Fiorano Software (http://www.fiorano.

com), a leader in distributed integration solutions, announced today that the Fiorano SOA platform has been deployed by Nilkamal, a leading manufacturer and retailer of furniture and a broad range of home decor outlets, to streamline business operations by linking a number of disparate internal systems. Experiencing double-digit growth in a fast growing economy, Nilkamal was faced with the requirement of providing the latest inventory data to hundreds of salespeople across the country. In addition, manufacturing and production planning systems needed to be continuously updated with field-sales data, while also being summarized for a number of management reports and updates to other sales teams. Nilkamals core requirement was for real-time, bi-directional information-flows between its SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and its Salesforce.com customer relationship management (CRM) system. Nilkamal evaluated many technology options including traditional stack vendors like Oracle and IBM before finally settling on the Fiorano SOA platform. We did a tremendous amount of research before settling on the concept of a REST-based SOA and selected the Fiorano SOA platform to deliver this solution, said Nilesh Modi, Head of Information Technology at Nilkamal Ltd. We now have first-hand implementation and deployment experience so we can say we are happy we made the right architectural decisions for our middleware infrastructure. Implementing a cloud application like salesforce.com to seamlessly integrate and streamline our SAP has already given us tremendous productivity gains. We now intend to rapidly extend the Fiorano ESB across other applications in order to establish a robust, scalable and flexible enterprise nervous system for the organization. Explaining the usage of the SOA system within Nilkamal, Mr. Karan Doshi, CRM Project Lead elaborated: By providing the ability to accommodate live changes to business processes on the fly, the Fiorano platform dramatically reduces development and debugging time. Business analysts draw pictures of new processes and they are deployed instantly across the network in real-time. A zero-coding, drag/drop approach to building integration flows ensures minimal product training and human-resource requirements, especially in comparison with legacy integration technologies. For Nilkamal, integration with SAP ERP to provide front end Sales persons Order and Invoice related data via Salesforce.com was a critical business need, says Dushyant Jamwal, Practice Head Salesforce.com at Compro Technologies, the Salesforce.com partner and consulting firm who helped implement the solution at Nilkamal. With Fiorano ESB as the middleware, and availability of Fioranos rich set of pre-built adapters (for SAP & Salesforce.com), the complexities involved in integrating SAP and Salesforce.com were eliminated. This enabled the integration team to focus on achieving the business logic around getting the right data to the right place, he added.

Nilkamal, a furniture manufacturer and retailer, has streamlined its business operations by linking a number of disparate internal systems. The company has deployed the Fiorano service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform to deal with double-digit growth. The new system will help Nilkamal provide the most up-to-date inventory information to hundreds of salespeople nationwide. It will also update manufacturing and production planning systems continuously with field sales data. Nilkamal also wanted real-time, bi-directional information flows between its SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) and its Salesforce.com customer relationship management (CRM) systems. The company evaluated a number of options before choosing the Fiorano SOA platform. Nilesh Modi, head of IT at Nilkamal, says, We did a tremendous amount of research before settling on the concept of a REST-based SOA, and selected the Fiorano SOA platform to deliver this solution. We now have firsthand implementation and deployment experience, so we can say we are happy we made the right architectural decisions for our middleware infrastructure. Implementing a cloud application like Salesforce.com to seamlessly integrate and streamline our SAP has already given us tremendous productivity gains. We now intend to rapidly extend the Fiorano ESB [Enterprise Service Bus] across other applications to establish a robust, scalable and flexible enterprise nervous system for the organization. Listed on the NSE and BSE, Nilkamal Limiteds turnover for FY11 exceeded Rs 1,499 crore. The company is into five core businesses material handling crates, containers and bins; moulded furniture such as chairs, tables and cabinets; custom mouldings & OEM supplies for specific customers; @home, the mega home store retail chain; and service products for the hospitality industry. The leading manufacturer has seven large manufacturing plants in India and a wide sales network operating through 49 regional offices and 33 warehouses. The company was facing a challenge as its sales team lacked visibility of sales and found it difficult to keep customers informed of transactions on their account with paper records. Only regional sales managers had an idea of the future sales pipeline, whereas the head office was completely blinded from it. Consequently, the sales support staff was wasting time chasing account details instead of dealing with customers. Earlier, we had a back-end team that helped them complete their sales, give information about their customers and also a lot of things happened over the telephone. So if the sales guys on the field wanted some information about a customer, they had to call the back-end coordinator, talk to that person and get back to the customer with the future plan of action. This, at times, created a communication gap between the back-end and front-end teams. The front-end teams were really getting pressurized because of this. That is when the requirement of CRM came in, Karan Doshi, Project Manager-CRM, Nilkamal told InformationWeek. Nilkamal started exploring the horizon of CRM and narrowed down on three companies, namely Oracle, SAP and Salesforce.com. We selected Salesforce.com considering the speed at which Salesforce.com can be implemented, the speed at which it can be active, and the ease of use for the sales guys, said Doshi.

Nilkamal went live with Salesforce.com in June last year and started training the sales team to start using CRM. Nilkamal uses CRM to generate quotes; receive pending payments and statutory forms; get additional details about the customer; and check enquiries that have directly landed at their head offices or regional offices. Post implementation, the back-end teams dont have to look at hard copies of quotations, when a purchase order (P.O.) is received from a customer. One just has to log in to the CRM system, verify the P.O. with the quote, and with the help of CRM itself, insert the sales order, and issue the plan. In terms of challenges, Nilkamal took some time to integrate everything into the CRM because of their multiple product lines. But according to Doshi of Nilkamal, this was a problem well managed by Salesforce.com and their implementation partner Compro Technologies. They knew almost 50 percent of our business out-process and we really didnt have to crack our heads to make them understand what needs to be done and what not. The company has seen massive productivity increase with an average weekly time savings of 20 percent for 130 sales support staff. Managers now have full visibility over future sales pipeline and can better plan manufacturing. Also, the managers are able to use market intelligence about different product vertical opportunities to drive new businesses. From an expansion point of view, Nilkamal plans to increase its current base of 140 users to 200 and grow every year. Nilkamal limited is listed on the national stock exchange and bombay stock exchange since 1991. Nilkamals (fy 0809) turnover exceeds inr. 1000 crores/us$. 200 million.

Nilkamal is in 4 key businesses:

Material handling crates, containers and bins. moulded furniture such as chairs, tables and cabinets. Custom mouldings & oem supplies for specific customers. @home, the mega home store retail chain.

the company has 7 large manufacturing plants in india:

North samba (jammu & kashmir) and greater noida (uttar pradesh) south pondicherry (union territory)

east - barjora (west bengal) west - sinnar, nashik (maharashtra) and silvanus (union territory of darda & nagar haveli) (2 plants). the company has advanced machinery in injection moulding, rotational moulding, vaccum forming, polyurethane injection (of insulation) and capabilities for smc and blow moulding. Each of these plants have dedicated tool rooms.

The company has joint ventures in sri lanka, near colombo and in bangladesh, near dhaka. Both these companies are leaders in respective markets for moulded furniture. The company also has a joint venture with bito lagertechnik bittman gmbh for the manufacture of material handling and storage systems in metal, with a manufacturing plant at samba, jammu & kashmir. this extensive manufacturing infrastructure is ably supported by our wide and strong sales network, operating through 45 regional offices and 33 warehouses spread across india.

Nilkamal has exclusive tie ups with: Hanel buro-und lagersystems, germany for automatic storage and retrieval systems. conteyor multibag systems nv of belgium for Manufacture of textile partitions for crates and metal racks to provide valuable in-transit protection for scratch sensitive products. Plastic omnium systems urbains, france, for supply of their international standard waste bins of all sizes conforming to en/din standards. cambro manufacturing company, usa for hospitality products suited for large restaurants and hotels. all the nilkamal plants, warehouses and offices are connected to the head office in real time by erp, sapr3. In material handling, nilkamal is a "one stop shop for material handling solutions" and offers a comprehensive product mix comprising of material handling equipment ranging from pallet trucks to stackers, forklifts and all equipment required for the logistics industry which is growing at a rapid pace in india. Nilkamal''s quality is widely accepted internationally and we have an office in ajman, uae to cater to the middle eastern markets. We also export to most major markets in europe and americas which are known for being sticklers for quality.

