USC connects 3,800 stores with ERP system

The Utility Store Corporation (USC) has connected its 3,800 stores and more than 120 warehouses with the automated digital central database system.

USC General Manager Inayat Ullah Dola and GM IT Shakeel Ahmad informed the media that USC has successfully completed the digital transformation of the supply chain management process.

All USC Stores and Warehouses were closed for three days for physical inventory count and loading this inventory information in the ERP system, he further said that we have connected all utility stores and warehouses to the ERP system which will enable timely completion of utility store operations.

He also said that this is an important milestone in the company’s 50-year history and customers will now be issued a computerized bill after each transaction.

He also said that the cost of the digital transformation of the supply chain management process project is Rs2.3 billion.

Explaining the benefits, USC GM said that this supply chain transformation will overall provide benefits to USC operations besides organizational efficiency in terms of time, resource allocation, decision making, accessibility, data management and reports.

In addition, the complete supply chain process will become simpler, from purchasing goods from suppliers, shipping to stores and selling to the customers and everything will be recorded in an organized manner with a computerized system.

Furthermore, purchasing activity will become a structured process whereby situations arising due to over or under-stocking of inventory can be controlled. 

The whole inventory will be controllable and USC would be able to forecast the number of items needed, thus preventing both product shortages and overstocking.

Similarly, synchronization of warehouses and retail outlets data into the centralized database, will provide a consolidated view of the organization’s performance.

Meanwhile, it also helps to identify trends in top-selling items and locations that will enable stock to be moved with precision and achieve higher sales volumes.

Explaining the financial and strategic aspects of this system, he said that USC can make greater business insights through more accurate and timely financial information.

Moreover, USC also can control prices by recording prices of products along with discounts and subsidies centrally and centralized sales monitoring will bound store staff for timely sales deposits.

In addition USC will offer a 5 per cent to 15 per cent discount on 1,700 items during Ramadan and for this, a discount has been obtained from 65 manufacturers.

This concession will be in addition to the Ramadan package which will be approved at the next ECC meeting.