Smart business analysis for Indian retail industry

BANGALORE, INDIA: Manthan Systems, a leading provider of specialized software solutions for the retail and consumer goods industries, after having supplied the software to major retailers is now cashing in on Indian retail chains.

The specialized software provider helps retailers capture and process data that can be leveraged to improve planning‚ monitor results‚ analyze and anticipate changes and mine opportunities.

Talking to CIOL, Atul Jalan, CEO and MD at Manthan Systems said, "Manthan understands retail business practices and their technology underpinnings‚ having worked with a wide range of retailers and consumer goods companies."

The company already bagged orders from leading global retail chains including: Woolworths Germany‚ Haggen Supermarkets‚ Castorama‚ Ecco Sko, McDonalds and Haggar Clothing Co and is now focused on Indian retail chains.

The company has recently announced that Total Hypermarkets, a division of Rs 4,600 core Jubilant Group has selected Manthan Systems' ARC Retail Business Intelligence solution for its fast growing retail enterprise. Total hypermarkets expect to grow to over 50 hypermarkets in the next five years. Total selected ARC after an extensive competitive evaluation process involves several leading business intelligence (BI) platforms.

Jalan says today fast growing and competitive businesses like Jubilant Retail have little time to build retail solutions, and ARC has perfectly plugged the need for a business intelligence solution that all the capabilities expected from a BI-DW platform combined with the retail business centricity that all BI-DW solutions have to inevitably deliver. "We are also in advanced talks with about seven Indian customers and will reveal their names shortly."

The $450 billion Indian retail market is still disorganized with hardly four percent in the organized sector where as 96 percent falls in the unorganized sector. However, the organized sector is growing at 8-10 percent per annum with almost all leading industry houses entering into the market like Future Group, Lifestyle, AB Birla, Reliance, Tata and Madura Garments.

Mathan software gives an offering as to where to open the outlets and also points out the exact location. Besides also indicates the price, discounts, competitors and the EDLP (Every Day Low Prices) in the market across a wide range of goods.

"We have 15 years of experience in the technology business serving retail technology to Fortune 100 companies and the response in India is very encouraging, says Jalan adding that some of the retailers have also gone public like Vishal and more will follow shortly."

"BI is a key focus area for us and we expect to stay ahead of competition through better insights and a dynamic decision-making environment. With its strong retail focus, rich analysis & reporting capabilities, and a rapid speed-to-deployment proposition, we were convinced that ARC is the platform of choice for us," says a leading retailer in India.

The company has developed the software 100 percent in house by a team of 300 software developers who took about 2.5 years to develop the initial version and today Version 6 is out in the market. "We believe every retailer needs BI data analysis and since retailers operate on thin margins, loss prevention, curb losses, shrinkage that can also be prevented," adds Jalan.