SkillNet Solution Highlights

SkillNet created significant enhancements and customizations to

• Merchandising System (Retek/Oracle)
• Stores (Retek/Oracle POS)
• Inventory Management (Retek/Oracle)
• Financials (Retek/Oracle Sales Audit)

SkillNet Solution Benefits

• The client has a strong implementation partner that will bolster its aggressive growth plans
• SkillNet’s enhancements to best-of-breed systems will increase efficiency of operations

Pharma Retailer’s Goals

The India-based retail pharmaceutical chain is committed to cater to the needs of the patient, doctor and manufacturer. Its plan of aggressive growth was showing signs of slowing down due to a lack of mutuality between its systems, namely Merchandising, Point-of-Sale (POS) and Store Inventory Management (SIM).

Not only was there was a serious breach of batch and expiry-date information gathering for pharmacy items, there was also no consistent tracking of the items between warehouse and sales. In addition, supplier, tax and license data also needed to be streamlined. The client also used handhelds to monitor inventory, but its screens allowed for just limited information to be presented. The client needed to urgently address these issues to adhere to pharmacy business-laws and retain business agility.

SkillNet Approach

SkillNet’s substantial experience in implementing best-of-breed systems and knowledge of retailing aided in presenting a solution to the issues. As this retailer was a greenfield entrant into the drugstore business, SkillNet suggested executing a conference room pilot that would help the client better understand its needs making it easier to project requirements that are aligned with current and future business needs.

The first step of project execution was tackling batch and expiry-date issues. SkillNet’s team of consultants created significant enhancements to Merchandising, POS and SIM systems to capture and track BatchID, expiry date, Drug License number and Supplier tax id number for pharmacy items. Regular POS systems are not geared to handle Value-added-tax, so SkillNet had to customize the system to enable this functionality. These changes also warranted a tighter integration between POS and Sales Audit systems.

Regular systems also do not allow for drug license number and tax identification number (for suppliers, company and stores) to be stored, a feature that SkillNet added on to Merchandising, POS and SIM systems. In addition, validation programs needed to be created, to make capturing of certain data fields mandatory. Since the retailer relied on both computers and handhelds to monitor inventory, SkillNet needed to modify the screens for both, so the additional, mandatory data fields could be displayed.

Pharmacy retailing imposes distinct demands on POS systems, and SkillNet customized the POS system to enable it to display batch information distinguish between items that carried Value-Added-Tax(VAT) and those that didn’t; hold VAT information for VAT inclusive items, display VAT info, apply VAT on sale transaction and print VAT rate and calculation on Sale Receipts.

About This Retailer

This retailer is a pharmaceutical chain store brand based in Bangalore India, and aims to grow to 700 stores by 2010. Since the launch of its first store in 2005, it has grown rapidly and now operates over eighty stores in various cities in India, comprising three brands.