Ten Çamaşır Achieves Efficiency in Business Process with Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Leading companies of Turkey in underwear and textile industry, Ten Çamaşır achieves the efficiency in business processes with ERP solution deployed with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, while improved customer satisfaction and enjoyed faster responsiveness to the changing conditions of the market.
Situation
Founded by Atilla Orhan in 1956, Ten Çamaşır is active in ladies and men underwear, swimwear, textile, fabric and accessories. As the industry leader, Ten Çamaşır has always retained its name as a popular and reputable brand in the volatile conjecture of Turkish economy with its knowledge and uncompromising quality and achieved growth in measurable values in every period. A team of 450 employees, each trained and experienced expert, Ten Çamaşır’s management, textile, accessory and ready-made textile head units are located in the Istanbul Yenibosna facility on an indoor area of 7000 m2. Also ready-made textile production is carried out in Bursa İnegöl facilities of 3500 m2 and Kırklareli of 7000 m2 and Istanbul Altınşehir of 5500 m2. Outsourcing some products from abroad, company carries out quality control of such products in its own facilities.
Currently having own sales shops in 7 different points, Ten also provides service to 2500 retailing customers located in different places of Turkey through Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Adana and Samsun Regional Directorates. Producin for famous brands of the world, Ten exports to the US, Italia, Greece, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Israel and Arab Peninsula countries.
Deha Orhan, Vice Chairman of Ten Çamaşır says that: “The most important criteria in our industry is to adaptation to the market, namely to produce items that will be enjoyed by clientele and predict the customer preferences and accordingly to produce the items. Price never comes before such criteria. Of course you should sell the item proper to market at optimum price, however the first rule is to follow up the customer better.
Preferring integration in the productions and investments and using the production system with advanced technology, Ten Çamaşır is a company which has been making use of the information technologies for long years. Purchasing yarn as a raw material, Ten Çamaşır needs an ERP solution n business processes such as, yarn weaving, delivery to paint shop, making them into fabric and cut them in cutting house, distributing it shops for sewing it, trimming with accessories, storage of the final products, shipment from warehouse to regional directorates or abroad, following up marketing, retailing operations and sales. Working with the former software solution used for 8 years, Ten Çamaşır began looking out for a new ERP due to this software not being sufficiently flexible and able to respond emerging new requirements in due time.
Solution
Starting off with analyzing the solutions on the market, Ten Çamaşır placed importance especially on the upgradeability and adaptability of the solution they will purchase. Deha Orhan says that: “It is not possible to say today what we will need tomorrow, because it is changing. Your products are changing, your customer profile is changing, customer wants are changing, production potential, way of the company, production line, textile and fabric types and accessories are changing. While everything is changing, a software purchased today may become obsolete tomorrow. Therefore, the software we will purchase have to allow all these changes.
Evaluating the current solutions together with the consultant firm 6 Gen, company decided on the Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Microsoft Navision) as the solution meeting best their needs. Deha Orhan adds: “If the company you get support is strong and have sufficient knowledge, it is possible to adapt Microsoft Dynamics NAV to your varied requirements. We also have businesses in other fields other than Ten Çamaşır. For instance we opened a student dormitory; it also had to be a system which will provide card system that we will develop for this dormitory. And also we had a Hospital project and ERP solutions had to work in there. We began doing very different works in retailing, too; and this system had to work there too. Therefore, we decided on Microsoft Dynamics NAV.”
Ten Çamaşır adapted the Microsoft Dynamics NAV for use in all business processes, together with 6 Gen, a solution partner of Microsoft. While company use Microsoft SQL as a database, Ümit Görür, IT Director of the company says that: “We run database over Microsoft SQL. Since both is a product of Microsoft, they are fully compatible each other and we have no problem. We have a complete Microsoft platform from server to terminal operation systems.
While Ten Çamaşır uses Microsoft Dynamics NAV in retailing in an integrated manner with POS devices, he also makes use of this solution in sales and marketing field. Company receives orders with laptop computers of 15 sales representative distributed across Turkey. Sales Representatives connect to Microsoft Dynamics NAV with their own user names and passwords and show customers pictures and alternatives of a product. Thus, customer determines colors, sizes and shops within his limit. The order taken as such are delivered directly to the warehouse and prepared by warehouse and shipped to customer. If warehouse is short of the size or color of a product ordered by a customer, then system presents an alternative automatically. If deal is closed, then it is deducted from the customer limit kept in Microsoft Dynamics NAV and simultaneously and instantly delivered to the warehouse, and shipped instantly from the warehouse.
While Sales Representatives of Ten Çamaşır can connect Microsoft Dynamics NAV via Web with GPRS, shops can connect the program via ‘remote desktop’. Also, some wholesale customers of Ten Çamaşır can follow up all current accounts and make payments via Web with the access permission granted to the them, thus it is not necessary for Ten Çamaşır Sales Representatives to visit the locations of the customers.
Ümit Görür adds: “The orders taken by our Sales Representatives and catalogue samples are displayed in Web from Microsoft Dynamics NAV. When shops and wholesale customers connect to our system from their own computers, they are welcomed with our Web solution integrated with Microsoft Dynamics NAV developed over ASP.net. When invoices are created we deliver data of such invoices read in Microsoft Dynamics NAV by sending an SMS instantly to the mobile phones of our customers. This solution is also integrated with Microsoft Dynamics NAV. As a reporting software, we use TARGIT solution developed by a Microsoft solution partner.”
