany, Libya, Turkey, Serbia, Greece, and Jordan. The exclusive Master franchiser for Bulgaria, Panda Coop., became the sole owner and representative of all Office 1 brands worldwide. Currently they operate 76 stores in Bulgaria with over a 1000 employees.

Since opening the first store back in 1997, Office 1 Superstore became one of the leading suppliers of office equipment on the Bulgarian market.

Situation

As one of the biggest retail companies in Bulgaria, Office 1 Superstore worked with thousands of clients every day, thus, generated a big amount of data. To manage it, all stores and the central office used various software systems. This way there were different sources of non-integrated data which made the informed decision-making a very difficult task. All the data was entered manually, and thus a lot of mistakes were made.

The absence of a single database made the communications between partners and suppliers really complicated.

One of the main obstacles in front of Office 1 Superstore was also the lack of integrated customer database. The information for every client – sales per client, payments, etc, – was kept in separate systems. This absence of co-ordination made the customer services and the operational work problematic.

Solution

Facing all these challenges in the everyday work, Office 1 Superstore started looking for a suitable business software solution. The company chose Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Intelligent Systems  – the leader in business software implementation of Microsoft Dynamics business platforms in Bulgaria and other countries.

“We have chosen Microsoft Dynamics NAV because it is a single software solution that embeds the whole process form POS terminals, through telemarketing and sales, to the business analysis via detailed reports and dashboards. This solution is the most appropriate for the specifics of our business. We are and want to continue to be a leader in our sphere, and that made us choose the best software system on the market”

Mrs. Elka Kamenovaova
President of the Board of Directors, Office 1 Superstore

The project included implementation of Accounting, Sales, Marketing, Warehouse and Supply Chain Management modules, along with the industry solution LS Retail – an add-on to Microsoft Dynamics NAV, specially designed for retail companies.

A couple of months after the deployment process began, all the commercial outlets, together with the main office, started to work with Microsoft Dynamics NAV and LS Retail. Microsoft Dynamics NAV was also integrated with the Office 1 Superstore online shop, facilitating its functions.

For effective management of all store processes, Office 1 Superstore relies on LS Retail. The Standalone module made it possible the outlets to work independently even when there is no connection to the main office. Office 1 Superstore also implemented LS Retail modules for special orders, supply planning and item transfers among different locations, which now help the company to offer first-class services to all its customers.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Warehouse module was deployed as well.  Its purpose is to trace and control all warehouse services. In addition, an integration of bar-code scanners was made, through which the activities for receipt and dispatch of goods were further optimized.

To meet all the specific needs of Office 1 Superstore, the team of Intelligent Systems Bulgaria created some more customized functionalities. A specific module which follows the pricing policy of the company has been developed. It also offers capabilities for creation of attractive promotions, conversion of cross-selling opportunities and effective management of customer loyalty schemas.

Based on the data accumulated every day, and thanks to the configurations for different reports and analysis, the management now finally has the needed key information in time, which is the basis for adequate decisions-making and effective management of all business activities.

Benefits

Office 1 Superstore observed a number of improvements in operational and management activities, and overcame all previous challenges. Among the main advantages of using the new solutions are:

• Integrated system encompassing all business processes with fast and easy access to the whole information in real time
• Unified customer database, improvement in services and relations with partners and suppliers
• Increased information security
• Optimal use of resources
• Reduced work-load of the system administrators
• Flexible pricing schemes
• Increased sales, improved financial indexes and simplified accounting processes
• Cost optimization and optimal supply planning
• Provision of timely reports and analyses for effective corporate management
• Ability for work in offline mode, even without connection to the main office

2019 update

In 2018, Office 1 Superstore opened a new warehouse and logistics center that is the first within its kind in Southeast Europe. The total area of the warehouse is 8600 square meters and it is equipped with an automated warehousing and handling system OSR Shuttle by Austrian company Knapp. The 22-floor construction has the capacity to store up to 12 000 products. However, it needed to be integrated with the company’s ERP.

Integration

As Office 1 Superstore had already established a trustworthy relationship with Intelligent Systems, they chose our company to fulfill the task. The integration was customized specifically for their needs and allowed them to automate the picking and shipment order to the fullest extent possible, saving a lot of time and effort on the part of their employees. The implementation increased their productivity for small order picking 12 times and minimized the mistakes to 0,1%. This allowed for some impressive results, as shown in the video below: