Russian Book Retailer Top-Kniga Selects Oracle® Retail Applications to Improve Inventory Management and Enhance Customer Service

Top-Kniga, a leading retailer and wholesaler in the Russian book market, has selected Oracle(r) Retail merchandising, planning and data warehousing applications to help increase sales, performance and levels of customer service through more effective inventory management across its six wholesale warehouses and 500 stores in 180 Russian cities. Top-Kniga, which sells more than 3 million books a month across its ’Litera,’ ’Las Knigas’ and ’Knigomir’ brands, expects the Oracle Retail platform to help improve forecasting capabilities, automate stock replenishment and provide management with valuable real-time data and analytics aimed at increasing inventory turnover and profitability, particular among its wholesale customers.
Top-Kniga considers the Oracle Retail project an important step towards increasing the efficiency of the company’s retail and wholesale businesses as it expands across Russia and into other CIS countries. In order to maintain its position at the forefront of the book market, Top-Kniga understood the benefits of creating a scalable core merchandising platform and related retail applications, alongside best practice processes. The deployment of Oracle Retail applications will support its strategy for improving customer service, efficiency and sales, enabling the company to bring new stores and locations online quickly, and to extend its range of services and printed media books and products.

Georgy Lyamin, general director of Top-Kniga, said, “We expect the Oracle Retail applications will improve the analysis of customer demand, the forecasting process and streamline the process of stock replenishment along the whole supply chain, from the suppliers to warehouses and stores. We anticipate this will result in long-term competitive advantages for our company, increasing both customer numbers and loyalty. We expect to see the first results at the beginning of autumn 2007.”

Top-Kniga identified Oracle Retail as the best fit for its strategic requirements, following an analysis of market applications, and selected Deloitte as its implementation partner. The initial project will focus on implementing the Oracle Retail Merchandising System, Oracle Retail Demand Forecasting and Oracle Retail Data Warehouse modules. As an existing Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne customer, Top-Kniga understood the value of a phased implementation path and simplifying the integration process to achieve a rapid return on investment.

“Oracle’s extensive experience through projects with many of the largest book retailers in the world, like WH Smith, supported the selection of the Oracle Retail applications,” said Patrick Bohannon, Vice President for EMEA, Oracle Retail. “Retailers in emerging markets like Russia and the CIS countries have studied the most successful retailers in established markets and identified how integrated IT systems and applications can impact the bottom line, improve margins and drive corporate growth. Oracle is committed to helping Top-Kniga compete more effectively in this increasingly competitive market.”