Wipro implements Internet portal for Marico

BANGALORE: Wipro Infotech, the domestic and Asia Pacific IT arm of Wipro Ltd. has successfully completed the implementation of an Internet portal (MiNet), that integrates the distribution chain and the field sales team of Marico, an FMCG company in India. Marico has nine brands in its product portfolio. It has six factories, and a network of 30 depots, 1000 distributors, 2000 stockists and 100 super stockists.

Every month, over 3.5 crore consumer packs from Marico reach approximately 10 crore people in about 1.8 crore households, through a widespread distribution network of about 16 lakh outlets in India. The challenge was to be able to track the movement of products at the distributor and retail levels and ensure that retail store shelves are re-filled as quickly as possible.

Marico conceived of a state-of-the-art proprietary system that connects 330 of its distributors all across India, on a real-time basis with Marico’s Sales Headquarters in Mumbai.

The system christened — MiNet (Marico Information Network) went live recently. Wipro Infotech has implemented and integrated the MiNet that can be accessed by Marico's field sales team as well as the distribution partners. The entire system works like a virtual office with the integration of the company's SAP R/3 system and Dealer software with the portal. This has ensured that there is a constant flow of data between these systems.

The solution was built on a Microsoft ASP platform with back-end integration to SAP R/3, APO (Advanced Planning & Optimization) and BIW (Business Intelligence & Warehousing). MiNet offers Marico a number of benefits, including capture of stock availability with every distributor, distributor sales team performance, outlet monitoring, merchandising monitoring, new product performance monitoring, capture and analysis of information related to planned orders and primary sales invoicing.

In addition, employee self service modules including loan application leave application and employee profiles and other community features have resulted in enhanced employee productivity within the company. Wipro's 11-member team completed the task of building and integrating the portal over a period of five months. It carried the project through design, development and implementation and continues to support the system. MiNet has been now scaled up to cover about two-thirds of Marico’s sales and distribution force.