Halfords completes move to tailored retail systems

Firm says replacing outdated legacy systems provides greater IT stability

Halfords has completed a major business transformation project to update key business and warehousing systems.

The car and bike accessory retailer has replaced ageing legacy systems it inherited in 2002 from former owner Boots Group.

The company has deployed SAP for Retail, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software tailored specifically for the retail sector.

The system forms the core operations, providing financial, human resource (HR) and trading processes.

‘The cost and risk of upgrading legacy applications that were designed for a very different business so they would perform optimally for the modern Halfords was deemed a step too far,’ said Brian Scott, the company’s head of business systems.

‘The legacy platform was also a shared mainframe, and therefore Halfords took the opportunity to re-platform with a lower cost structure,’ he said.

‘SAP for Retail replaced the vast majority of our head office applications, particularly in the critical area of trading systems.’

The company appointed a consortium of vendors, led by SAP partner Ciber Novasoft, to install the new systems, which included updating ageing warehouse and supply chain systems at the same time (Computing, 21 July 2005).

‘We were confident this implementation would meet the majority of our current and future needs without extensive customisation,’ said Scott.

Halford’s previous systems suffered from a lack of integration, where a number of complex retail-critical processes could not be supported.

The project integrated systems, including the warehousing technology, to enable complex promotional and stock planning activities of which the previous legacy systems were not capable.

Alison Vasey, Halfords business process manager, says the benefits to the business have included greater IT stability, and helping management make the business more responsive.

‘The store replenishment capability within SAP is central to the business case for investing in the development of our enterprise technology, improving stock availability for our customers while reducing overall levels of stockholding,’ she said.