The company''s new venture home, the mega home retail chain is recognized as a pioneer and leader in this category in india. Each of the home store has an area between 10000 to 28000 sft. Located in prime 9 cities of india (march 2009). Home retails complete bedroom sets, living room units, upholstered sofas, dining sets apart from a large variety of home d? Cor products like artificial flowers, vases, show pieces, picture frames, paintings etc. And daily used items such as mattresses, bed sheets, towels, curtains, etc. Home is targeted to the middle and middle high mass market of the new youth of india. The company has aggressive plans to build this business with a wide footprint across all major cities and towns of india. All the @home stores are connected to the head office and the distribution centers by erp, sap industry specific and retail. @home is the recipient of "retailer of the year 2008" award for home and office improvement, by the asia retail congress in february 2009. Quality All the manufacturing plants are ISO 9001/2000 Certified and practice 6 Sigma manufacturing process.
Nilkamal's IT Head, Abdulla Fatiya believes in experimenting with newer technologies to make a business more agile. Currently his eyes are set on analytical tools to discover how can they add value to the business. By Heena Jhingan

Nilkamal is a name synonymous with pieces of molded furniture that can be spotted at any Indian home or office. One of the most popular names in this market segment, the brand specializes in five key businesses that include material handling crates, containers and bins; molded furniture such as chairs, cabinets; custom moldings and OEM supplies for specific customers and service products for the hospitality industry. It also runs a home store retail chain called @home.

The company has about seven productions units, and each of these plants is ISO 9001/2008 Certified and it practices Six Sigma manufacturing process. The companys manufacturing infrastructure is supported by a strong sales network, operating through about 50 regional offices and 33 warehouses spread across India. According to Abdulla Fatiya, Head IT, Nilkamal Limited, a well planned IT infrastructure goes towards making this possible.

With techno-managerial expertise in various aspects of program management, involving resource and schedule management, requirement and risk analysis, change and quality management, Fatiya, has contributed in restructuring Nilkamals IT infrastructure, so that the company can match global standards.

Long before Fatiya joined Nilkamal, he had proved his mettle as a IT strategist during his association with Welspun Retail and SIA Lifestyles. Fatiya recalled that his work at SIA, a silver jewelry brand, required him to work on the IT infrastructure from the scratch. He drafted an IT road map and hired the resources for project delivery. He remembered the journey with SIA very clearly right from setting up the very first of what eventually became 35 retail stores.

The most important leg of his assignment at SIA was delivery of the e-commerce model, which he said was now bearing fruit. A significant share of the brands profits is procured from the online sales, he pointed out.

A new cast

When Fatiya walked into Nilkamal, the IT infrastructure was awaiting a revamp. The foremost requirement was to integrate the manufactur ing units and regional offices. The company needed an ERP system at the backend so that all of the processes could be automated and, subsequently, regulated, he explained.

He said it took about five months to implement SAP R3 along with modules such as quality and change management. We saw processes becoming more organized and streamlined, he added.

However, that was not sufficient as the company required seamless connectivity that could keep the processes running in an uninterrupted fashion. He said, Earlier we were using BSNL services, we realized that we needed SLA-based performance and it worked out that Sifys solution was a better fit and we switched to their service.

Once the ERP system was in place and the connectivity issues were dealt with, Fatiya started thinking of adopting IT solutions that could further smoothen processes and also save cost. He observed that the companys warehouses were still not automated and that they were spending a lot of money on manpower to maintain the same. After we automated all of the processes at one of the warehouses at Thane and deployed wireless/RFID devices, we saw a manpower cost reduction of nearly 40%. It was a good learning and we could use it as a cost reducing activity, he said.

BI and the Cloud

Not content to rest on his laurels, he believed that a manufacturer of Nilkamals size and category had to keep track of sales and merchandising in order to arrive at successful business models. This, he believed, could best be done by deploying business intelligence tools.

In the first phase, we deployed the SAP Business Intelligence solution for sales and merchandising. These would help us track campaign performance and they would churn out OTP reports. These, in turn, would help us lay down KPIs for our stores, he said.

