Kristiana operates a rapidly growing retail network. Kristiana, a cosmetics and perfumery retailer, operating for over 20 years with 40 stores in Lithuania and Latvia.
The challenge
With the expansion of Kristiana retail chain, it became increasingly difficult for the company to ensure productive management of the business process and quality customer service, so in 2002 it was decided to change the local solution used before. After evaluating the alternatives, the company chose the international business management system Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the retail module GoPro Retail, and StrongPoint as the system implementation and maintenance partner.
“We wanted to effectively manage and control the company’s activities starting from the warehouse to the POS system. The local solution we used until then was intended for smaller companies – it lacked integrity, wider functionality, and the platform itself was outdated. In other words, we faced many limitations which have reduced efficiency.”
Giedrius Narušis, IT Manager at Kristiana
Over time, technologies evolved and the company’s business needs grew, so the version of MS Dynamics NAV installed in 2002 did not meet the company’s needs anymore. Effective business process management began to be limited by the lack of wider capabilities and functionality of the older version. Therefore, the new version implementation came to the radar.
It was important for the company that the new system would fully automate store management processes in both countries from the cashier’s workplace to the entire company’s financial accounting. And central management would allow to control and oversee all online store operations, maintain unified company accounting and analyse sales results.
Besides, it was important for the company, which pays a lot of attention to its customers that the new system would allow implementing the wider possibilities of the loyalty program, which would allow customers of Kristiana retail chains to accumulate loyalty points and get special discounts.
It was decided to upgrade Kristiana management systems with MS Dynamics NAV and LS Nav package, continuing a successful partnership established in 2002 with the previous system installer – StrongPoint.
The solution
Retail management solution LS Nav integrated with the ERP system Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows Kristiana to perform unified activities of the entire company from merchandising, accounting, inventory management to work with POS systems, loyalty program execution and fast data exchange. A complete system ensures the availability of all real-time data of the company.
Adapting MS Dynamics NAV to Kristiana’s needs, a number of modifications have been made to the business management system, which are mainly designed to simplify the users’ work with the system, adapting it to the specific requirements of various suppliers.
The result
Microsoft Dynamics NAV and LS Nav package provided Kristiana with extensive tools for retail management: organizing promotions, keeping records of store employees’ work, configuring the POS work environment. It has also significantly improved the quality and availability of incoming data needed for process analysis and measured business management.
In addition to software upgrades, Kristiana, along with its IT partner StrongPoint, has renewed the hardware of retail stores and headquarters for smoother and faster operation.
The dynamic LS Nav loyalty module allows customers of Kristiana to accumulate loyalty points, apply mix&match discount offers, special discounts or a higher amount of points accumulated on a certain occasion, such as during the customer’s birthday, to give a gift when buying for a certain amount, and so on.
Additional LS Nav functionality – automatic replenishment of goods determines the quality sales and higher profit of Kristiana retail chain. Experience shows that customers want to buy the desired product “here and now”. However, there are cases when the desired product is simply not available in the store. This functionality automatically, according to established algorithms, ensures that stores are replenished with missing goods promptly and on time. This significantly reduces the likelihood of losing the sale and raises the level of customer satisfaction.
The user interface of the latest version of MS Dynamics NAV is more like the user interfaces of the rest of Microsoft products. This means more intuitive use for employees working with the system. The program is integrated with Microsoft products such as Outlook or Excel – inside NAV you can also see your e-mail system, easily and flexibly import various types of reports into Excel formats.
The platform allows integration with third-party systems. This further expands the range of services available to customers and speeds up work processes. The integration of Kristiana stores with the mobile application Lwallet has reduced the time required for the administration of paper questionnaires and allowed to attract new customers to the stores.
