Business case
When Covid-19 hit, foot traffic in malls and to bookstores significantly declined, forcing booksellers to adapt. Due to the restrictions, OMF Literature could no longer stage face-to-face events like book launches, book fairs, book displays, author tours. This meant losing significant revenues, especially in the case of the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF), the biggest book fair in the Philippines.
To overcome the impact on sales, OMF Literature started looking for new methods of attaining their business goals.
Prior to moving to LS Central, the company had been using Microsoft Dynamics AX as their ERP system and SmartMinds for POS for more than five years. The systems used in the trade and retail branches and the ones used in the head office were not integrated. As the data didn’t flow, managing financial reporting was slow and tedious, and often resulted in errors.
OMF Literature realized they needed a software upgrade. They started looking for a single solution, to eliminate the complexity deriving from using multiple systems to run the business.
Solution
The company had already bought the licenses for Microsoft Dynamics, so LS Central came as a natural choice. LS Central is an all-in-one retail software that extends Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP with strong retail functionality.
OMF Literature found in local LS Retail certified partner Apsoft the ideal implementation partner, with the right expertise and a strong track record within their industry. Apsoft managed to rollout the system in just two months. Phase two of the development was shelved due to financial constraints brought by the pandemic.
OMF Literature states that the key benefit of working with Apsoft was not necessarily the rapid deployment, but rather the guidance and support they received throughout the entire process. Apsoft was familiar with the industry and the business challenges, so they could optimize the company’s processes and help them get the best out of the software. “One of the main reasons for the success of the project is the support we got from the implementation team. Without Apsoft’s valuable partnership and support, it would have been much more difficult” says Joyce Mae T. Manalang, Finance and Accounting Director at OMF Literature.
Benefits
With LS Central, OMF Literature gets all the benefits of a unified commerce system for their business:
- Full control of business processes – The management can monitor store profitability in real time and make strategic decisions.
- Effective inventory management – OMF Literature can track stock across the supply chain, and easily check stock availability in any of the stores and order products.
- Access to timely and reliable data – The company can understand customer needs and predict demand with the help of artificial intelligence-powered tools. They use product sales/sales per customer to spot trends, project production needs, forecast title selection, etc.
- Easier, timely financial reporting – The preparation time of financial statements decreased by over 50%, going from 21 days to 7-10 days.
- Centralized reporting capabilities – The company can easily generate ad hoc reports with the information they need.
With more customers buying books online from independent booksellers than ever before, OMF Literature will be looking at adding eCommerce functionality. At the moment, their online platforms are not connected with their system, which means available inventory on hand is not automatically updated, resulting in unserved orders.
With LS Retail and Apsoft, OMF Literature know they can use technology to help their organization thrive and stay ahead.