He added that, at the next level, they planned to use the results from these reports to highlight trends and accordingly plan their promotions.

To strengthen the brands retail presence and performance, Fatiya is now evaluating soluti ons to automate the credit card payment system. The idea is to integrate this with the gateways of various banks at the backend, he said, adding that, since they sell their products through retail stores and also work with various franchisees of the brand, they are on the look out for a solution so that all of the franchise systems can be integrated and they can get a single view of all of them.

Considering, that they have a big army of sales executives, which is mostly on the move, the company is trying to opt for a Cloud-based CRM solution.

Cloud computing is definitely the buzzword but we would prefer to keep the core applications like ERP in

house. We are trying to move applications like CRM and HRMS to the Cloud. The final decision on the Cloud migration will be announced sometime later this year, he informed.

Fatiya has big hopes for the BI deployment. The realization of ROI on BI should happen soon. This will give us a more transparent view for budgeting our solutions, he said.

Fatiya believed that online platforms are critical for the retail players to grow and generate more business. He is now working on developing an online retail platform for Nilkamal. He signed off saying that they were already in talks in with some developers, and were hopeful of zeroing on one of them soon.

Nilkamals attempt to boost the effectiveness of its sales people with Salesforce was being stymied by an inability to efficiently link the SaaS-CRM tool with Nilkamals ERP. Could IT find a way? The Organization: Nilkamal is a Rs 1,500-crore company best known for its almost iconic plastic chairs. But less known is the companys other business including plastic crates, containers and bins, and metal pallets for manufacturing and retail companies. In April 2010, about 45 percent of it's revenues were generated by this part of the business. Business Case: Nilkamals businesses are driven by a 300-strong sales force spread across the country. As Nilkamals feet on the street, they meet with product managers from, say, a manufacturing company who would purchase plastic crates from them. With a vision of empowering the sales team, Karan Doshi, who leads IT initiatives at Nilkamal, purchased 200 Salesforce.com licenses for the companys key sales agents. But he soon realized that Salesforce alone wasnt going to get the job done. The Karan Doshi, Manager, Nilkamal, found a novel way to integrate SAP with Salesforce. But Salesforce didnt have access to critical business information sitting within the companys ERP. And without that sales people had their hands tied. The Project: For a sales guy to be able to make a sale, he needs to know a clients latest delivery status, pending payments, etcetera. All of this information resided within the ERP, says Doshi. As a result, despite having a cloud-based CRM model, Nilkamals sales found itself spending a disproportionate amount of time talking with managers at head office over lengthy, long-distance calls. That manual dependency negated some of Salesforces advantages.

Case Study Highlights

Karan Doshi, Manager, Nilkamal, found a novel way to integrate SAP with Salesforce. The real challenge, however, was integrating various ERP databases.

First Steps: Doshi had to take a call that most CIOs dread: Integrating middleware with his ERP. His earlier tryst with SAP PI was a disappointment, he says. We were running SAP PI to integrate our ERP with Salesforce for one of our retail outlets. It was excruciatingly slow. Months of research lead him to middleware vendor Fiorano, whose ESB solution was exactly what Nilkamal needed, says Doshi. It was fast, allowed bi-directional access, and integrated beautifully with SAP.

The Challenge: Integrating the middleware was easy, says Doshi. According to him, Fiorano went live in 45 days, against the projected 60 days. The real challenge, however, was integrating various ERP databases. ERP is a complex giant. Unless you have a dedicated team of ERP experts such an exercise is impossible. For any successful ERP integration project you need to invest in the right skill sets, says Doshi. The Benefits: Fiorano essentially acts as the link between Salesforce and SAP. When a sales agent sends a query on Salesforce, it, in turn, queries Fiorano which then talks to Nilkamals ERP. It then throws back all the relevant information to Salesforce. And this happens both ways. Unlike traditional point-to-point coding systems, this is a multi-point visual code that seamlessly transfers information across disparate systems. The tool can integrate not only with SAP but with other applications that Nilkamal may decide to integrate in the future, says Doshi. Doshi expects the middleware to achieve ROI in less than a year. - See more at: http://www.cio.in/case-study/heading-towards-better-sales-managementnilkamal#sthash.SHxrxscM.dpuf