SAP Ganges Launch; India Retailing To Come Of Age

By Manu Sharma

Finally retailing in India will come of age. At the on-going SAP TechEd 2013 summit in Bangalore, the German software company announced the rollout of SAP Ganges, a business network built on the SAP HANA cloud platform will connects the last mile in retail consisting of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies, distributors, banks, and your neighboring mom and pop or kirana retail stores.

According to industry sources, about 9.3 million retailers are in India today and that amounts to 40 percent of the world's retailers, However, most of them are in the unorganized kirana stores. Only 4 percent of India’s retail market is the organized sector i.e. controlled by large supermarket or chain stores, while in China the share is about 20 percent and in Brazil 36 percent .

Technology is reshaping the world around us and is removing barriers across geographies and businesses. Customers are seeking out the best offers, the best prices, and the best service levels with the help of real-time data. It has become imperative for CPG companies to work off a foundation of optimal processes across their entire value chain. The SAP HANA cloud platform powers the business network with real-time data on a massive scale.

Vishal Sikka, member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, Products and Innovation, said: "With SAP Ganges, we have shown that SAP HANA has the ability to transform and evolve entire industries in India. SAP HANA is helping connect businesses of all sizes in real-time: from the millions of kirana stores; to the large CPG companies serving them, and the financial institutions supporting them; by bringing new value to all points along this network and empowering people to conduct businesses in a totally open, transparent and real-time way."

Developed in India (Bangalore) for the Indian market by a team of 10 developers along with 75 more outsourced globally, SAP Ganges is a business network offering seamless connectivity for CPG companies to the last mile of their supply chain, which consists of millions of unorganized retail stores. Other partners in the business network are: distributors of the consumer product companies; banks, which provide credit to the retailers; value-added services providers; telecom services providers which enable remote connectivity; and manufacturers of affordable point-of-sale (POS) devices.

Conceptualized through intensive design thinking-based co-innovation with leading industry players, SAP Ganges offers a range of holistic offerings for different stakeholders including:

* CPG companies: enabling visibility through reporting and forecasting based on sales information aggregated from the retail stores. In addition, they can use SAP Ganges as a direct marketing channel to reach retail stores.

* Distributors: providing the distributor to take orders, track inventory at the retail stores, and to allow them to receive payments digitally.

* Banks: enabling banks to assess credit eligibility of retailers and to adjust credit limit periodically based on retail store sales.

* Retail Stores: enabling retail stores to connect to business network using PoS devices and to access business services.

According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, the Indian fast moving consumer goods sector consisting of personal care, household care, and food products was valued at $36.8bn in FY2011-12; and is one of the fastest growing retail markets in the world. Following the release in India, SAP plans to roll out SAP Ganges to other retail-intensive economies such as Brazil, South Africa, China and Indonesia.