The Almaki Group, a Saudi Arabia based luxury retailer has continued its digital transformation with the deployment of the latest version of Infor’s Warehouse Management System (WMS). The new solution will support warehouse operations for a group that is targeting the GCC’s $29 billion eCommerce market. The solution will help to increase efficiency, optimise space utilisation and improve order reliability across 105 luxury brands. Those brands include Bvlgari, Hermes, Mont Blanc, Rimowa, Versace, Tom Ford and Cartier.
As Daniel Gómez Rojas, Chief Digital Officer, Almaki Group recently commented, “In the GCC’s competitive luxury retail and e-commerce sector, we needed to better cater to our customers, who want personalized shopping journeys. Before the pandemic, most of our customers were shopping at mall boutiques. But now, our customers prefer having omni-channel experiences that may start by researching and ordering online, and then trying on or collecting items in-store.”
Choosing the right partners
To support this omnichannel approach Almaki turned to SNS, a leading provider of supply chain consultancy and software implementation to deploy one of the leading warehouse solutions available, Infor WMS. This is part of a much wider digital transformation that also includes Salesforce solutions such as:
- Service Cloud to interact with customers by email, phone, social media, and WhatsApp.
- Marketing Cloud to drive personalization and marketing automation.
- Commerce Cloud to build rich, Artificial Intelligence-powered shopping experiences for their partner brands.
The Salesforce deployment was supported by Emakina
Underpinned by Infor OS and linked through MuleSoft, the Warehouse Management Solution will enable the Almaki group to coordinate its inventory effectively across the organisation. Whether Almaki used Infor Ion or MuleSoft to integrate the WMS to its SAP ERP solution is unclear. There are arguments for using either approach.
Khaled ElDamouri, Almaki supply chain and logistics director commented, “Luxury brands demand the very highest standards across the entire customer experience, and it’s imperative that we not only adhere to such standards, but that we do so in the most efficient way possible in line with our ambitious growth plans.
“With more than 105 brands, we operate high numbers of SKUs, and as such, require seamless warehouse processes and technology from which to maximise efficiency, space utilization and order reliability.”
Why Infor?
Almaki selected and deployed Infor WMS version 11.4.1. One of the reasons it was chosen was for its ability to deliver an entirely paperless picking and packing solution. This not only improves productivity, but it will also reduce manual handling of paperwork and reduction COVID infection risks.
With automated processes ensuring that data is accurate across all stages of inventory movements it can deliver instant updates. These can inform decision making including planning. In addition, customer services teams can then update customers through the Salesforce platform. Other features of Infor WMS that Almaki expects to leverage include, put-away strategy, cluster picking, labels, catch data, wave processing and billing functionality.
The project was managed by SNS and the Almaki Group team supported the required integration work. SNS also completed the deployment remotely. It is an increasing trend for deployments because of COVID restrictions in place.
Mario Ghosn, SNS general manager commented, “Warehouse efficiency, reliability and capacity are the cornerstones of any distributor operating today and, in the field of luxury goods, consistency and the very highest service standards are paramount.
“We’re delighted to be working with AlMalki Group, delivering the best warehouse platform via Infor WMS, and helping the group to embrace growing e-commerce demand in the coming years across the region.”
ElDamouri added, “SNS is a true partner, providing in-depth expertise and a wealth of experience of similar deployments, allowing us to pursue our digitalisation plans and achieve our warehouse management goals.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
This is another significant deployment for SNS and Infor in the region. Last year SNS completed deployments at Menabev. Algosaibi had also selected Infor WMS. Earlier this year SACO and MEDSCAN chose the same combination across eight locations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Successful deployments and happy customers can breed further success. Certainly, the partnership between SNS and Infor seems to achieve all three of these. Infor continues to see further success with Infor WMS. Infor WMS has a rich feature set and a strong integration to SAP ERP. It is creating a significant market share in the region with the support of SNS.
