FIT Consulting First B2B project www.pencere.com

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Arena's CEO
Izi Kohen
HIGH TECH ON
Arena takes the Internet by storm PROFILE
THE BOSPORUS STRAIT industry, where product life cycles are three
to four months, if you don’t move forward
you get left behind. That’s why Arena can’t
in Turkey. We were also influenced by the
fact that our consulting partner recommend-
ed SAP.”
From its sales
branches in
Ankara, Izmir
afford to be a passive observer of new devel- After the decision was made in March of and Istanbul, Arena supplies more than
Arena Bilgisayar is moving fast. Turkey’s innovative IT distributor compa- opments – it needs to create its own new last year, the implementation team set to 4,000 resellers throughout Turkey with
business models, and then put them into ac- work right away. Twenty team members de- computers, PC peripherals, consumer
ny had SAP solutions up and running in six months. It has also shaped up impression. The plain company headquar- tion fast. Regular “strategic articulation voted themselves to the project full-time, electronics, consumables and software.
ters near a busy main street has sober, open- meetings” with long-standing consulting with 11 specialists from Andersen and nine The company is headquartered in
its business processes, implemented SAP Business Information Ware- plan offices, where the hustle and bustle is partner Andersen allow the management specially selected experts from Arena’s user Istanbul, where it also has a 8,500
characterized by the tapping of keyboards, team to make long-term plans for extending departments, who were trained to be SAP square meter distribution center. Arena
house (SAP BW), gone public, and set up SAP Internet Sales and other the ringing of phones, and unidentifiable the company’s market leadership and to set contact persons for their departments. “We is the market leader in Turkey, has 170
snippets of conversation, just like in thou- priorities and trigger actions that support had lengthy discussions about when we employees and generated a sales
front-end solutions. sands of other offices the world over. Only these plans. should start working with the new system,” volume of U.S. $205 million in 2000.
in the separate management conference Kohen says. In the end, they decided to take
room do you get an inkling that Arena is a Integration is the driving force a risk: Arena was set on going live with SAP
company not quite like any other. Rows of – all solutions apart from SAP Human Re-
trophies cram the shelves, and framed certif- One of the results of these meetings is the sources (SAP HR) but including SAP Business the most up-to-date Turkish version at the
icates bear testimony to the company’s ex- implementation of a new IT system to make Information Warehouse (SAP BW) – before time – SAP R/3 Release 4.0B. But the up-
cellent market position. Every year, comput- new business activities possible. “Our PC- the fourth quarter, the most profitable time grade is already in the pipeline. However,
Many people know Turkey only as a holiday er journals and IT institutions choose Arena based standalone solution fulfilled the re- of the year. Of course, another factor was Arena wants to thoroughly prepare its sys-
destination, with its sandy beaches, deep as the best distributor in Turkey’s IT sector. quirements for our core business, but that a speedy SAP implementation also tem, which has undergone many modifica-
blue sea, and bustling Istanbul bazaars. And How did Arena develop such a good rep- couldn’t take us much further forward,” says meant a robust back-end system would be tions, before the upgrade goes ahead.
that’s how the colorful tourist brochures de- utation? Arena’s CEO Izi Kohen (pictured Cem Asik, manager of the Strategic Business available when the company went public in Asik says that there is no substitute for
pict the country that links Asia and Europe. above) explains, “We see ourselves as a part Development division, describing what the October 2000. having a robust, integrated back-end system
Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and the of the supply chain that generates value for situation was like a year and a half ago. “For to support business processes, even though
Topkapi Palace are attractions that no visi- all participants, and thus increases effecti- example, we were able to call up our sales From SAP R/3 to the external the implementation was not completely
tor to Istanbul should miss. But far from the venes and efficiency in all processes.” He on a daily basis, but we had no consolidated supply chain painless. “Internally, our systems were not
hoards of tourists, this metropolis with a calls this approach “end-to-end integration,” information about the stock or receivables integrated. As a result, our integration with
population of 16 million has other hidden which encompasses all the relationship in our branches in Istanbul, Izmir, and Anka- On September 1, 2000, the old PC system the outside world was not up to scratch ei-
charms. In the heart of the city’s pulsating models for exchanging goods and services ra. We knew that our future lay only in an in- was shut down and the new SAP system ther,” he says, making clear that sophisticat-
business district, a local company called on the Internet, for instance, business-to- tegrated solution.” went live. It has been fine-tuned and is now ed internal processes for enterprise re-
Arena Bilgisayar A.S. has established a repu- business, business-to-consumer, and reseller- The search for the right solution started stable, even if not everything is perfect, yet. source planning (ERP) are still the best basis
tation for innovation that would make some to-consumer. in January 2000. Arena chose SAP over J.D. That should change soon. “With R/3 Release for projects where the supply chain extends
high-tech giants turn green with envy. This approach has proven popular. But Edwards and Oracle because, as Kohen ex- 4.6C, around 90% of our requirements will beyond the boundaries of a company.
