Study

Of
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
Of
SHOPPERS’ STOP
Submitted to
Prof. Sanchita Ghatak
By
DIVYANK GUPTA (051)
DEEPAK AWASTHI (046)

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 SHOPPERS STOP

About the Company

The Raheja Group promoted Shopper's Stop is India's largest departmental

store chain having a net turnover of around Rs 9,000 mn. With twenty-two
stores in more than eleven cities, Shopper's Stop houses many international
and domestic brands under a single roof. Automation and inventory
management of a chain of stores the size of Shopper's Stop has not been a
cakewalk for CIOs. But Arun Gupta, customer care associate & CTO,
Shopper's Stop is a great master of technology. Since he joined, in March
2007, he has blended ICT and business like never before, and he now aims
at connecting all its stores in various cities wirelessly by March 2008. He
shares his views with VOICE&DATA about the company's plans and
technologies that can redefine the shopping experience of customers,
making sure that shoppers never stop.

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Vision:

To be a Global Retailer in India and Maintain No.1 position

in the Indian Market in the Department Store Category.

Positioning

Shoppers’ Stop is positioned as a family store delivering a

complete shopping experience defined by its mission,
vision and values.

Strategies

Shoppers stop has adopted the mantra of information

technology from its inception itself, 1991.

It was among the first entities to adopt the technique of

scanners and barcodes and then total computerization of
the mall activities.

It runs its operations with a retail ERP well integrated with

Oracle Financials and the Arthur Planning System, the
best retail planning system in the world.

This adoption has helped the mall to replicate stores,

open new stores faster and get the latest info on both
shoppers and merchandise at fingertips.

The retail giant is also in the process of adoption of WAN

system to link up all units and distribution centres to get
the work going at a smooth pace

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Functions
Primary function of shopper’s stop is to provide value
added services, quality products of apparel and lifestyle
accessories to its consumers.

Departments

• Purchase Department

• Sales Department

• Inventory Department
• Transactional Department

• Security

• Customer Relation

Corporate Hierarchy

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 Role of Computers and IT in Information
System at Shoppers Stop

Known for several technology firsts in the Indian retail industry, Shoppers’
Stop recognized the need in 1998 to replace its legacy systems and selected
JDA. “JDA is a very reliable technology partner that offers all encompassing
and scalable solutions that we need to efficiently and profitably grow our
retail model,” said Mr. B S Nagesh, Shoppers’ Stop’s managing director and
CEO.

“JDA continues to provide the total lowest cost of ownership over SAP, and
other vendors evaluated. Also, during our recent evaluation, JDA showed
superior retail expertise over the short listed contenders,” remarked Mr.
Unni Krishnan T.M., Chief Technology Officer of Shoppers’ Stop.

Realising the role of IT way back in 1991, Shoppers’ Stop was among the
first few retailers to use scanners and barcodes and completely computerise
its operations. Today it is one of the few stores in India to have retail ERP in
place, which is now being integrated with Oracle Financials and the Arthur
Planning System, the best retail planning system in the world. With the help
of the ERP, they are able to replicate stores, open new stores faster and get
information about merchandise and customers online, which reduces the
turnaround time in taking quick decision.

It runs its operations with a retail ERP well integrated with Oracle Financials
and the Arthur Planning System, the best retail planning system in the
world. This adoption has helped the mall to replicate stores, open new stores
faster and get the latest info on both shoppers and merchandise at
fingertips. The retail giant is also in the process of adoption of WAN system
to link up all units and distribution centres to get the work going at a smooth
pace.

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 Control Measures for Security of
Information

Security is managed with a mix of technology and process/policy.

The company has deployed technology solutions to address the
perimeter and internal security, and we continue to engage with
users to highlight the awareness of good practices, which result in
information protection. In a connected enterprise spread across
multiple locations, security concerns will always exist. Moreover,
an enterprise like us, where the customer is the focus, security
becomes very critical. Therefore, we follow the best practices
when it comes to security. Regarding management of IT risks,
the first step is recognition and acceptance of the risk. We have
defined criteria and teams responsible for monitoring key
performance indicators.

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 `
Planning System

Tactical Support Systems

• ERP System

Various ERP vendors have developed retail-specific systems

which help in integrating all the functions from warehousing
to distribution, front and back office store systems and
merchandising. An integrated supply chain helps the retailer
in maintaining his stocks, getting his supplies on time,
preventing stock-outs and thus reducing his costs, while
servicing the customer better.

• CRM Systems

The rise of loyalty programs, mail order and the Internet has
provided retailers with real access to consumer data. Data
warehousing & mining technologies offers retailers the tools
they need to make sense of their consumer data and apply it
to business. This, along with the various available CRM
(Customer Relationship Management) Systems, allows the
retailers to study the purchase behavior of consumers in
detail and grow the value of individual consumers to their
businesses.

• Advanced Planning and Scheduling Systems

APS systems can provide improved control across the supply

chain, all the way from raw material suppliers right through
to the retail shelf. These APS packages complement existing
(but often limited) ERP packages. They enable consolidation

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 of activities such as long term budgeting, monthly
forecasting, weekly factory scheduling and daily distribution
scheduling into one overall planning process using a single
set of data.

Leading manufactures, distributors and retailers and

considering APS packages such as those from i2,
Manugistics, Bann, MerciaLincs and Stirling-Douglas.

