VARIndia - INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE

DVS: Vying for a Larger Space in Indian Retail Market

Can anyone believe that there are more than 12 million retail outlets across India, out of which a mere four per cent fall in the category of organized retail? As per the studies, the organized retail is likely to grow by 25–30 per cent year-on-year till 2010 and about 100,000 stores are getting added every year. The fact of the matter is that the retail is a huge market in India – be it the organized or the unorganized and each one of the outlets wants IT to be the enhancer of its operations. But the pity is that a very limited body of retailers actually consider IT very seriously as an investment. To my reckoning, the retail chains like Reliance, Pantaloons, RPG (Spencers), Trent, Hariyali Kissan Bazaar, Godrej, ITC-IBD, Barista and Vishal Megamart, Pantaloons, US Pizza, etc. are some of the names, which are found at the forefront of using IT. But cannot the friendly neighbourhood small mom-and-pop stores use IT for their advantage? The answer is yes. But all this has not happened just now and there are a whole lot of inhibitions among these store owners that either IT is redundant and a

Rakhee Nagpal Managing Director, Dynamic Vertical Solutions (D

useless investment, or there is no solution which is affordable, flexible, easy to handle and adaptable to change. But here comes a vendor, who is determined to change the mindset of the retailers. The name is Dynamic Vertical Solutions (DVS). DVS comes from the reputes of Navision India.

VARIndia talked to Rakhee Nagpal, Managing Director, Dynamic Vertical Solutions (DVS), to know about what DVS has in store for the booming retail in India. The antecedents of DVS are that it came into existence soon after the Microsoft Navision rights transition to Microsoft from Navision India, which was owned by Rakhee’s father, late Mr. Yashvir Nagpal. Therefore, DVS is a fairly new-born entity, but has created big optimism among the retailers and hospitality industry with its enterprise application suite LS Retail Suite. Rakhee says,’“I saw since 2001, within the enterprise solution business space, there is a huge potential. What I thought, other than addressing horizontal solutions for different industries, we should be very specific and vertical focussed and there started DVS.”

“What we do in DVS is that we bring additional IP that sits on the top of Microsoft Dynamics platform and provide fully-integrated, back-end solutions for a specific industry. The base solution is Microsoft Navision or Microsoft Axapta,” she added.

Actually, the developer of LS Retail Suite of solutions is the number one ISV partner of Microsoft for Dynamics. Globally, this is a popular product having thousand customers and supported by 60 partners. It is available in 30 different languages and is distributed in 44 different countries.

Internationally, LS Retail Suite of solutions is being used by 13,000-plus stores. Big international brands like Levis, Pizza Hut, IKEA, NEXT, Adidas, Noa, ESSO, Booths Supermarkets, MIT-Voice Group, Choice Hotels, Shell, Moss Pharmacy and many others have successfully deployed these solutions.

As far as India is concerned, DVS has the exclusive right to distribute the software. What DVS does is that they bring in the product and localise it for the Indian users in terms of local requirements, legal compliances and local taxation policy. DVS has developed a team of 25 people under Rakhee, majority of whom are basically engaged in R&D activities, which is expected to increase this month.

With focus on the people, processes and technology, DVS offers services through enterprise-wide deployment of these solutions that contribute in automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes in a way that helps organizations drive business and operational excellence. Rakhee says, “DVS delivers scalable solutions that enable its customers to continually improve upon their decision-making capabilities and business success.”

The suite actually includes three-four products. One based on Navision is LS Retail Navision, another based on Axapta is LS Retail Axapta, yet another is LS Pos.net., which is a point-of-sale solution, and the final one LS Easy Retail, built on Microsoft Dynamics NAV, is an integrated business management solution that is made for retailers who have outgrown their basic software packages. DVS has also a cost-effective single store solution. “So, we cater to the entire gamut of customers starting from a single store to a thousand store operation. My intention is to work for the companies which want to grow with best practices, which want to create international standards and which also want to keep the local feel-and-touch effect,” she adds.

