Elly Yates-Roberts |
Maldivian retailer Sonee Sports is using Microsoft solutions such as Dynamics 365 and Power BI to better understand and serve its customers, and improve business operations.
The company was set up 25 years ago by two brothers to bring sports gear to the remote islands of the Republic of Maldives. Since then, it has set up 10 stores and a fast-growing online business. However, with a legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Sonee Sports was struggling to meet the needs of its remote customers who relied on e-commerce. “By the time we understood what our reports were telling us and were ready to take action, it was too late to have an impact,” said Maumoon Abdullah, general manager at Sonee Sports.
To combat this, Sonee Sports implemented Microsoft Dynamics in 2015, which improved data management and report generation. However, the on-premises software was costly to maintain. Microsoft partner CloudFronts helped Sonee Sports to upgrade to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, deploy Power BI for analytics, and roll out a cloud-based e-commerce system called BigCommerce.
“We needed an all-around ERP system that was reliable, easy to use and mobile-friendly and that offered a host of options for accessing information,” said Abdullah. “We needed a single, unified view of the business, which meant one system that spanned ERP, point of sale, customer relationship management, and sales and marketing – without spending a bundle. And we needed to clean up our data and regain the trust of employees. Dynamics 365 met all these needs.”
With the new cloud setup, Sonee Sports can now see current, accurate data on inventory and customer behaviour, enabling it to make changes in real time that have an immediate impact. “We can move much faster to reduce prices, create promotions, improve staff training or whatever is needed to help the business succeed,” said Abdullah.
Microsoft says that Sonee Sports’ goal is to “deliver a superior omnichannel customer experience that online-only competitors can’t match”, for example by enabling shoppers to browse online and try on in-store.
“With Dynamics 365, we finally have the data we need to understand our customers so that we can keep them from defecting to online competition,” said Abdullah. “The value of this is priceless.”