Arena, Turkey’s leading distributor of IT Kohen knows that Arena has to work hard to plains, “We thought SAP and its partners be met,” says Asik. Because this release has The improvements at Arena speak for
products with a U.S.$205 million turnover keep its good name and that standing still is would be best able to deliver the necessary only been available in Turkish since the be- themselves. Real-time integration, especially
in 2000, does not make an ostentatious first like taking a step backward. In the computer implementation and maintenance support ginning of this year, Arena had to settle for in sales activities, creates immense savings >>

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>> and logistics advantages, for example in the and product allocation, order products, and Arena is also building a portal for computer
form of optimized flows of goods. Now or- pay using different methods of payment. retailers and other resellers that want to sell KCF Products implements SAP Internet Sales 2.0B
ders can be transferred from one sales “All the information displayed on the Web is their goods direct to the consumer over the
branch to another. Because the systems are mapped directly and without exception to the Internet.
integrated, the outsourced forwarder can
plan exactly how much capacity is required
in each delivery region. If necessary, deliver-
information and processes in SAP,” explains
Kohen. To support the Internet sales channel
Pencer-e.com, Arena uses Cercev-e.com. With
Finally, Kohen takes his Palm Pilot out of
his pocket. “We developed POP ourselves,”
he says proudly. POP (which stands for Price-
SMALL GIFTS –
BIG IMPACT
ies can be made three times a day. Arena’s this unrestricted portal, customers and con- list On Palm) is an application developed on
customers – the computer resellers – can sumers can, for instance, view guarantee in- PalmOS, and contains Arena’s up-to-date
even display the driver’s mobile phone num- formation. They can also track their order’s product specifications, prices and inventory
ber, as well as the current status of an order. progress using an identification number, levels in categorized order. Resellers can al-
“We now have our inventories under and unlike Pencer-e.com, this function in so order from within POP. “Simply fill your
control and can promise products to our cus- Cercev-e.com does not require users to enter shopping basket and send off your order,”
tomers based on future availability. We can any other background information. says Kohen. When Pop is synchronized from
control our business much better and aim Arena is currently working on Tencer- the Internet via a PC, not only is the data The Dutch company KCF Products B.V., one of Europe’s largest
for higher customer satisfaction,” updated but the order goes into
says Kohen. In addition, Arena has SAP. With every order, the person suppliers of promotional business gifts and premiums, is busy
defined Key Performance Indica- who places the order automatical-
tors (KPIs), which give a break- ly receives confirmation by e-mail. expanding its distribution channels. It is now set to enable its
down of business performance But life can be tough at the top.
and set objectives for the individu- When Arena was looking for service customers to buy its products on the Internet using mySAP
als and departments. With SAP partners for its Internet services, it
BW, all the hidden factors and found hardly any companies that CRM Internet Sales, and plans are also underway for its sales
costs that influence sales volume, could meet its high technical re-
profits and service levels are now quirements. The search for partners department to work with mySAP CRM Mobile Sales.
visible. was a long one, and Asik says, “We
Kohen also appreciates SAP’s had to push them forward.” On the
multicurrency capabilities. Arena positive side, Asik sees this as a Based in Barneveld, Netherlands, KCF is a subsidiary of the Mid Oce-
imports almost all products and way of leading the change and set- an Group, one of the market-leading groups in this sector. The gift
parts. The company pays for them ting up their own standards in Tur- collections it creates for customers include a full range of products
in foreign currencies, invoices its key. “We will start to enjoy the from travel accessories, through pocket calculators and corkscrews,
customers in Turkish Lira and bal- advantages of being the first mover to watches and toolboxes, mostly sourced in the Far East. It sells
ances the accounts in dollars. Soft- in a very short time,” Kohen adds. exclusively to distributors who then market to their own customer
ware that can manage several currencies in e.com (“tencere” is Turkish for “saucepan”), Arena’s plans for the immediate future networks.
the same account is therefore indispensable. a portal for exchanging goods and informa- include enhancements in customer relation-
tion between Arena and its and suppliers. In ship management (CRM). High on the list of Service makes KCF a front-runner
Internet portal for customers this portal, suppliers will be able to monitor priorities are telesales functions, as well as
the backlog and stock of their products in the integration of language and telephony The key to KCF’s success is customer focus – for example, when it co-
However, there is much more to this promis- Arena and enter delivery schedules. The sys- services with Internet services for an Arena mes to ordering. KCF’s customers can now check the status of their
ing new solution. While SAP is working in tem will allow Arena to engage in stock re- call center. The company has not yet decided orders using the Internet. That’s because Internet Sales 2.0B, part of
the background, Arena has provided its cus- plenishment and profit sharing agreements which software provider to opt for, but Asik mySAP Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM), has been
tomers and partners on the front end with with its suppliers. Also under development says one of the deciding factors will be the up and running since February 2001, making KCF one of SAP’s first
easy access platforms that allow business is Sonda (“sonda” is Turkish for “probe”), a solution’s ability to integrate into the exist- European customers to go live with Internet Sales. “It’s not just that
processes to be controlled automatically. platform which extends all business process- ing system landscape. He stresses the new activities will soon be processed in real time, and so become much
One such development is Pencer-e.com es of the company to the outer world using project’s urgency, but even with a tight time more transparent, but KCF will also be able to react to customer wis-
(“pencere” is Turkish for “window”), a busi- XML technology. The document exchange frame, Arena will no doubt approach this de- hes much more quickly and appropriately,” explains KCF Managing
ness-to-business portal for customers. Com- standards are being developed together cision with the same high-speed profession- Director Bert Pennarts. “But at the moment, our main focus is on the
puter resellers have a password to access the with leading e-commerce companies who alism as ever. opportunities presented by a new distribution channel.”
s
site, where they can see their specific prices are so eager that they are using Sonda even In reality, the Internet is not that new to KCF as it has been sell-
in its development stage. And that’s not all. (ma) ing products via the SAP Online Store since April 2000. But the new
solution is more user-friendly, with functions that are more modern. >>