UCS Business Solutions secures growth, strengthens SAP partnership
Oct 24 2007
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Milestone year sees expanding dominance in retail sector

Software solutions and outsourcing services provider UCS Business Solutions, part of the UCS Solutions business of the JSE listed UCS Group, has strengthened its leadership position in the South African retail sector in the last few months through its growing partnership with global business software leader SAP.

UCS Business Solutions offers expertise in the critical areas of business in the retail value chain:

• Optimisation of planning and demand
• Effective operation of core transactional processes within the enterprise
• Collaboration with trading partners
• Maximizing value from business intelligence
• Supply chain strategy and execution

These are underpinned by practices focused on the SAP and JDA software applications, people solutions, project management and application support.

With a strong retail and consumer goods track-record, UCS Solutions has built relationships with 12 of the top 15 major retailers in South Africa. As recognised leaders and industry experts in the retail market, their success stories span the grocery, general merchandise and fashion sectors and multiple leading software applications. UCS Solutions prides itself on a strong reputation in delivering both specific projects and high quality services to clients.

Jessica Knight, Head of UCS Business Solutions, said: “Our deep industry knowledge and expertise is a key differentiator that allows us to assess performance improvement opportunities which, when supported with state of the art applications, can be translated into practical solutions for our clients.

Over the past year, we have benefited tremendously from our partners’ support and the demanding delivery objectives set by our clients. We are very proud of our joint success. Projects completed during the past year included SAP implementations and point-of-sale projects for Pick ‘n Pay, Makro, Massdiscounters and Wellness Warehouse. We also embarked on market entry evaluations in the Middle East and USA.

Looking ahead, we see continued opportunities in our chosen markets and are putting emphasis on our talent development strategies to ensure that we have the quality and depth of skills to meet our future needs.”

SAP

In recognition of their work together in the retail market, SAP this year awarded UCS Solutions its Business Development Partner and Service Excellence 2006 awards.

Says Brandon Shaban, SAP Retail Solution Manager: “Our partnership with UCS Solutions ensures that we build the kinds of relationships with retailers that enable them to trust the suggestion of moving from in-house proprietary systems or best-of-breed applications to an off-the-shelf, modular but one-stop solution that will allow them to expand on it as their own confidence and requirements grow.

“The range of capabilities offered, combined with first class service levels is probably the key to the domination of SAP retail solutions here and in the rest of the world.”
Pick ‘n Pay
As part of UCS Solutions’ ongoing role as Pick ‘n Pay’s strategic implementation partner, a major regional roll out programme to implement SAP in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Kwazulu Natal was undertaken and completed in 2007. In addition, Pick ‘n Pay commissioned UCS to implement the latest warehouse management technology from SAP for its Longmeadow distribution centre.

Commenting on the Longmeadow distribution centre, Nick Badminton said: "Longmeadow will allow us to enhance our customer offering through improved quality and a better in-stock position. It will also enable us to more effectively manage our investment in stock".

Bronwen Rohland, Group Services Director, the executive sponsor of the SAP Programme in Pick 'n Pay said: "UCS Solutions, as our implementation partner, have worked closely with the Pick 'n Pay internal team to build and rollout the SAP system. Together we are putting in place a systems and process platform that will underpin Pick 'n Pay's drive for operational efficiency. We are already seeing significant benefits in the regions where SAP has been implemented".

Makro

UCS Business Solutions developed and implemented a new SAP Business Warehouse platform for Makro to upgrade the quality of information available to its users. This solution is the first such implementation in Africa.

Pieter Schoeman, Makro IT Executive, says: “This SAP Business Warehouse upgrade is functionally rich and is a very important enabler of our strategic decision making as it allows us to take advantage of the applications’ inherent analytical capabilities to understand our customers and business better.”

In addition, Makro has decided to upgrade their current core transactional solution, SAP R3, to SAP ERP6, in order to further optimize and enhance key business processes while implementing the latest technology platform available.

