Angoalissar

The company manages more than 80 cash & carry warehouse-stores with over 275 POS terminals all over the Angolan territory. The success of Angoalissar in the last decades derives from a strategy that focuses on long-term relationships with the key business partners of the retail industry, including the international FMCG brand producers, accompanied by a customer-centric focus. Angoalissar aims to provide the best quality products, at affordable prices, with an excellent customer care service. Angoalissar is part of the Webcor Group, a conglomerate with businesses in Africa, Asia, Middle East and Europe.

Business case

Before the LS Retail software solution, Angoalissar used a mix of procedures and stand-alone systems, some of which required a high level of manual activities. Control over business in all regions was labor intensive, time consuming, and expensive. Warehouse-stores were limited in their ability to communicate their sales information to HQ - sometimes the delay was of several days. Stock couldn’t be recorded accurately, causing a significant administrative tasks to correct orders and credit customers. Angoalissar had already tried to replace their old system, but the project was unsuccessful because of lack of an implementation services provider with the appropriate experience and skills. Conducting such a complex change is a challenge throughout any organization, and even more so when you can’t rely on a knowledgeable partner. The CIO at Webcor Group, Solayman Refae, knew that in order to accelerate business transformation, Angoalissar needed to implement modern technology, transform its cultural know-how and start a change management project. After six months, with tailored business processes and proofs of concepts already validated, the company selected LS Retail software as the new solution for the whole Angoalissar distribution chain. The software was implemented and supported by Arquiconsult, an LS Retail consulting partner.

The solution

The project covered approximately 275 POS terminals, in almost 80 cash & carry warehouse-stores, reporting back to 3 regional offices. Based on project scale, complexity, and geographic dispersion of users, the implementation team decided to adopt a “pilot and rollout" strategy. After the main business processes were defined and validated, the project still had two key factors to deal with:

1. Technical complexity and scale of the project, architecture, connectivity, and integration

Data must flow in a timely and accurate manner from every POS located in the very remote Angoalissar warehouse-stores across Angola, to the regional offices, to the CEO’s desk in the HQ in Luanda, the capital of Angola. The project team set up an EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) platform to handle the huge flow of different business data that flows among the different layers of the LS Retail software solution, Dynamics and the databases.

2. Team planning, coordination, and facilitation

Successful implementation relied on Webcor’s highly skilled IT Team to ensure that the proper base infrastructure was planned and installed across all warehouse-stores. Another critical dimension of the project was creating a complex communication network with high-speed fiber-optics, VSAT (satellite), and private microwave antenna networks. Users and middle management needed to be engaged for the project, and this could only be achieved by demonstrating clear benefits and solid experience, to generate confidence and commitment among the user community. . The team communicated continuously at all organizational levels about the journey Angoalissar employees had embraced, and the changes they would have to overcome. The project went live according to schedule, and the rollout went smoothly, with limited issues.

Benefits

Angoalissar now has a fully integrated retail chain of 80 warehouse-stores. POS business processes within the network are now updated live and can be monitored online, as business transactions occur.

Functional Point of Sale

The sale procedure is now seamless and easy, thanks to an ergonomic design of user interaction at the Point of Sale. The POS only presents relevant information for each specific sales step. Searching tools, validation info and the following steps are presented in a natural conversational sales flow, which makes sales fast and easy. Customers are satisfied with the improved efficiency. End-of-day closing procedures for POS cashiers and supervisors are seamless and simple. The system provides auditable details of transactional activity in the POS, store back-office, and stock movements.

Accurate stock

The most notable gains were achieved at order entry: as master data and stock are now nearly 100% accurate, there is very limited need for corrections, refunds or rework on customer orders.

Easy replenishment

It is now much more transparent and easy to plan goods replenishment to cover demand. The company is now able to optimize key criteria (e.g.: distribution cost, stock coverage, etc.) at all planning levels in the supply chain.

Better marketing

With the LS Retail software solution, Angoalissar can now gather and process relevant demand information from clients. The POS is now the core tool to enrich commercial and logistics knowledge, classify customers and sales, and create patterns of consumption. With this information, the company can now deploy CRM strategies, loyalty programs, promotions and campaigns that focus on specific channels, regions, and customer groups. With the powerful consolidated ecosystem of LS Retail software and the support of Webcor Group’s IT team and CIO, the Angoalissar and Webcor executives have greatly enhanced control of their retail chain, and can keep track of sales in real time as never before. "We are proud of what we will achieve in the future as an organization. Arquiconsult and LS Retail will help us grow," says Solayman Refae, Chief Information Officer at Webcor Group.