Advantages of DVS

There is a feeling that soon retail in India is going to become overheated and some will survive the heat and some will fizzle out. Rakhee says,

“I believe the survivors will be those who will see IT as a long-term investment for their business rather seeing it as passing by happening or something by the by one needs to run the business.”

According to Rakhee, “IT should be used to persistently enhancing one’s business and making the entire experience of the customer more efficient. People have a number of disparate solutions for back-end, front-end, CRM, SCM, Finance Management, etc. running on different technologies. And, each of these packages requires integration element, which adds to the cost of ownership in the long-term and makes it harder to migrate from one version to the other. Secondly, if one looks at the MNC solutions, on an average two versions come out every year and the user invests a lot on the integration and customization of the solutions, which also allows errors.”

Rakhee says, “Why should you make that mistake if you have the complete integrated easy-to-use and affordable solution? DVS offers a plethora of modules, including finance, supply chain, web-enablement, CRM, warehousing, distribution, point of sale, distribution, store management, well integrated with each other and allows to be a flexible and adaptable platform.”

Apart from this, the rate of attrition in retail is very high. So, if you have a very rigid and hard to integrate solution, then your investment on the employees becomes enormous. In the case of DVS, LS Retail Suite, you can train the person within 15 minutes to half an hour. It is well integrated with Microsoft Word or Excel and there is no fear of technology also. The solution can also be fine-tuned, as per the individual requirements of the retailers. It is also easy to scale up.

Marketing and Distribution A 100-per cent channel-driven company, DVS believes in the channel partners’ expertise, reach and commitment to various industries. DVS supports them, trains them and provides them adequate resources to operate in the market. Therefore, DVS’ partner profile is quite heterogeneous who range from small domestic consultants to multinational groups like Team Computers, PwC, Trident Information Systems, Blue Star Technologies, Ontrack Systems Ltd. Trisoft Systems, Creative IT India Pvt. Ltd., Newsoft Technologies and others. Currently, DVS has 14 partners spread in all the metros and cities like Ahmedabad and Jaipur. The reason behind having a medley of partners is to facilitate the different generation of retailers, who know and who do not know the right solutions.

Though a young company, DVS has bagged some of the very large customers in India. The focus has, of course, been on Food & Groceries, Jewellery, Fashion and Hospitality market. With clients like US Pizzas, Linc Retail, Albeli Fashions, Fucom Retail, Eicher Good earth, Season’s Furnishings, Fabmall (Trinethra Super Retail), MK Retail, Body Care International, Disney Artists Stores, Door Steps (Vidkris India), Lilliput and many others, DVS is very optimistic of achieving a target of 1,000 outlets by this month end, which is 800 so far.

Finally…

DVS is all set to change the way retail business happens in India. Not only is it bringing in varieties to the solutions but also taking active part in enhancing retail education in India. It has started working with the Indian Retail School to give students an opportunity to learn through both customized course curriculum direct interaction with the industry. The course will be conducted by Dynamic Vertical Solutions and will provide students with comprehensive knowledge on technology tools & techniques for improving and optimizing retail operations. Apart from this, DVS recently has launched Peacon, a People Flow Solution for the retail and shopping centre industry in India. Another latest addition to DVS offering is DVS Store-Ctrl, a digital video auditing and surveillance system to stimulate retail operations, which aims at helping retailers in loss prevention, operations, risk management and merchandising. Similarly, the recently launched LS Retail and HandPoint Retail provide flexibility to send data wirelessly from a handheld device through RF (radio frequency) networks or batch wise via cradle. It helps in streamlining the efforts while counting stocks, returning orders to suppliers, recording incoming deliveries and even processing in and out transfers. Its new AGR Inventory Optimiser increases profits by eliminating unnecessary costs from the supply chain. The solution has been specially designed keeping in view the needs of industries like retail, wholesale, distribution and manufacturing.

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