Luxury watch retailer owner uses 3D survey and SAP integration to optimise store investment, highlight new sales opportunities and improve profitability
Aurum Holdings recently revealed it has made a major investment to integrate SAP software across its organisation, linking together different data sources across different systems.
As the owner of retail brands, Goldsmiths, Mappin & Webb and Watches of Switzerland, Aurum wants to better understand existing data to increase efficiency, highlight opportunity and improve profitability, while supporting its commitment to world-class customer experience.
The company identified a need to link the computer-aided design (CAD) plan of each store to its SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to aid in the planning of space within its stores and turned to StoreSpace by C A Design Services.
Updating store CAD plans
Initially Aurum approached C A Design Services for an effective way to link data held in and managed with AutoCAD to a centralised database. Early on in the project it became clear that there was not a complete set of accurate plans available.
Within 15 weeks, a team from C A Design Services using 3D laser scanners had surveyed all 154 Aurum branches in the UK in parallel to the configuration and population of the system. Each store also completed a questionnaire using iPad technology to create a background of information and photographs for each site, which were all added to a centralised database.
In addition to the 3D survey, C A Design Services produced 2D CAD deliverables, a web-based reporting engine [pictured] and automated links to SAP via secure web services. The system also supported store versioning, allowing for seasonal changes to each store to be delivered simultaneously. The software platform can now be extended to encompass other data sources such as facilities management data.
Flexible space management
Tim Bennett, head of store planning at Aurum, stated: “CA Design’s StoreSpace software directly feeds the SAP database from our CAD drawings of each branch. StoreSpace proved to be flexible enough to accommodate the way we plan our stores (linear, by season, by brand) and deliver productivity improvements from a planner perspective.”
A new AutoCAD plan was created identifying all unitary, points of sale (PoS), poster sites and sizes. From there, all of the collected store information was added to the database via the AutoCAD plan. The entire project delivered an integrated space and planning system complete with a property data portal and accurate details for each Aurum site, within six months of the order being placed.
Bennett added: “A key factor in choosing C A Design Services was their ‘turnkey approach’ and being able to undertake all the surveys in-house. Their innovative approach of capturing each site in full 3D is very exciting and provides us with a rich data set for use and with both StoreSpace and as a technology platform we can build on in the future.”
