Antarc bets on technology to grow business

By Fredrick obura

NAIROBI, KENYA: Antarc, a leading furniture and lifestyle store is betting on technology to grow its business with the East African region.

In 2009, the furniture franchise installed SAP business one, version for SAP HANA software in its businesses and reported 50 per cent growth.

“It was a simple decision,” says Neha Malde, Antarc’s Financial Manager. “The future was knocking at our door and we simply grabbed the opportunity to champion SAP’s innovation. We have seen much growth since initiating our SAP partnership and have far surpassed our previous management and control objectives.”

He says that through SAP’s software, Antarc Furniture was also able to reduce its audit review time from one month to two days with the help of a comprehensive and fully integrated Enterprise Resource Planning reporting system.

“The software has offered us better control, more accurate reporting, and efficient warehouse management, swifter delivery processes with 95 per cent stock accuracy regardless of location as well as lower lead time,” he says in an interview with Standard Digital.

“Because of the successful, we have now extended our product range to include the furnishing line and have subsequently opened two more branches.”

In East Africa Small and Medium Enterprises make up for over 80 per cent of the private sector and contribute about 40 per cent of GDP and 50 per cent of overall employment.

“It is for this reason that SAP is committed to helping SMEs in East Africa, like Antarc Furniture, grow their businesses and enable them to become innovative, compete with the global market by taking advantage of real-time business insight technology solution,” said Andrew Waititu, SAP East Africa Managing Director.

“The speed offered by in-memory computing is particularly beneficial for East African businesses, as it helps solve previously unsolvable problems, drives profitable growth and allows users to become more efficient by leveraging out-of-the-box features of the application for an enhanced user experience.” he said.