Mothercare has deployed Kewill’s web-based order management system, Kewill Trade, enabling it to develop a flexible, scalable supply chain trading platform to support expansion of its international operations.
Through Kewill Trade Mothercare issues on average 5,000 purchase orders electronically per week and receives some 1,900 invoices electronically per day from suppliers.
Kewill’s system provides access to supply chain data including supplier inventory, purchase orders, ASNs and invoices.
It also has inbuilt data integration points which allow the exchange of multiple formats of data with Mothercare’s other business systems, including merchandising and warehousing systems by JDA Software and Manhattan Associates.
Mothercare currently has more than 600 overseas stores stretching across South Africa, Russia and Australia and has plans to grow its international business further.
The majority of growth has been achieved by entering into joint ventures and franchise arrangements. The company has plans to open 200 Mothercare stores this year.
James Blackburn, enterprise architect at Mothercare, said: “The Kewill solution supports the trading of our entire franchise network, yet none of the franchisees are aware of the involvement of a third party system. Suppliers find the system simple to use and the integration with Mothercare’s own systems takes place seamlessly, behind the scenes, which is exactly the way it should be done.
“We’re adding international stores at a rate of over 100 per year, which brings a number of challenges to overcome. However, worrying about our IT infrastructure to support trading in each new country isn’t one of them.”
