A Case Study on How SAP Business One Helped Transform Assos

Client: UK Based Client

Introduction

Assos of Switzerland is a company based in Ticino that specialises in designing innovative and high-quality biking apparel focusing on lean, efficient design and meticulous quality control.

However, the company’s flagship store on Regent Street in London was facing some operational difficulties. Assos implemented the SAP Business One suite in partnership with Silver Touch Technologies in a bid to eliminate these issues and streamline store operations. The project ended up being a huge success, and the problems faced by the store, solutions provided by SAP and reasons for success will be analysed in this business case study.

Problems faced by Assos of Switzerland

Assos of Switzerland faced similar problems to that of other retailers in the London Area but exacerbated by their unique business niche of catering to the bike market. Some of the biggest problems faced by them included –

Issues with Inventory and Warehousing

Assos was facing extensive problems in tracking inventory and creating a comprehensive list of products in storage. This led to rampant supply chain issues, as purchase orders were often not placed in time, inaccurate counting led to both a glut of certain products and a shortage of others, as well as leaks and the inability to take advantage of price swings in the market.

Opaque employee records

Assos further faced a problem both with tracking employee hours, as well as measuring the productivity of each employee. Due to the ephemeral nature of retail employment, there was sometimes a shortage of staff at rush hour or a large number of idle staff during periods of low footfall. This ended up costing the company a fortune in low productivity, high employee turnover and inability to properly bill for overtime.

Financial Tracking

Like any other retail store, Assos had a large number of transactions to keep track of every single day, such as sales to customers, orders from suppliers, wages, utilities, and marketing. With a small staff and high workload, it became quite difficult to properly compile all financial records and prepare proper accounts.

Changing Consumer Behaviour

The disruption in recent times from factors like the rise of e-commerce, the pandemic lockdowns, an increasing interest in biking as a clean form of transport and the changing demographics of London and Gen-Z meant that Assos was falling behind the times in terms of keeping up with changing spending habits and shopping behaviour of customers. The business wasn’t able to properly take advantage of new opportunities, develop new products to match trends or minimise future pitfalls, and this led to a risk of the business becoming uncompetitive.

How SAP Business One Made Life Easier for Assos

SAP Business One completely transformed the business experience of Assos of Switzerland. What had earlier been a migraine-inducing experience of monitoring staff hours, cataloguing and organising inventory and managing financial accounts instantly became a quick and painless experience after implementing SAP Business One with the help of Silver Touch Technologies.

In fact, not just solving problems, SAP Business One even created new opportunities for Assos by allowing collation and analysis of customer data, allowing the business to further streamline its operations and improve customer experience.

Here are some of the ways Assos of Switzerland benefited from using SAP Business One –

Easy and Transparent Inventory Management

What had earlier been a dreary, time-consuming activity for store managers now became a quick and precise process with the help of SAP Business One’s inventory management module. By easily being able to record product purchase orders and sales in real-time, inventory management became considerably more efficient.

Not only did being able to view available stock instantly make for a better customer experience, as customers were informed about a particular product’s availability and expected wait times, but it also made the whole acquisitions process much smoother.

By being able to view and anticipate stock flows and future shortages, management was able to place purchase orders ahead of time, minimising turnaround and warehouse space. Discrepancies between recorded and available stock became easy to spot, and any leaks were instantly identified and plugged in. According to management, SAP Business One’s nifty inventory management functions would have been worth the price all by themselves.

Optimised Staff Monitoring

By being able to view a staff member’s exact working hours, performance and other data in one easy to analyse profile, employee efficiency were optimised, and productivity jumped by a huge margin. Monitoring working hours is not an easy job, nor is deciding at what times more or less staff is needed, but by easily matching employee work hours, sales targets and performance, as well as customer feedback, the business was able to get much more out of each individual employee.

Financial Statements Made Painless

Trawling through thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of purchase orders, sales receipts, payslips, and various other accounting data to make financial statements is a mind-numbing and dreary job that sapped both the time and bandwidth of management. But with the help of SAP Business One and its transparent financial management system, the whole process was automated.

Now there is no need for management to collect and verify every single receipt to update ledgers, as SAP does the whole work for them, creating End of Day reports to help track performance on a daily basis. Nor is SAP Business One’s utility in this regard limited to simple accounting work, but it also helped analytics. By freeing management from constant paperwork and small-scale tasks, it allowed them to focus on the big picture with a constant stream of real-time data to back up decisions.

Unlocking the Power of Big Data

SAP Business One didn’t just help Assos by fixing their pre-existing problem areas. Perhaps the most useful SAP Business One function that Assos benefited from was its ability to create custom data fields to collect customer data, as well as collate, chart and analyse it.

By getting in-depth information on each customer’s requirements, demographic information and feedback, Assos was able to tailor their store’s business plan to maximise efficiency. The feedback allowed them to improve their customer experience and attract more customers, while demographic data allowed fine-tuning of advertisements, window displays and messaging. Even inventory was optimised, as Assos was able to adjust stock levels based on demand.

The powerful data capabilities of SAP Business are what truly allowed Assos of Switzerland to become an innovative and flexible business that quickly made a name for itself in London’s vast and growing biking market. Management profusely praised the ability to collect, compile and analyse data from customers, employees and competitors to give them a panoramic birds-eye view of the situation and quickly identify both areas of improvement, as well as potential solutions to maximise their potential.

The Silver Touch Experience

Any software solution is only as good as the training and after-sales support provided by the partner, and in this, Silver Touch received a glowing review from Assos of Switzerland. With extensive pre-installation training provided to all staff on how to make the most of this technology, a robust and responsive after-sales support system to quickly handle any technical or operational issues, and customised solutions to Assos’s specific issues, the professional demeanour and skills of Silver Touch were praised by Assos staff.

Assos provided a glowing review of the service provided by Silvertouch and an endorsement of its capabilities to help any business improve its operations. Store Manager Philip Smith highly recommended Silvertouch as an ideal partner for other businesses.