“The current solution has been instrumental in supporting Makro’s phenomenal growth. We are really pleased with the progress that SAP has made with the product and together with UCS Solutions, our implementation and support partner, we will continue to review new SAP modules, as they add value to this core solution,” concluded Pieter Schoeman.

Cashbuild

In a recent interview with Moneyweb Pat Goldrick commented: “We went out to what they call a vanilla system, something that we wouldn't have to customise. We chose SAP All-in-One. They've got an excellent system which does the financial and can also do the procurement for us, and then we chose Active Retail to support our stores, which is done by UCS. UCS will put in a fully integrated system, non-customised, to meet our needs”.

Wellness Warehouse

UCS Business Solutions also extends its offering to clients at the start of their growth path. High profile newcomer, Wellness Warehouse has recently launched its first store in Cape Town with two to follow this year. It is targeting the holistic wellness needs of consumers with an innovative format in a ‘big box’ store. UCS Business Solutions implemented SAP All-in-One and CKS, part of the UCS Group, implemented their pharmacy point-of-sale solution currently used by many leading chains including Dischem.

Commenting on achievements to date Dr Sean Gomes, CEO of Wellness Warehouse said: “We made the decision to implement a world class IT system to provide us with the infrastructure and capacity for rapid growth. All-in-One supported by UCS provides us with the functionality to make accurate assessments of the business’s performance and needs. This enables us to react to business requirements and facilitate change, which is crucial at the start up phase of a business”

International Markets

UCS Business Solutions has identified the opportunity to take its specialist retail business and technology skills to the international market.

After 18 months researching opportunities in the Middle East, UCS Business Solutions has secured the first phase of a programme with Al Futtaim, the diversified Dubai based group, to upgrade and optimise their SAP platform. Al Futtaim operates retail stores as diverse as Ace Hardware, Ikea, Toys ‘R Us and Marks and Spencer in its retail portfolio in the Middle East.

A similar market evaluation process has been completed for the US SME market to leverage the Ready to Retail offering and plans are advanced to launch early in the New Year.

Ends

Enquiries

UCS Solutions 021 680 4000
Jessica Knight 021 680 4007
College Hill 011 447 3030
Fred Cornet 083 307 8286

Note to Editors

UCS Solutions

UCS Business Solutions forms part of UCS Solutions, the software solutions and outsourcing services division of the UCS Group. UCS Solutions specialises in business and IT solutions for the retail, consumer goods and manufacturing industries through its end-to-end consulting, business systems outsourcing and technology services across a full range of IT operations. UCS Solutions has relationships with 13 of the top 15 major retailers in South Africa.

UCS Solutions offers four broad service offerings:

• Integrated Service Management - Client service programmes and strategic management support.
• Business Solutions - Tailored solutions delivering a seamless combination of business and technical skills.
• Application Services - Partnerships with leading software businesses, with core specialisation in the retail and manufacturing industries, including SAP, JDA, WebMethods and Microsoft to design, implement and operate client specific applications.
• Infrastructure Services - A Broad portfolio of managed services to support clients in areas including Enterprise Server Hosting, Desktop Services and Managed Networks.

Refer to www.ucs-solutions.co.za for more information.

UCS Group

UCS is an IT business with a primary focus on the provision of Software, Solutions and Services for selected markets. UCS has achieved a leadership position in the retail market sector in South Africa and is well positioned for further growth locally and internationally through a number of defined initiatives. The major portion of UCS’ revenues are derived from the provision of its own Software, Solutions and Services, rather than the sale of third party products. UCS is listed in the Software and Computer Services sector of the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa since September 1998

Please refer to www.ucs.co.za for more information.

SAP has also been putting significant focus behind its efforts to penetrate the SME market both locally and internationally. UCS Solutions has partnered with SAP for its All-in-One solution for both the retail and mining and mining supplies markets. After three years of investment by UCS Business Solutions, their Ready to Retail All-in-One solution is proving to be a market winner.

Most recently Cashbuild CE Pat Goldrick announced that UCS had been chosen to implement both SAP All-in-One and their Active Retail Point of Sale solution. This is a significant move for the fast growing building supplies retailer.