How Did "Edara" Solve the Islands Mode Dilemma? "General Commerce" as a Case Study

“General Commerce ” was founded in 1976 by Gargas Halaka, to become later one of the leading distributors of watches and accessories all around the country. Moreover, this institution is considered as the only official representative of 11 trademarks -including “Citizen.”

“General Commerce” is currently relying on “Edara” for its business operations management.

Here you are standing in front of the mirror… Only a few minutes remain for this important date that you’ve been planning for a while. You are late as usual, and choices are still challenging… Should you choose Fossil, Casio, or Guess? Finally, you made a decision. The watch is shining bright in your hand while you’re looking over the box in your other hand. There is no doubt that this “Citizen” silver watch is the best one to offer her…

Back to reality, can you believe that all those various types of watches are embraced by “GC ” -The official and only representative of more than 11 brands in Egypt -with Citizen on top of them.??????

As any business that strives for excellence and development -particularly in such a market- quality and quantity should be dedicated a meticulous consideration since customers won’t be satisfied with less than a premium quality product. That is why “Edara” was the optimal choice after a long journey of unsuccessful experiences with other programs.

The biggest issue for a company that relies on import and wholesale distribution, division, and managing more than (11) branches of more than 20 brands and other watches accessories, is that each department is working with an independent program. This lack of unification made managing all these branches and data transfer ‘a pain in the neck.’ In light of this, decision-makers had to figure out a modern technology solution capable of linking all these operations inside one system so that “Samir and Sameh” -GC owners- would be able to manage and analyze data at any time or place.???

According to Samir Halaka “The most interesting aspect in Edara is its constant evolution and ability to keep up with technology. For this reason, we thought about growing by using it as a mean, in addition to including the maintenance module since watch industry is in a significant need for it.”

Island Mode Pain and Overlapping Roles

In a calm office centrally located in the company, with a door that doesn’t stop knocking as employees keep coming in non-stop... Each one of them has a different request that needs to be done immediately and urgently -without any delay. Karim now believes that auditing and revision operations are now under control. “While we were using the other program, we used to spend 8 hours sitting on the desk without taking any break -unless we wanted to make a cup of tea -as we always have some tasks to finish; even during this short time I was always surprised from the number of papers I was finding on my desk. However, everything has completely changed now. ”

The lack of one data management program, operations, and their reports were negatively impacting the workflow since auditors since were assigned more than one role -such as entering data once again on the official program, then approving them after review.

“The program we used before was considered as three systems in one, which was creating a lot of burdens in accomplishing the work we have as everything seemed to be complicated; we had to review all the invoices one by one on the program of each branch, then I had to add it to the program used in the main branch. Going by this process was hectic and used to put so much pressure on me -especially that it had pushed us to hire more employees to get done with the work.”?

Resorting to the island mode wasn't only creating communication issues between the different branches -as with the one in Alexandria; since the administration didn’t use to have the faintest idea about what was generally going on until the end of each month after tracking operations and generating reports -but also the negative impact was clearly perceived inside particular branches and their departments since the warehouse systems depended on delivering daily paper records on the program without having an idea about the actual balance.

Regarding branch management, Raymond -a branch manager- was going through a hard time in following up on the huge amount of transfer requests between the 11 branches, as the transfer process required specific information related to balances, in addition to a series of approvals that started from the person who requested this operation, then stopped by the branch manager -who in turns had to get in touch with Raymond who must approve this transfer after reviewing the balances of each branch. As well, the process wasn’t any easier when it comes to accounting, as Simon -the treasury official- has to check the accuracy of numbers mentioned in the paper-based reports and whether they meet the actual cash -that was divided into payments from suppliers and expenses, then must send the suppliers’ payments to be recorded by the accounting department in an independent program, and send the expenses to his colleague “Shenouda” to record it on another program dedicated for expenses!????

One System... Less Effort!????

“Edara is a distinguished program. I’ve worked with several companies before and this is the best program I have ever been introduced to.” Karim -auditor.

The first thing that “Edara” has fixed was linking all the information to one easy-to-use system. Furthermore, it has enabled managers to have access to data and track the movement of sales and purchases as they occur, which has allowed GC to focus only on the most important and strengthened communication between different departments. “When we started to work with Edara, we felt a major difference -especially that there is no more pressure. Before, five employees were responsible for data entry; now, the situation has changed as we are only two in charge of nothing but auditing.” Namer Tharouat.

Regarding the same matter, Raymond -the branch manager- expressed his satisfaction with the feature responsible for transfer between branches; as it facilitated this procedure and enabled him to supervise almost all the operations in a faster way. Raymond says: “The major issue I used to face in managing all the branches is following up ongoing transactions between them, which is now done smoothly and quickly thanks to Edara.”

In the same vein, resorting to Edara made the exchange of information between the different departments an easy task. Also, it enabled the departments that did not have access to the program to participate with the rest of the departments and act upon the workflow. According to George -an online sales official: “We literally didn’t have a program before starting to use Edara.” ?

There is no doubt that the availability of information instantly enabled everyone to work more productively and with less effort, but at the same time, it provided a wide space for decision-makers to obtain information themselves at any time and from anywhere.

Namer -auditor- argues: “Company’s owners were always asking for information and reports. Yet, they are now having access to all of these details by themselves thanks to “Edara.” This latter has made everything easier and established links between data, which has created a sense of order; each department is now proceeding with the assigned tasks without interruption or depending on another one, and everyone has access to the information they need.”

As a business that has a record full of significant achievements, it was mandatory to look for a technological solution that promises growth and excellence by the means of a product whose function exceeds the pressing necessity to know the time to match the need to express identity, personality, and lifestyle… For this reason, the watch industry will always remain and last for individuals with good taste.?