I F S C U S T O M E R S T O R Y

SINGER SRI LANKA RELIES ON IFS APPLICATIONS™ AS ITS

ESSENTIAL FOUNDATION TO ENABLE SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

Adapting rapidly to changing consumer needs is enabling Singer Sri Lanka to ABOUT SINGER SRI LANKA
expand operations in its home market of Sri Lanka and beyond, across Southeast
Singer has been in Sri Lanka since 1877,
Asia, in line with its ambitious vision to be “the foremost appliance retailer in Asia when the first Singer sewing machines
Pacific.” IFS Applications provides the enterprise backbone to give Singer Sri Lanka went on sale at a Colombo store. Today,
the agility it requires for day-to-day operations and growth, and to confidently Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC is a large diversi-
embrace its competitive edge. fied company with unmatched presence
throughout Sri Lanka. It remains a
member of the worldwide franchise of
Singer. Beginning with the sewing machine,
Singer has been in Sri Lanka since 1877, when the first Singer sewing machines Singer Sri Lanka’s product portfolio has
diversified to encompass a highly success-
went on sale at a store in the capital, Colombo. Today, Singer Sri Lanka remains
ful multi-brand strategy combining
an independent member of the worldwide Singer franchise, and is the largest products of top world marques with the
retailer in Sri Lanka of household consumer durables with an approximate company’s own products across a range
36 percent overall market share and very significant market shares across several of household, industrial and financial
product categories. It also has three manufacturing facilities in Sri Lanka. categories.
At the end of 2014, Singer Sri Lanka operated 412 retail stores and had www.singersl.com
848 independent dealers. Annual revenue was LKR 29.6 billion (approximately
US$ 220 million).
“We serve over five million households in Sri Lanka today,” says Ajith
Paranavithane, IT Director at Singer Sri Lanka and Vice President Information
Services at parent company Singer Asia.

HIGH DEMANDS ON ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE

Ten years ago, when Singer Sri Lanka first implemented IFS Applications as its
enterprise system, the company’s goal was clear as was its expectation of what
IFS could deliver:
• A single view of customers wherever or whenever they came into contact
with the company, either at retail shops or at service outlets.
• Enabling Singer Sri Lanka to serve those customers better and thus
strengthen its market position.
• Faster return on investment from the ERP solution.

“We were basically a legacy, batch-oriented system,” recalls Paranavithane.

“We were searching for a new system that was fully online and easily custom-
ized.” The search culminated in Singer’s decision to implement IFS Applications
which, Paranavithane says, would offer the visibility on its operations that
©Photo Singer Sri Lanka
Singer required to grow its business.
 I F S C U S T O M E R S T O R Y

Modular from the ground up, IFS Applications is designed to make it easy to BENEFITS
add new capabilities quickly. This means businesses can make deep, structural
• Retail and service inventory manage-
change as soon as their business strategy and market require it, without pause or ment
delay.
• Ease of use and low learning curve
Initially, Singer Sri Lanka deployed a solution from IFS comprising modules
• Component-based, service-oriented
for financials, distribution, sales and marketing, human resources, service
architecture, with modules that can
management, and business performance. be selected, installed and configured
as and when required
IFS APPLICATIONS IMPROVES CRUCIAL BUSINESS ISSUES • IFS’s global footprint with significant
Since implementing its IFS ERP solution, Singer Sri Lanka has been able to local support on the ground in Singer
address crucial inventory management issues; instead of an employee having to Sri Lanka’s market
call every store to find out if they had inventory that could be transferred—not
a simple or rapid exercise with such a large and geographically spread retail
network—every sales location can use IFS Applications to see for themselves
the inventory they require. They can request to transfer that inventory and also
obtain the status of the inventory anywhere in Singer’s store network.
“IFS Applications gives you fast, reliable, efficient data, and that’s really
important to our stores,” Paranavithane says.
That’s a view wholly supported by Charitha Ariyadasa, manager of one of
the biggest Singer showrooms in Colombo. “We’re using IFS Applications for
day-to-day work, such as ordering goods, checking stock servers, and when
we’re reporting sales,” he says. “Basically, IFS Applications is the backbone of
the store. We’ve had a great response from our stores, particularly from our “IFS Applications gives you fast,
sales staff.” reliable, efficient data, and that’s
Ron Jayawardena, Sales Supervisor, agrees. “With the IFS system, I can really important to our stores.”
manage my work very well,” he says. Ajith Paranavithane, IT Director Singer Sri
Lanka and Vice President Information
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE WITH IFS APPLICATIONS Services Singer Asia
“We are very satisfied with our IFS package,” he notes. “It helped us adapt to
our customer needs better and enables us to have new systems whenever we
want.”
As Singer continues to grow in Sri Lanka—the company intends to increase
the number of sales locations, especially in rural areas and in the northern and
eastern regions of the country, to broaden and extend the product range, and to
En3119-1 Production: IFS Corporate Marketing, July 2015.

increase its financial services product offering and coverage—confidence in its

IFS enterprise backbone to provide the essential agility foundation for growth is
key to realizing its strategic goals.
Partnering with IFS, Jayawardena says, “Singer is very excited about the
future.”

©Photo Singer Sri Lanka

If you need further information, e-mail to info@ifsworld.com, contact your local IFS office or visit our web site, www.IFSWORLD.com