Canon Mexico is dedicated to importing and selling Canon brand products such as digital cameras, video recorders, multi-function printers, calculators and personal copiers. It offers a wide range of products and digital solutions that enable both end users and companies to capture, store and distribute data and images.
Given the large volume of sales and distribution throughout Mexico –which has been growing steadily since they started operations in the country in 1978– they needed to streamline the flow of information from the Sales Planning area to the Purchases, Imports, Logistics and Finance areas, and thus efficiently share the entire data flow for the supply chain, using scalable technology.
The solution found by Canon Mexico was a cutting-edge ERP based on GeneXus to improve the efficiency of communications between the various areas involved. The new ERP for Sales Planning of both departments, ISG (Imaging Systems Group) and CIG (Consumer Imaging Group), was completely and transparently integrated with the existing systems.
In this interview, Hugo Avila Del Moral, IT Manager for Canon Mexico, shares their deployment experience with the Community.
-How was the new ERP deployed?
-A work group was created with the purpose of developing and implementing an automated solution that would integrate all the information generated from sales planning to invoicing to customers, with the purpose of making processes such as purchases and imports planning more efficient. As a consequence, we wanted to achieve a considerable reduction of inventory turnover and at the same time accelerate the imports and logistics process at lower costs.
-Why did you choose GeneXus for this development?
-Even though several solutions were considered, including internal (extending the ERP modules) and external options with solutions to be developed for well-known databases in the market, we finally selected GeneXus after examining key aspects such as cost-benefit value of the licenses, flexibility and scalability, web technology and compatibility, as well as the possibilities of simple developments that would fully meet our needs.
Other advantages that we noticed were the installation and configuration simplicity provided by the GeneXus technology, as well as programming speed and the ability to make the necessary tests for each section without the need to wait until the entire module is completed.
Integration was another high point, as it can be easily integrated with other platforms, for example, in our case to interface with IBM iSeries.
-How does the new ERP work?
-The solution is still in a very early release stage, but we can see that the people involved are very satisfied and excited about it. The staff now knows that the analysis, development, testing and deployment operations meet their expectations to make their day-to-day tasks very efficient and productive.
GeneXus captures views
-What challenges did you face during this development and its implementation?
The greatest challenges were posed by the particular characteristics of each work group. We found out that both areas (ISG and CIG) have very distinct business features in spite of performing very similar operations, and that's why it was very challenging for us to integrate these characteristics into a single module that solved all user requirements, such as formulas for the calculation of inventory turnover, integration of multiple team models, accessories, consumables, and so on. GeneXus is capable of capturing these views, developing routines for multiple calculations and integrating them into the system’s general module.
-What would you highlight about the user’s experience?
-The Web interface allows users to navigate the solution in a very fast and intuitive way, which reduces their learning curve. At the same time, they are integrated into the systems' analysis groups, where they contribute their knowledge, experience and new ideas to make the system more efficient and user-friendly.
-Were the objectives of reducing inventory turnover and accelerating the imports and logistics process at a lower cost achieved?
Yes. First of all, we saved system development time, as we built more than 5 applications in 6 months. And of course, the time dedicated to purchase planning analysis has been reduced because information is shared between operational and planning areas, in real time. In turn, this significantly reduces inventory turnover.