19 November 2003
Jarir Bookstore has just finished an implementation of web services technologies based on IBM’s WebSphere platform. The new systems bring together Jarir’s resource planning systems with web services and business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce systems allowing the company to increase the speed and efficiency of its supplier interface.
Jarir is one of the most successful book super-stores in the region, with more than 15 branches in Saudi Arabia and the lower Gulf.
It has an extensive network of suppliers, as well as a host of large enterprise customers. To ensure that stock is always kept at optimum levels, and to create a highly efficient supply chain to reduce costs and inventory, Jarir needed a sophisticated web-enabled supply chain management solution. After studying various offerings on the market, the company chose IBM’s WebSphere Commerce Suite.
“Our business model is based on efficiency: keeping margins as low as possible to give our customers the best prices through maximizing business and supply chain efficiencies. To be able to juggle the needs of our large corporate customers with stock requirements in our many retail stores requires very careful planning.
We wanted a highly robust, ultra-reliable commerce system that would be able to handle the complexity of the modern retail operation, but give us flexibility to change or add to it as our needs changed,” said Abdullah Al-Mosa, IT VP, Jarir Bookstore.
Information technology has played a major part in Jarir’s success and market leadership. Jarir’s management was the one of the first to use ERP in the early 1990s and one of the earliest users of computerized Point Of Sale systems in their showrooms in Saudi Arabia.
“The IBM WebSphere solution that we developed with Jarir is a perfect match for their requirements,” said Bashar Baidas, Saudi Business Machines client manager, Central Region. “WebSphere runs on almost any popular platform, whether it’s Windows-based, UNIX/Linux-based or IBM’s iSeries. It is also designed with an open-standards architecture, giving Jarir the freedom to integrate it with a host of other applications and technologies.”
The new e-commerce system is based on WebSphere running on an IBM iSeries midrange server. Jarir is using IBM’s MQ Series transaction processing technology internally to link the WebSphere Commerce Suite to the existing ERP systems. The implementation took six months, including designing the data structures, Web interfaces and loading the entire Jarir product catalogue.
Jarir’s suppliers now have a key advantage in that they can enjoy a number of B2B functions developed in the Jarir Portal, eliminating paperwork, and reducing the time and effort taken by personnel to process orders by allowing supplies to be scheduled, managed and monitored electronically at will.
Jarir Bookstore has just finished an implementation of web services technologies based on IBM’s WebSphere platform. The new systems bring together Jarir’s resource planning systems with web services and business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce systems allowing the company to increase the speed and efficiency of its supplier interface.
Jarir is one of the most successful book super-stores in the region, with more than 15 branches in Saudi Arabia and the lower Gulf.
It has an extensive network of suppliers, as well as a host of large enterprise customers. To ensure that stock is always kept at optimum levels, and to create a highly efficient supply chain to reduce costs and inventory, Jarir needed a sophisticated web-enabled supply chain management solution. After studying various offerings on the market, the company chose IBM’s WebSphere Commerce Suite.
“Our business model is based on efficiency: keeping margins as low as possible to give our customers the best prices through maximizing business and supply chain efficiencies. To be able to juggle the needs of our large corporate customers with stock requirements in our many retail stores requires very careful planning.
We wanted a highly robust, ultra-reliable commerce system that would be able to handle the complexity of the modern retail operation, but give us flexibility to change or add to it as our needs changed,” said Abdullah Al-Mosa, IT VP, Jarir Bookstore.
Information technology has played a major part in Jarir’s success and market leadership. Jarir’s management was the one of the first to use ERP in the early 1990s and one of the earliest users of computerized Point Of Sale systems in their showrooms in Saudi Arabia.
“The IBM WebSphere solution that we developed with Jarir is a perfect match for their requirements,” said Bashar Baidas, Saudi Business Machines client manager, Central Region. “WebSphere runs on almost any popular platform, whether it’s Windows-based, UNIX/Linux-based or IBM’s iSeries. It is also designed with an open-standards architecture, giving Jarir the freedom to integrate it with a host of other applications and technologies.”
The new e-commerce system is based on WebSphere running on an IBM iSeries midrange server. Jarir is using IBM’s MQ Series transaction processing technology internally to link the WebSphere Commerce Suite to the existing ERP systems. The implementation took six months, including designing the data structures, Web interfaces and loading the entire Jarir product catalogue.
Jarir’s suppliers now have a key advantage in that they can enjoy a number of B2B functions developed in the Jarir Portal, eliminating paperwork, and reducing the time and effort taken by personnel to process orders by allowing supplies to be scheduled, managed and monitored electronically at will.
© Arab News 2003
