The Client is one of India’s biggest and most successful diversified corporate with an annual turnover of more than Rs16,000 Crores (USD 3.5 Billion). The Foods Division, one of its youngest and fastest growing arms, was the client for this specific project.

Our Client was in need of an enterprise-class system that would support the end-to-end supply chain of its Consumer Good’s division’s raw food material procurement operation. Given the poor infrastructure and socio-economic realities of the Indian rural hinterland, the task was a multi-dimensional and complex challenge.

ITC Infotech, with its core knowledge of the CPG/Retail domain, and backed by its rich technology experience of many successful global enterprise engagements, provided full lifecycle services to power the entire project.

ITC Infotech set up ‘e-Choupals’ (Virtual Village Marketplaces) - enabled through Internet kiosks and ‘Saagar-choupals’(Physical Village HyperMalls) - comprising of retail mega stores, procurement centers, pharmacies, food courts and farmer advisory centers. In this way, ITC Infotech creatively leveraged Information Technology (IT) in favor of India`s small and poor farmers.

The technology implementation roadmap comprised of Two Phases, aligning it fully with the business goals.

• Connectivity - Managing environmental aspects such as positioning computer and other equipment in villages and enabling connectivity
• IT Skills - Imparting skills to the first time IT users in remote areas of Rural India.

• Personalization - Personalization of product and content range for the very fragmented and heterogeneous farmer groups
• Supply Chain Alignment – Effective IT architecture for “Choupal Saagar” to ensure efficient delivery of goods & services to every remote retail location, including integration with the ERP / backend systems of participating farmers, distributors, service providers.

SAP IS Retail for Choupal Sagars was implemented across Ten Choupal Saagars in 99 working days (Fastest Retail Implementation in Asia)

• Superior retail experience to Rural Customers – right range, greater availability, freshness, right price and genuine branded quality.
  
• Highly efficient supply chain – quicker turns, lower costs and active supply channels.
  
• Agile retail operations – quick introduction of promotions and price changes through integration with POS.
  
• Creation of a local language portal providing information to farmers on varied topics such as local weather, market prices and best practices and personalizing of content & product range.