Privately owned clothing retail chain Topics relies on Lawson's Financials software suite to streamline store activity and manage its operations across 150 stores throughout the country.
Topics, which has an active base of over 250 000 customers, first implemented Lawson Financials in 1996 and is now using version 7.07.
Judith Molloy, consultant to and former financial executive of Topics, says Lawson provides the chain store with a highly stable solution that can easily be modified according to business requirements, allowing for the addition of new business units and stores.
"Lawson is our least costly IT solution," says Molloy. "When we first completed a technology requirements analysis, we wanted a solution that could run on an IBM platform and be compatible with an Informix back-end.
"Lawson was the most reasonably priced and offered all the functionality we required. It is the most stable product we have worked with. We have assigned Lawson support to one IT staff member, who spends less than 10% of his time on the product."
As a consequence, Lawson Financials has provided Topics with easily identified return on investment, an attribute that is often not associated with ERP and other core business systems.
Gerhard Visser, MD of Solit iNovations, the African representative for Lawson products and services, says Lawson Software has shown an ever increasing understanding of the world of retail.
"Profit margins in retail are tight, and companies cannot afford to make the wrong financial decisions. Because Lawson Financials is compatible with any non-Lawson system, it enables easy, realtime access to the information management needs to make the right business decisions. This is particularly important in retail organisations, which usually have islands of disparate information." Drill-Around capability
Lawson allows Topics to analyse data according to various parameters, such as by store, area or division, enabling users to pinpoint the information they need. By helping to manage the retailer's multi-location operations, it allows more time to be spent on analysing information, rather than gathering it, and produces customisable reports that form the basis of management's business decisions.
"Lawson's Drill-Around capability provides quick access to the information we need, allowing us to make timeous, accurate decisions," says Molloy. "The solution also scales easily according to our requirements and allows us to manage additional data where necessary. It ensures that our critical financial management processes are conducted responsibly."
Prior to the implementation of Lawson, Topics was running Omicron, which "was no longer capable of meeting our requirements", says Molloy, "and Lawson proved to be the perfect answer to our problems. Its financial analysis capabilities are central to our business and, because it is far more than just a ledger or a balance sheet, we use Lawson to find the data we need to develop more effective business strategies to improve profit margins."
Topics uses Lawson Financials General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Asset Management, and Cash and Treasury Management modules. It uses a third-party point-of-sale application to register all sales at its 150 retail outlets. All sales information is downloaded from the point-of-sale application into Lawson, where the value-adding analytical work is performed. The same applies to salaries, where Topics uses the UniQue payroll application.
Creditors and fixed assets are managed directly from Lawson. Budget data is collected and manipulated using Microsoft Excel and final budget numbers are then uploaded to Lawson Financials, where they are reported and managed back to recorded actual figures.
"Lawson makes it easy to enter, integrate and interpret data," adds Molloy. "Because it's not IT-intensive and we know it so well, Lawson is easy to maintain and does not require external support. All major upgrades are done internally."
Lawson has been named as the leading enterprise software provider to the retail industry, according to Retail Info Systems News' 2001 study of the 50 best software companies serving retail. Among its customers are eight of the top 20 apparel retailers and seven of the top 25 grocery chains in the world.
Lawson customers include five of the top 10 US-based retailers.
"Managing a retail operation requires a system that's flexible enough to handle a global operation, a 24x7 workforce, and constantly changing inventory needs and consumer preferences," concludes Visser. "Lawson provides solutions to meet all of these challenges. Data is easy to enter, integrate and interpret. Employees and managers have the power and the solutions needed to make decisions and find the right information. In an industry where each competitive advantage is significant, Lawson provides the edge in all areas of retail."
Contact Brenda du Plessis on (012) 674 9157 or brendad@solit.co.za for a free copy of Lawson's Retail Innovation Best Practices Survey.
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