SPAR Austria Empowers
Local Store Managers with
Caché-based ERP System

Key Benefits

• Caché Server Pages
• Scalability
• Performance

Salzburg-based SPAR Austria, a member of SPAR, the world’s largest food retailer consortium, is a 4 billion Euro company with over 1,300 outlets within Austria. They wanted an end-to-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) and point-of-sale (POS) system to help managers of local stores control their inventory. After carefully researching their options, SPAR Austria decided to implement IMAge (Integrated Management Application for Grocery Enterprises), a solution based on the InterSystems Caché® object database.

IMAge was originally developed by Austria SPAR International AG (ASPIAG), SPAR Austrias’s international subsidiary, for the quickly growing Eastern European markets. The solution provides a browser-based interface that seamlessly combines information and functionality from local and centralized sources. In Austria, SPAR’s computing center in Salzburg runs the IMAge ERP solution, which offers features such as inventory control and ordering, along with data analysis capabilities. Each individual store runs a local IMAge module that manages the POS cashier system, including support for mobile devices that enable data input at the store shelves. The local module accesses the central ERP system via an Intranet. The Web interface gives store managers a unified, end-to-end view of their sales, inventory, orders, and deliveries.

“In the past, stores occasionally ran short of goods because the store mangers had to rely on inaccurate data calculated by the central office. Now, managers are able to control the movement of goods, the inventory in their stores, and pending deliveries,” says Günther Kilian, Process Manager at SPAR Austria. “Plus, the IMAge system is easy to use. The tool set has been matched perfectly with the requirements of employees.”

“Ease-of-use was an important consideration when we developed IMAge,” says Gerd Karnitschnig, Managing Director of SPAR IGT Slovenia and IT Coordinator at ASPIAG. “We used Caché Server Pages technology to create a common user interface for the centralized and local portions of the application. From the user’s perspective, there is only one system to learn. That gives us a competitive edge.”

Performance and scalability are also very important as the IMAge system continues to be rolled out. SPAR stores range from convenience stores, to specialty gourmet food shops, to supermarkets, to huge “hypermarkets” that sell much more than just groceries. A pilot project to install IMAge at six SPAR Austria hypermarkets was completed in 2007. By the end of 2008, that will have expanded to about 800 SPAR stores, including 50 hypermarkets. That number is expected to exceed 1,400 by the time the roll out is complete in 2010.

And that’s not all. In addition to supplying software to stores in Slovenia (over 100 outlets), Hungary (over 200 outlets), Croatia (10 big hypermarkets), and the Czech Republic (over 30 big hypermarkets), ASPIAG also supports SPAR markets in Italy. Plans call for introducing IMAge into 250 SPAR stores and hypermarkets and 500 SPAR affiliates in that country. Another SPAR merchant, the Hervis sporting goods chain, will migrate its 130 stores in Austria and Eastern Europe to IMAge by the end of 2008.

According to Mr. Karnitschnig, there are a number of improvements and additions being developed for the IMAge solution. “We have 25 Caché developers working on new modules like an integrated Balanced Score Card, Web portals for suppliers, clients, and laboratories, forecast tools, and category management tools. And we plan to start using InterSystems Zen™ technology to make our user interfaces even more interactive.”

“We are very happy with Caché’s rapid Web development, scalability, and high performance,” he says.