News Analysis

Dynamic partners in retail

Priya Jain chronicles how Microsoft is going about marketing its Dynamics offerings to retailers.

There’s an ongoing boom in retail. As a natural corollary, the uptake of retail-specific business solutions is on the rise, which in turn has led to Microsoft to sign up Indian retail chains for its Dynamics product suite.

Dynamics was formerly known as Microsoft Business Solutions. This SMB-focussed suite includes applications and services for retailers, manufacturers, wholesale distributors and service companies doing business domestically or in multiple countries. One of the Microsoft Dynamics products being adopted in the retail market is Microsoft Dynamics NAV (nee Microsoft Navision).

Microsoft is working with numerous partners to provide a platform for the organised retail sector. These partners customise its solution as per the business needs of the retail chain. Some of the company’s partners for the NAV product are Dynamic Vertical Solutions, Headstart Consulting, and On-track Systems. Each of these has come up with a solution for its respective customers on the Dynamics platform.

Retailers want ERP

"LS Retail enables businesses to innovate, improve productivity, and collaborate" - Rakhee Nagpal Managing Director Dynamic Vertical Solutions

Rakhee Nagpal, Managing Director, Dynamic Vertical Solutions (DVS) opines, “The Indian economy is estimated to have grown at 8.1 percent in 2005-06. There are 12 million retailers in the country, of which just 2 to 3 percent are in the organised sector. According to KSA Technopak, the organised retail sector is growing at 25 to 30 percent per annum, and the combined turnover of this portion of the retail market is forecast to touch Rs 1,00,000 crore by 2010.”

DVS has launched a suite called LS Retail that’s built atop the Microsoft Dynamics platform. It covers everything from POS to back-office and head-office on the same application, allowing seamless integration of all functional areas in all of the following activities—retail management, financials, sales, purchase, inventory, human resources, payroll, CRM and production. States Nagpal: “LS Retail enables businesses to innovate, improve productivity, and collaborate.”

Speaking at the launch of LS Retail, Rajeev Mittal, Group Director, Small & Mid-market Solutions & Partners, Microsoft India said, “Today retail is a high-growth sector. The organised sector’s retail growth is estimated to be in the 20 to 25 percent range, driven as it is by changing lifestyles as well as strong growth in disposable income and consumer credit. Technology will be instrumental in accelerating the growth of this industry.”

"Coming from the Microsoft stable, Dynamics is a user-friendly suite" -Partha Bhattacharyya AVP Microsoft Dynamics Division Ontrack Systems

DVS’ retail customers in India include US Pizza, Linc Pens, Eicher Goodearth, Fucom Retail, Seasons Furnishings, Nantra Retailing and Megamart. DVS provides these solutions to customers through partners—Euro Infosystems, Blue Star, Team Computers, Ontrack Systems, Newsoft, Novellsys, Trident Information Systems and Fujitsu Services, to name a few.

But they are certainly not the only ones attempting to tap the ongoing retail boom. Puneet Kapoor, Director, Headstart Consulting says, “There are two kinds of retailers: trading retailers and the companies that manufacture and sell.” Like LS Retail, Headstart has its own solution called Headstart Dynamics Retail. Headstart has over 40 customers; among them are Satya Paul and Tarun Tahiliani from the fashion industry, restaurants such as McDonalds, consumer durables and white goods companies including Saffron Marketing in North India, and poultry firm Skylark Hatcheries. Kapoor informs, “Over the past three years a lot of localisation of Microsoft Dynamics has taken place. It now includes features such as fringe benefit tax, VAT, TDS, service tax and income tax.”

Discloses Partha Bhattacharyya, AVP Microsoft Dynamics Division, Ontrack Systems: “Our customers include the likes of Fucom Retail India, Tai Industries, Office Linc Retail and CT Mart...coming from the Microsoft stable, Dynamics is a user-friendly suite.” Information workers who are familiar with Microsoft Office will not find it very hard to learn or use Dynamics due to the similarities in the user interfaces of both suites. Naturally, Dynamics works smoothly with the Windows Server System and Microsoft .NET. Another thing that most users pointed out was that Dynamics provides for a complete built-in localisation of features such as excise, sales tax, TDS and VAT.