Realco chooses TAS Group

to implement its new performance management system based on the Oracle Cloud

Investing in technological innovation

Realco is a cooperative active in the large-scale retail distribution sector (GDO), and one of the main players among the Associated Distributors. A founder member of the National Sigma Group, now D.It., the Group operates under the SIGMA and Ok Sigma brands for the supermarket and mini-

mart channels, and ECU, D’Italy and Economy for the discount channel.

Today Realco has more than 100 members with 215 businesses, 167 of them located in Emilia-Romagna, but with a presence also in the Italian regions of Tuscany, Liguria, Veneto and Lombardy.

In 2017, Realco launched a new

business plan that foresees large-scale investments over the next three years, including substantial operations to deliver technological innovation. One of Realco’s critical business applications requiring a makeover, was its Performance Management system. Realco had the idea to implement a new application to manage the budget, forming part of its overall Performance Management system. The previous solution adopted by Realco was built on the Oracle Hyperion platform and presented three main issues:

1. technology: the system was dated and no longer supported updates

2. performance: the system’s processing times were no longer acceptable, taking into account the budget processing window, especially for more complex functions

3. business: the functional coverage of the application no longer kept pace with the current business and processes.

Realco has chosen TAS Group to re-engineer its

performance management processes and move Budget Management to the Cloud

TAS Group | 2018

Case History Realco

Process expertise and technical know-how on the Oracle Cloud: a winning combination

After a series of internal evaluations, Realco chose TAS Group to implement the new Performance Management solution, dedicated to managing the budget. Key deciding factors were its ability to combine long-standing expertise in the development of enterprise management solutions, in particular in the large-scale retail distribution sector, with deep technical knowledge of Oracle Cloud applications. TAS Group has been an Oracle Gold Partner for over 10 years and in 2018 it was recognized as Oracle Partner of the Year for its innovative solutions based on Oracle Cloud Architecture.

The underlying principles of the project

Before proceeding to the development phase of the new application, TAS Group carried out an assessment aimed at identifying the target design for the evolution of Realco’s Planning & Controlling System. The scope of this analysis included all the EPM applications at Realco and the operational and directional reporting connected to them. With this design to-be the decision was made to go ahead and take the first step related to the Budgeting solution.

The fundamental implementation principles underlying the new system were defined as:

• Completeness of the Supply Chain – design represented

the complex nature of Realco, which includes both its activity as a Distribution Centre in the strict sense, and its management activity

• Organicity of the data – facts relevant to the management analysis were represented in their entirety

• Facility/flexibility of system evolution – ability to respond to current needs, but also to evolve towards future ones, also independently by key users

• Performance – speed of access and processing

• Technological homogeneity/Integration – adoption of the Oracle stack, also for reporting components and for integration with other systems in scope

• Upgrade – a solution that stays up to date over time

“We appreciated the all-round analysis conducted by TAS Group in the preliminary stages of the project, which allowed us to better place and focus the needs of the Planning Management process of the Budget CEDI”, commented Chiara Debé and Valeria Manfredini, Realco’s Budget and Planning process Managers. “We also believe that the re-engineering of the budget has been optimal, allowing us to have a more detailed definition of the product categories, while at the same time improving the processing times.”

Case History - RealcoTAS Group | 2018

The budget

In designing the technological architecture, TAS chose to rely on the Oracle PBCS (Planning and Budget Cloud Service) component as a pivotal element in developing the Distributor Center Performance Management project. This was to enable Realco to challenge itself with its first cloud experience and to test the Business Intelligence capabilities of the Oracle platform.

The new application allows the management of different budget and forecast cycles taking into

account the peculiarities of the process of managing the sales budget of a distribution center.

The output results delivered were highly detailed with the possibility of having a cooperative margin, including the differences by supplier compared to the list price or the reward system; it was also possible to evaluate the marginality of a store, by sales channels and products.

The processing is managed through a Navigation Flow that guides users through the various phases of the process. In between the various stages,

a series of dashboards allows anomalies to be quickly found and therefore manage with high responsiveness the reworking of the budget itself.

The above logical architecture also allows:

• Complete data traceability within the Budget and Forecast definition processes

• Ability to perform a rollback at any stage of the process.

“To date, I believe that Oracle PBCS is the best performance management product on the market, due to its extreme parameterization that allows the implementer to shape the product to the real needs of the customer”, comments Francesca Predari, Functional Analyst of TAS Group. “I believe that the success of this project is due to the integration of TAS Group competences in process engineering and the flexibility of the Oracle solution in adapting to the specific functional needs of the customer.”

Case History - RealcoTAS Group | 2018

www.tasgroup.it

TAS Group delivers software solutions for electronic money, payment systems, capital markets and extended enterprise. As an Oracle Gold Partner, for over four years TAS Group has specialized in the supply of Oracle applications.

TAS Group supports its customers, applying innovation and expertise, to deliver business process improvements and increased efficiency in business and information systems.

The main advantages achieved

Quality and completeness of the budget: the detailed information managed, the accuracy of the calculation rules, together with ease of use and system response time allow a much higher quality of data to be produced in a shorter time, and with greater control.

Technological adequacy: the adoption of cloud-computing removes the costs of managing the system by Realco and guarantees a system that is always up-to-date and that will no longer have problems concerning technological obsolescence and consequently no need for expensive upgrade projects.

Usability: the product is easy to manage and has graphically appealing and user-friendly interfaces. Through the data extraction capabilities directly in Excel and thanks to the detailed data it is able to manage, it provides users with high flexibility and operational autonomy.

Realco S. C. is a cooperative based in Reggio Emilia, founded in 1959, which over the years has become a real service hub for its members. Realco is the founding member of the Italian Sigma Group. Realco’s mission is to be the reference point for the modern consumer by placing value on the role and presence of the entrepreneur, through an innovative cooperative model, aimed at competing profitably in the large-scale retail distribution sector. Realco operates in the Italian regions of Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Lombardy, Piedmont, Marche, Liguria and Veneto with its Sigma supermarkets and discount brand Ecu, D’Italy and Economy.

www.sigmarealco.it

“With Realco we did a really good job thanks to the synergy created between the TAS Group team and Realco’s Controlling and Commercial functions”, says Paolo Angelino Giorzet, Head of 2ESolutions Operations of TAS Group. “This has allowed us to create a solution that not only meets the needs of the customer, but that can be a benchmark for the realization of similar solutions for other entities in the large-scale retail distribution sector.”

“With TAS Group we were able to combine the technical aspects to create a solution in line with the proposed objectives”, comments Stefano Trentini, Sales and Marketing Director of Realco, “with a marked focus on our business needs, both in the broader sense and for the individual users, through a strong synergy between the working groups.”

“In addition to the positive organizational and procedural aspects, by choosing TAS Group we have evolved and extended the life of our existing software tool through the necessary upgrades for a more efficient and flexible system”, adds Marco Musacchio, Director of Operations of Realco, “a mandatory road for the modernization of systems and fundamental to the growth of Realco.”

Case History - RealcoTAS Group | 2018