How Shaneel Group Streamlined Global Operations with SAP Business One
Company Overview:
Founded in 1986 by the Mehta family, the Shaneel Group is a globally recognized organization specializing in the supply and distribution of branded fine fragrances. Headquartered near London, the company has built a strong reputation in the fragrance industry through competitive pricing, reliable supply chains, and long-standing relationships with retailers and manufacturers.
Over the years, the group has expanded its operations across Europe, Asia Pacific, North and South America, the Middle East, and India. Its global footprint is supported by offices in the United States, Germany, Dubai, and Australia. The group includes several well-known businesses such as Shaneel Enterprises, Mayfair Perfumes, Designer Parfums, Worth Paris, and Perfume Shopping.
Challenges:
As the Shaneel Group expanded across multiple regions, brands, and business entities, the organization began to experience operational and reporting challenges with its legacy systems. Managing multiple companies and brands across different platforms made it increasingly difficult to obtain consolidated and accurate business insights.
One of the key challenges was the lack of visibility into brand and sub-brand sales performance, making it difficult for management to analyze product performance and market demand. In addition, managing multiple group companies within separate systems created inefficiencies and limited the ability to generate consolidated reports.
The organization also faced challenges in inventory management, including the lack of real-time stock visibility across warehouses and distribution channels. Stock reconciliation processes were largely manual and time-consuming, often resulting in discrepancies in inventory records.
Financial reporting across different group companies required significant manual effort and coordination, leading to longer financial closing cycles, particularly during year-end reporting.
Furthermore, the company required:
A more standardized production and operational workflow
Seamless integration with multiple online sales portals
A reliable system to ensure compliance with UK Making Tax Digital (MTD) requirements for tax submissions
These operational challenges highlighted the need for a centralized, scalable, and integrated ERP platform capable of supporting the group’s growing global operations.
Furthermore, the company relied on external contract manufacturers for part of its production process. However, the existing systems did not provide sufficient visibility into production status or stock levels held at these external manufacturing locations. This made it difficult to accurately track work-in-progress materials, monitor production progress, and maintain accurate inventory records across the supply chain.
To address these challenges, Shaneel Enterprises Ltd. selected SAP Business One as its ERP platform. The solution was implemented to support key business processes and provide better operational visibility across the organization.
Master Data Management
Improved management of key business data to ensure accuracy, consistency, and accessibility across departments.
Inventory Management
Real-time inventory tracking with automated stock management processes to improve accuracy and reduce manual effort.
Project Management
Improved tracking of projects and sub-projects with better visibility of expenses and resource allocation.
Cost Centres
Enhanced financial reporting through cost centre-based expense allocation and tracking.
Financial Management
Centralized financial processes including:
Accounts receivable
Accounts payable
General ledger
Budgeting and financial reporting
Procurement Management
Improved control over purchasing activities, enabling better cost management and timely procurement of materials and services.
Sales and Delivery
Streamlined order processing and integrated shipment management to improve customer service and operational efficiency.
External Manufacturing Management
SAP Business One was configured to support the management of production processes handled by external manufacturers. A virtual warehouse structure was created within SAP Business One to represent inventory held at external manufacturing locations.
This approach provided the organization with:
Real-time visibility into stock held at third-party manufacturing sites
Better tracking of raw materials issued for external production
Monitoring of work-in-progress and finished goods at the external manufacturer
Improved control over inventory movement between internal warehouses and external production partners
By managing these external manufacturing processes through SAP Business One, Shaneel gained full transparency of production status and inventory levels across the entire supply chain.
E-commerce Integration and Intercompany Automation
One of the companies within the Shaneel Group operates an e-commerce platform, while another group company manages the inventory and fulfilment of orders. Previously, this process required manual coordination between the two companies, which was time-consuming and prone to errors.
To streamline operations, an automated integration was implemented between the e-commerce platform and SAP Business One. The solution automatically downloads sales orders from the e-commerce website and generates a Purchase Order in the e-commerce company while simultaneously creating a corresponding Sales Order in the sister company responsible for inventory management.
This automation also manages the intercompany transaction flow, automatically converting:
Purchase Orders to GRPO to AP Invoices
Sales Orders to Delivery to Sales Invoices
As a result, the entire intercompany order processing cycle is automated, significantly increasing the speed of document processing while reducing manual intervention and operational errors. This has led to substantial time savings and improved efficiency across the group’s order fulfilment process.
To improve warehouse efficiency, a web-based picking portal was developed to streamline the picking and packing process.
Warehouse users begin the process by scanning the pick list number, after which they simply scan the barcode of each item being picked. The system automatically validates the item against the pick list and adds it to the picking record in real time.
This barcode-driven process eliminates manual data entry and ensures accurate order picking. The solution has significantly improved warehouse productivity, reduced picking errors, and accelerated the order fulfilment process.
P2P Portal
A real-time integrated Procure-to-Pay portal was implemented, enabling procurement users to create Purchase Orders directly from the portal without accessing SAP Business One.
The portal also includes advanced OCR functionality for automated purchase invoice generation with built-in three-way matching. OCR processing supports multiple document input methods including:
Manual upload
Email synchronization
Folder-based document imports
B1 Usability Package
Customization tools were implemented to enhance system usability and allow business users to adapt SAP Business One to their operational needs without extensive development.
Warehouse Management System (WMS)
A warehouse management solution was introduced to improve warehouse operations, increase accuracy, and significantly reduce manual processes.
NET-EDI Integration
The implementation of NetEDI enabled automated exchange of order data with trading partners. This eliminated manual data entry, reduced processing errors, and enabled faster order processing with improved visibility into inventory and order status.
Mondial was implemented to provide real-time consolidated financial reporting directly from SAP Business One. The solution extracts transaction-level data and enables detailed, auditable reports with drill-down capabilities. Finance teams can perform consolidation and adjustments independently, reducing manual work while maintaining a user-friendly reporting environment with a low total cost of ownership.
FASTBANK Integration
FastBank was implemented to automate bank transaction imports and reconciliation processes. With intelligent categorization, rule-based matching, and automated reconciliation capabilities, the solution significantly reduced manual effort while improving financial accuracy and processing speed.
Implementation:
SAP Business One was implemented in a phased approach over 12 months.
Key modules deployed included
Master Data Management
Financials
Sales & Shipment
Procurement
Inventory Management
SAP B1 Mobile App
MTD
P2P Portal
Reporting
NETEDI
Fast-Bank
Mondial
- Improved Operational Efficiency
- Enhanced Inventory Control
- Improved Financial Reporting
- Greater Scalability
Results:
Automation of key business processes significantly reduced manual tasks, resulting in fewer errors and faster order processing.
Real-time visibility into stock levels improved inventory management and reduced stock shortages.
Month-end closing time was reduced by 40%, enabling faster and more accurate financial reporting.
The new system provides a scalable ERP platform capable of supporting future business growth, new product lines, and expansion into new markets.