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Poundland

Fortunately for us we discovered the solution in Astech and their extensive JDA IBMi experience and support, a rare offering.

Mike Gray, Director of IT at
Poundland

Business Need

Delivering over 3000 product lines and 16 product categories at a single price point.
Managing stock rotation and replenishment across multiple stores, serving on average 2.75 million customers per week.
Optimisation of space in-store.

Poundland, Europe’s biggest and fastest growing single price point discount retailer has seen exceptional growth of twenty per cent year-on-year. The retailer’s ambitious growth strategy has seen it not just survive, but thrive on the struggling high street. This exceptional growth has brought a number of business challenges, in particular the management of a complex supply chain.

The company stocks a variety of products across 16 categories including home and kitchenware, health, beauty and gifts, many of which are brand names and clearance products. The supply chain process is managed using JDA software hosted on IBMi.

Poundland realised that in order to manage over 3000 product lines, at a single price point whilst keeping costs down, required changes to the JDA software.

The Challenge

JDA software is a superb supply chain management solution with a long standing customer base. On occasion, as in the case of Poundland, changes or development is required to extend the capabilities of the software.

The challenge for Poundland was to secure resource proficient in supporting the changes to JDA and its host environment, IBMi. Poundland had the option of either using JDA personnel or recruiting individuals with experience of IBMi and or JDA. Both these options presented limitations, issues with ownership and delivery and scope for future development.

The Solution

Poundland recognised the value Astech brought to the organisation in the combination of its knowledge of retail, having supported several high street retailers for many years and the experience of its IBM i / iSeries / AS400 and JDA specialists. In order to meet the business needs of managing the supply chain for multiple products lines, stock rotation and replenishment, Astech undertook the following:

Extended the functionally of JDA’s software to cater for the management of 3000 products at a single price point.
Delivered 24 hour support
Multi-platform integration to improve use of space in-store.

Benefits

The benefits realised were:

Signal knowledgeable provider with multiple technology and retail experience
Scalability of services and resource according to project needs
Flexible approach to providing services in line with Poundland’s growth plans and business needs
Ownership of project delivery
Longevity- provision of resource for future project change

Game

GAME has a professional but relaxed culture, with a constant focus on serving customers, and this is matched by Astech I had been looking for external consultants who could match GAME’s commitment to servicing customer needs and providing value for money. We invited Astech to provide resources for some small pieces of development work relating to MMS. As a result of their performance on these, Astech were then invited to tender for work on the major project.We invited Astech to provide resources for some small pieces of development work relating to MMS. As a result of their performance on these, Astech were then invited to tender for work on the major project. Astech is able to provide people who in time have become very familiar and comfortable with GAME’s systems and culture. GAME has a professional but relaxed culture, with a constant focus on serving customers, and this is matched by Astech. We work well together.

Steve Donlon, Head of Development at
Game

Business Need

GAME is the UK's leading specialist video games retailer, with over 320 stores in the UK.

The unique aspect of GAME’s business is the concept of ‘pre-owned’ stock where customers can return games and consoles to their local store. ‘Pre-owned’ is an important part of GAME’s business, and providing customers with the opportunity to trade in used games and consoles for cash or payment towards the latest products, is clearly an attractive proposition for loyal customers.

Efficiency in the management of pre-owned stock and prices to ensure buying and selling customers get the best deal is a key requirement for GAME. The company invested in a project to integrate its back office applications JDA MMS, with the Vanderlande warehouse management system.

Challenge

GAME runs its business on the IBM iSeries platform. The company’s core business applications are JDA MMS v4R5 for merchandising and Lawson Insight for financials. These business applications have been modified to Games’ precise needs and finding skilled resource knowledgeable of Game’s systems and capable of delivering effective integration with other mission critical applications, as in the as warehouse management systems, was proving a challenge.

Solution

Astech played a key role in providing resource and expertise to create a functional specification, undertake cross-platform integration develop the back office systems and interface the JDA MMS replenishment functions with the Distribution centre’s state of the art Warehouse Management System.

Benefits

The benefits realised were:

Cultural Fit – Astech’s consultants complement Game’s internal IT team

Scalability of services and resource according to project needs
Flexible approach to providing services in line with Poundland’s growth plans and business needs
Ownership of project delivery
Longevity- provision of resource for future project change

Garador

prior to working with Astech we found it very difficult to source the exact level of support that we required for our BRAIN AS application development. Vendor support becomes very expensive when customisations outside the core product are required, we wanted the flexibility, accessibility and understanding of a local support provider to help us drive our business development forward and plug the gaps in our existing support contract

Jason Evans, IT Manager at
Garador

Garador benefits from Astech's IBM i support and development services

Originally formed as part of Westland's Engineers Ltd in 1948, as part of a diversification strategy away from military products, Garador Limited was setup to manufacture one piece garage doors. Today, Garador is one of the UK’s largest manufacturer’s of Up & Over, Side-hinged, Sectional and GaraRoll roller garage doors.

Astech has been working with Garador since January 2015 to provide RPG programming and IBM i support services.

"A lot of our long term client relationships have started with a small piece of development and have then grown as confidence in our services increases. The client often finds that they can have resolutions to problems they have had to live with for years". Garry Fisher, Head of IT Services, Astech

Plan International

The level of expertise and understanding of complex business process was high giving us a confidence in Astech that we found very reassuring. They come highly recommended

Max Charman, Manager - Global Applications at
Plan International

Plan International extends legacy application support

"Plan International is a child welfare organisation that operates in over 50 developing countries and 20 fundraising countries. Over half of Plan's revenue is grant funded and this is tracked globally through an application called the Grants Tracking System (GTS) held on an IBM iSeries. This application is fully bespoke. Astech have helped to support us while the system was fully operational; then during the 2 year migration phase into SAP, and now while the system is in legacy status. The migration of the data from the GTS and into SAP was hugely complex and Astech's help was invaluable during that period.

"The level of expertise and understanding of complex business process was high giving us a confidence in Astech that we found very reassuring. They come highly recommended." Max Charman, Manager - Global Applications, Plan International.

"We have been working with Plan for over 3 years now and it's testament to the team's adaptability and iSeries knowledge that we can successfully take on and support legacy applications such as GTS. This project has been a great example of how we can provide a solution that gives an organisation confidence to move forward with strategic programmes, such as a SAP rollout, without any risk to the day to day operation." Danny Turner, Managing Director, Astech.