alShiaka modernizes its back-office business processes with Oracle Cloud

The Saudi Arabian clothing brand caters to clothing and fabrics for men. During the pandemic, the retailer experienced supply chain disruptions and changes to customer buying patterns. The sales environment was further challenged by intense competition in the retail sector, decreased overseas factory capacity, and reduced demand for traditional thobes worn on religious pilgrimages.

The company reacted by cutting operating costs, introducing new fashion trends, opening stores in key cities in Saudi Arabia, and launching an ecommerce platform. At the same time, alShiaka began to restructure its key functions in line with the post-pandemic business environment.

The retailer not only investigated ways to achieve better control over supplies, improve inventory management, and enhance customer engagement, but also recognized the need to upgrade its technology. Managers decided to replace the incumbent Infor ERP system with an integrated solution encompassing supply chain, retail, finance, and customer engagement.

As the backbone for transforming its business operations, alShiaka selected Oracle Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Cloud Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Oracle Retail, running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Infor did not meet alShiaka’s needs for an integrated finance, supply chain, and retail management solution. Oracle was considered the best platform due to its leading retail applications and the seamless integration with its Cloud ERP and supply chain solutions.

Other factors included savings from the disinvestment in on-premises hardware, peace of mind from the automatic upgrades and updates of Oracle Cloud applications, and end-to-end data security provided by Oracle backup and recovery processes.

The implementation of Oracle Cloud ERP, Oracle Cloud SCM, and Oracle Retail gave alShiaka full control over procurement, inventory, order management, accounting, store profitability, and the customer experience.

Oracle Cloud SCM empowered the retailer with a unified solution that improved efficiencies in sourcing, inventory, product management, order fulfillment, as well as warehouse picking, packing, and dispatch. The company yielded real-time visibility and traceability of supply chain transactions, leading to better-informed business decisions.

With Oracle Cloud SCM, alShiaka modified its supplier planning processes in the wake of disruptions caused by the pandemic, provisioning itself with premanufactured safety stock, and prioritizing faster-moving products that yielded the most sales and profitability.

Oracle Cloud SCM Inventory Management and Order Management capabilities optimized the company’s pricing, merchandising, planning, and purchasing processes, providing greater control over stock, sales transactions, and performance management.

Oracle Cloud ERP Financials, Oracle Cloud SCM, and Oracle Retail combined to modify business flows to favor early bookings and to factor in additional lead time for planning, while optimizing outsourcing costs and reducing showroom operating costs.

By implementing Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service (POS), sales associates gained complete visibility of stock, replenishment, daily transactions, and customer data. Xstore POS also maximized productivity through access to real-time inventory status, customer transaction histories and profiles, and the ability to personalize the customer experience—in store or online.

Oracle Retail Customer Engagement boosted the customer experience for Saudi men, because sales associates interact with greater ease by accessing information gathered from the POS, ecommerce marketplaces, mobile apps, and social networks.

Oracle Cloud ERP Financials integrated and automated 29 previously disparate business processes, resulting in greater control over all aspects of alShiaka’s finances. The solution equipped company managers with detailed reports and analytics for accurately planning and tracking financial transactions, store profitability, and sales associate productivity.

Having supply chain and retail operations on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure gave the clothing company a scalable and stable environment with automated support, maintenance, backup, and disaster recovery.

To complete the integration with Xstore and take the system live within a short period of time, alShiaka relied on the expertise and effort of its own IT team. The company is looking to further enhance the Oracle integration with additional systems.