Following in the footsteps of big retail chains, small players in the retail sector are also hitching their growth prospects to IT. The Bombay Store, which was established in 1906, manages its inventory control with Microsoft Retail Management System. This helps the company track slow and fast moving goods on the shelf, which ultimately prevents the blockage of space and finance. The solution also facilitates report generation, which in turn provides better business visibility to the top management.

The Bombay Store is in the process of drawing up expansion plans for its chain of outlets. It currently operates five retail outlets: two in Mumbai and one each in Pune, Goa and Bangalore. Long-term plans include increasing the store count to 20 by next year. Outlets will soon be launched at Hyderabad International Airport, KDA Hospital in Mumbai, and Inorbit Mall in Vashi, Navi Mumbai.

The increase in the number of stores will be backed by a corresponding increase in IT support. “The Bombay Store is as serious as any international retailer in using IT to support business growth. We are revamping our entire IT operations while gearing up for our exponential organisation growth, and IT is going to play a major role in the coming months,” says Asim Dalal, Managing Director, The Bombay Store.

“Starting with online connectivity across all our stores to having live inventory details to catalogue shopping, IT is going to facilitate quick decision-making for our business heads and management executives, helping to save valuable time and money,” he adds. “The latest IT initiative we are considering is to make all existing and new stores Wi-Fi enabled. We would be the first retail chain in India to adopt Wi-Fi to enrich our customers’ experiences.”

“The Wi-Fi facility is currently under implementation at the Goa retail outlet”, says Sandeep Kothari, AGM – IT, The Bombay Store.

The technology platform employed by the Bombay Store comprises Windows OS 2003 with an SQL server at the backend. At the POS level, the store has implemented Microsoft Retail Management System. The general connectivity is on 256 Kbps with 2 Mbps at the head office. The store plans to upgrade this speed to 1Gbps by next month, and eventually migrate to leased-line connectivity by the end of this year.

The store is evaluating ERP solutions such as Navision, RAMCO and Wincor Nixdorf. Navision, however, has to be implemented in tandem with LS Retail software, which has to be bought separately.

“To enable catalogue shopping, the store is considering a change in its website application,” says Kothari. Recent hardware purchases made by the store include two IBM Xion servers, six Lenovo desktops and a couple of D-Link switches. In a typical retail store, ageing analysis of on-the-shelf products plays an important role; hence the store is also planning to implement a BI tool.