The country`s largest clothing and accessories chain, Edgars, has revealed details of two major Lotus-driven programmes implemented last year to ensure it maintains a serious competitive edge well into the new millennium. Two departments were targeted for change, Quality Assurance (QA) and credit approval. Both were paper-based and in desperate need of a revamp. In the long run this would add up to considerable savings for the group as QA would have a faster turn around time and credit approval, a reduction in its phone and fax bills. Klasie Holtzhausen, Edgars system manager LANs, says the company secured the services of Lotus business partner, Collabirative Business Systems (CBS), to assist with the design and implementation of an enterprise e-mail solution to its credit approval dilemma. Until the implementation of this system Edgars had been using a paper-based credit approval scheme for its prospective clients. Once the forms had been filled in they were then faxed to the Regional Credit Office (RCO) for approval. In the long run this had led to the company racking up an enormous fax bill and a correspondingly huge, non-user friendly filing methodology. "Edgars had decided to move its credit operation to a more cost-effective area," says Richard Woock, MD at CBS. "A decision was taken to use e-mail as the major credit application transport. The benefits were multiple - e-mail for the entire Edgars chain and a major cost saving through the scanning and transport of these credit applications to anywhere in SA." "We went live in April 1996 with more than 1500 cc:Mail users," says Holtzhausen. "Since then some of the 22 stores using the system have cut their fax bills down to zero "Since our WAN allows for LAN to LAN connections we are able to install a PC with a scanner and cc:Mail. Instead of faxing new account details to our RCO in Durban we can e-mail them." This is routed at a high priority via the e-mail backbone. Once the credit application is verified the approval is sent to the branch within minutes of receipt. Holtzhausen says both Shoe Corp and ABC, members of the Edgars Group, are using the fax gateway to cut down on fax charges. "The system is currently servicing stores in the Gauteng, Northern Province, North West Province and Northern Cape regions," he says, adding that Jet and Sales House are also looking at a similar setup and the Edgars Group may implement an identical system at its Cape Town RCO. Meanwhile, the chain began implementing its electronic QA system, also using Notes. Regal Colyn, systems manager for Edgars, says the new system - developed in conjunction with Lotus business partner, Futuristic Contracting and Consulting Services - forms an integral part of the company`s merchandising pipeline. In time it is envisaged Edgars will eventually access the system using both intranet and extranet technology. "The previous system was paper-based," says Colyn. "This meant we used to take up to five days to assess a pre-production article. We have now got this down to three days with the benefits being to reduce the pipeline for instantaneous feedback." Edgars originally made the decision to implement the system in 1996. According to Colyn the pilot project began in November and went live with Notes 4.5 in April last year. He says this has meant big returns for a very low capital investment. Tracey Bourne, Edgars senior network analyst, says Notes has changed the way the chain works. Departments can now collaborate by sharing information on supplier profiles, specifications, problem logs and minimum construction standards. It is like working in a virtual office where everyone can share the benefits. "We have eight databases all transparently linked where information can be shared," she says. Regarding the company`s plans for the future the QA department intends implementing a post-production auditing system to interface with pre-production. Comments Bourne: "The idea is to equip staff with laptops and cellular phones which they can then use to connect from a supplier`s office to complete the auditing process." Bourne admits this project is still in the development stage. "Auditing is currently done on the mainframe. The intention is to put all our data into Notes, populating the data warehouse with relevant information and extract exception reporting." From there Edgars intends implementing an extranet to connect itself to suppliers nation wide. "Orders have been held back due to quality problems and the intention is to speed this process up," says Colyn. "We can also get the vital quality information to our merchants on time to ensure quality awareness. This is what Edgars sells itself on."
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