ERP project implemented in Ten Çamaşır is the first project developed with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 3.7 version in Turkey. Company implemented the development works in collaboration with its consultant 6 Gen in order to adapt Microsoft Dynamics NAV to all his needs. Ümit Görür highlights that in case of any changes in their productions, they reflect such changes by applying necessary definitions in Microsoft Dynamics NAV and they can execute all works via Microsoft Dynamics NAV without requiring any other solutions.
Benefits
While Ten Çamaşır is managing business process very much efficiently with this project, Microsoft Dynamics NAV provided company many advantages such as ease of use and management, customer satisfactions, more effective control of costs, more solid decision making process, management of all business processes with a single integrated enterprise solution providing ease of integration.
Ease of Use
Deha Orhan, Vice Chairman of Ten Çamaşır, says that Microsoft Dynamics NAV does have the features which must be used by the Company and but not offered by other products presented to them: “Microsoft Dynamics NAV is the best program which shows all our business process data that I want to see on one single page.”
Deha Orhan highlights that among his favorite features of Microsoft Dynamics NAV comes the ease of use first. “Even if our users in IT or accounting department have a great computer literacy, we cannot expect all our personnel or sales representatives be an expert in computing. Some of them may feel messaging via mobile phone is complicated. And it is not possible to assign someone good in computers to work with our production and ready-made textile personnel or sales representatives, therefore the software must be easy to use by everyone. And Microsoft Dynamics NAV provided that us.”
Ümit Görür underlines that they are successful in having users even who has basic level of computer literacy in need of frequent support with IT department use the Microsoft Dynamics NAV. 6 Gen and Ten Çamaşır worked together to make simple the screens used by Sales Representatives. Sales Representatives can select the customer in the screen, and then goes on selecting brand, model, color and size step by step. Since system guides the user, the chance of making any errors in any steps is eliminated.
Efficient Management of Business Processes
While Microsoft Dynamics NAV ensures more efficient management of the business processes in Ten Çamaşır, it got credit with the features which enabled a faster decision-making process for the management. Ümit Görür adds that: “In the past, when top management requests details of a customer for a certain period, a work at high pressure was beginning. This work may take very long depending on the work of customer and whether any error exists or not. Thus, it was necessary to request such reports weeks before. Now, since we set up a solid system at the very beginning with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, a report requested can be delivered to the table of a manager within 10 minutes.
Deha Orhan also adds that: “The reports that we wanted are not just a basic summary of a customer but for example, I might want to know sales performance of a certain color of a certain product in certain month, they can deliver the report right away.”
Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows Ten Çamaşır to follow up performance both on the product and customer basis. This feature helps operate decision making process of the company much more healthily, while a faster responsiveness to the market developments.
Ease to Integrate
Ten Çamaşır uses a corporate intelligence solution, TARGIT which is developed by one of the foreign solutions partner of Microsoft. A complete integration between this solution and Microsoft Dynamics NAV helps company managers make more solid business decisions.
Deha Orhan adds that thus we can instantly follow up sales success of different products of merchandisers and respond faster to the market: “Market conditions in this industry has been becoming more difficult every year; while your turnover and sales targets are on the decline, your costs are on the rise. You can only reduce your costs up to certain level. In this case, the only solution is to understand the wants of the customers and to produce right product; with continuous innovation, offer alternative products. There are two leading companies in this market; others even if they enjoy a boom they may start descending and then disappear. In our business, it is very important to ask right questions and of course experience. We have this experience but now we have a platform where we can have faster answers to our multidimensional questions, all by virtue of Microsoft Dynamics NAV.”
Improved Customer Satisfaction
While Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows Ten Çamaşır to access right data faster, such advantage has implications for customer satisfaction. Ümit Görür adds that: “If you don’t have up-to-date and right information at your hand to provide customer, if customer orders a product, which is less in inventory than demanded, or already discontinued, then it is inevitable to cause your customer dissatisfied. Now, our Representatives can instantly follow up products in the inventory and production and provide right information to customer.”
Deha Orhan says that this data means that we will never miss a sales opportunity, and adds: “If a customer orders 100 units of a product, which is actually available in 80 units in the inventory and Representative does not have this information, then missing delivery to customer will cause customer dissatisfaction and also you miss a sales opportunity for 20 units. Now, our representatives can see instantly the missing inventory and suggest an alternative product to the customer. Thus, we can keep customer better under control.”
A Harmonious Collaboration
Ten Çamaşır executives state that they owe the success of the project to a harmonious collaboration. While Top management of Ten Çamaşır believe in and fully support the project, 6 Gen, which owns world-leading Microsoft Dynamics NAV programmers and consultants acted under the principles of a faster and accurate response to all company. Deha Orhan states that once we combine this harmonious collaboration with a product packed with features and flexibility which can meet all their needs such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV. “I can say that so far for the first time we are acutally reaping the fruits of an investment in IT systems. And in our business, that is what is important.”