Strategic Decision Support Systems

• Store Site Location

Demographics and buying patterns of residents of an area

can be used to compare various possible sites for opening
new stores. Today, software packages are helping retailers
not only in their locational decisions but in decisions
regarding store sizing and floor-spaces as well.

• Visual Merchandising

The decision on how to place & stack items in a store is no

more taken on the gut feel of the store manager. A larger
number of visual merchandising tools are available to him to
evaluate the impact of his stacking options. The SPACEMAN
Store Suit from AC Neilsen and ModaCAD are example of
products helping in modeling a retail store design.

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Operational Support Systems

• Bar Coding and Scanners

Point of sale systems use scanners and bar coding to identify

an item, use pre-stored data to calculate the cost and
generate the total bill for a client. Tunnel Scanning is a new
concept where the consumer pushes the full shopping cart
through an electronic gate to the point of sale. In a matter
of seconds, the items in the cart are hit with laser beams
and scanned. All that the consumer has to do is to pay for
the goods.

• Payment

Payment through credit cards has become quite widespread

and this enables a fast and easy payment process. Electronic
cheque conversion, a recent development in this area,
processes a cheque electronically by transmitting transaction
information to the retailer and consumer's bank. Rather than
manually process a cheque, the retailer voids it and hands it
back to the consumer along with a receipt, having digitally
captured and stored the image of the cheque, which makes
the process very fast.

• Internet

Internet is also rapidly evolving as a customer interface,

removing the need of a consumer physically visiting the
store.

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 Problems faced by the Managers
regarding IS:

• Data Leakage: as the whole data base and information is

saved on systems there are chances of leakage of
information.

• Problem with ERP in terms of recruitment of people as they

might not aware of ERP and extra cost and time is incurred
on giving training to them.

• Default in computer system or server jam may lead to stop

the whole activities of the store.

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 Sources of Gathering Information
RFID
An RFID enabled technology, under development, is
soon to begin gathering information on buying behavior
of customers. Thanks to deployment of RFID enabled
smart shelves, retailers will be able to collect data on
questions like:

• How many of customers considered buying an item?

• How many of them really bought it?
• Which of the other items were bought together?
• Which of the items on display received attention of the
customers?

In short, it would now be possible for retailers and marketers to

collect information on popularity or otherwise of any item.

CRM SOFTWARE

Retail chain Shoppers’ Stop Ltd, is eyeing over 50 per cent sales
this year from its customer relationship management (CRM)
initiatives. The company has also lined up an aggressive
expansion plan targeting smaller towns and cities in the country.

The new software helps generate intelligent data from Shoppers’

Stop customer base of about 2,30,000. The company then
collects this data and touches base with customers via direct
mailers informing them of all new promotions that is currently on
and also updates them about the upcoming events.

Suppliers-Supplier provides the information regarding the

production done at their factories

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Head Office- They provide information to the suppliers about
the requirement of goods.

Government: Government provides information about the latest

reforms and policies in the country.

Customers-They provide the vital information to the company

about their demands and the latest fashion around.

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 STRATEGIC USES OF
INFORMATION SYSTEM

The information is vital from the point of estimating business

strategies of the company:

• It facilitate in decision-making process for the investors.

• Tracks major M&A trends and developments undertaken in

the current fiscal year to get a better understanding of
company’s growth strategies

• Identifies and analyses the company’s strength and

weaknesses to come up with the possible opportunities for
the company.

• Comments on the company's outlook for the forthcoming

periods on the strategic point of views.

• Supplemented with graphs and tabular information on the

key industry players, overall financial and market
performances, list of products and services, and
company’s share performances.

• Shoppers Stop Plans to Deploy Business

Intelligence, e-commerce Solution.

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 Decisions Made by Departments

• Purchase Department: Since, all the orders of

purchasing are generated through automated
information system and are ordered by the head
office, the main function of purchase department is
to validate the purchase order, and inspecting the
delivered goods according to specifications.

• Sales Department: Sale department consist of

sales persons at outlets who are there to assist the
customer to choose or detailed about the product
and its usage. It is the sales personals who identify
all the needs of the customer and take their
feedback also.

• Inventory Department: a very important

department in Shoppers Stop is of Inventory
Department. Its main function is to identify the
required items to be ordered and placing the order
to head office.

• Transactional Department: transactional

department in Shoppers Stop plays a crucial role in
Shoppers Stop. When customer purchase all the
things it is transaction department who make their

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 bills by bar code censors accordingly and place
that sold-out information to purchase department.

• Security: it is the duty of security staff to check

weather the customers are behaving accordingly
or not. They keep on checking the customers so
that unnecessary or hazardous things can’t be
bring inside the store.

Information Needed at each level

within Departments

• Sales departments-They require information from the

purchase as well as inventory Department.

• Inventory department-They will inquire from the sales and

purchase department for the purchase and sale of products.

• Customer relations-They will require information from the

transaction, purchase and sales departments because if there
are any customer grieveances regarding the exchange of
products, they should have adequate information of the
replacements.

• Purchase department-They also require information from

the sales and inventory departments as they have to make
their purchase orders keeping in mind the position of
inventory especially.

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• Security-Security needs to be in contact with the
transactional department as they have to check the payment
receipts of the customers at the security check.

Information Flow in Shoppers Stop

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REFERENCES

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 Shoppers’ stop outlet

 www.shoppersstop.com

 www.icmrindia.org

 voicendata.ciol.com

 www.cxotoday.com

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