Microsoft Windows Server System
Customer Solution Case Study
Flemingo DFS Simplifies Business Operations
and Boosts Productivity
Overview
Country or Region: India
Industry: Duty Free Shopping
Customer Profile
Flemingo DFS is the first private sector duty
free shop operator in India. Flemingo has
licenses to operate out of 11 airports and
four seaports in India.
Business Situation
In order to consolidate inter branch
information and streamline critical
business processes to the head office in
Mumbai, Flemingo decided to implement
3e Business Operating Software (BOS) on
the Microsoft® Windows Server System.
Solution
Implementing 3e BOS Version 1.2 on the
Microsoft® platform using Windows Server
2003 and SQL Server 2000, Flemingo DFS
has seen an increase in sales and
profitability.
Benefits
 Streamline inventory management
 Improve customer satisfaction
 Timely and automated business
processes
 Improved operational efficiency
“The 3e business solution has helped our
organization to grow, effectively manage our portfolio
of customers and product categories, while
monitoring sales and assisting inventory
management.”
Atul Ahuja, Director, Flemingo DFS
Flemingo-DFS is an UAE based enterprise that manages a chain of
duty free stores at located airports and seaports around the world.
Flemingo DFS implemented ESolutions Business Operating
Software (3e) on the Microsoft® platform using Windows Server
2003 and SQL Server 2000. Built on a secure and scalable
foundation, the BOS seamlessly integrated all the branches with
the Head Office. The 3e solution also streamlined business
operations (accounting, sales, purchase and inventory) within the
organisation.
Situation
“3e has been an
integrated and cost
effective solution that has
helped us manage and
control our mission
critical operations
through a single window.”
Mr. Vivek Bhat, Chief Financial Officer-Indian
Operations,
Flemingo Duty Free Shop
“With the implementation
of the 3e BOS solution on
the Microsoft platform
using Windows and SQL
Server database, we are
now able to track sales,
accounts receivables,
payables, bank
transactions across all
locations from the Head
Office.”
Mr. Vivek Bhat, Chief Financial Officer-Indian
Operations,
Flemingo Duty Free Shop
As per expert opinion, the Indian air
passenger traffic is estimated to grow from
36.98 million in 1998-99 to 100 million by
2012. The December 1997 draft policy on
airport infrastructure highlighted the
importance of developing airport
infrastructure in the country. The policy
opened the doors of private investment in
this sector, including investments from
foreign airport authorities.
Attracting foreign tourists to India (medical
tourism, educational services, leisure
tourism) could add US$ 6-50 billion in
revenue and create 10-48 million jobs (direct
and indirect) by 2020. The All India
Management Association (AIMA) has set up a
High Level Strategic Group, which estimates
that through remote services and growth in
foreign tourists, India could enhance year-toyear GDP growth by as much as 1.5% over
current growth rates.
Business Situation
The Airport Authority of India (AAI), a body
functioning under the Ministry of Civil
Aviation, is responsible for managing the
airports in India. In September 2003, The
Airports Authority of India floated a global
tender inviting bids for duty free shopping
space of around 1,566.92 square meters in
10 major airports. The airports identified
were Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata,
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad,
Kozhikode, Goa and Tiruchirapalli. The
license was for five years. Bids for duty-free
shops were also invited at a number of
seaports including Goa, Chennai, Kochi, Vizag
and Haldia. These duty-free outlets at
seaports would cater to the cruise
passengers, shipping crew and ship supplies.
Prior to the 3e implementation, Flemingo
used conventional methods to manage its
business operations. These were time
consuming and led to delays in sharing
“The availability of unified
data for tracking
inventory movement
information amongst the various branches
and the Head Office.
Flemingo focused on implementing an
integrated system for customer billing,
monitoring overall sales and stock
movements at its various locations.
Flemingo DFS evaluated different product
offerings for accounting and other business
needs. Tall and Retail Pro were amongst
some of the products evaluated. However,
the organization found the 3e solution to be
robust and comprehensive in comparison to
the other solutions available in the market.
The company was looking for a business
solution that would not only automate
transactions across locations but also
monitor critical business activities such as
inventory, purchase and sales. A solution was
also sought to facilitate billing calculations
across cross currency values. The
management wanted to restrict user access
rights at Point of Sales (POS) level and have
control inventory in real time.
In effect, Flemingo required an integrated
offering for multi-location management that
would connect the various branches with the
head office through secure efficient
synchronization and track business
information at the click of a button.
Solution
From the inception, Flemingo worked with
eSolutions, a Microsoft certified partner. It
opted for 3e, a business operating software
that leverages Microsoft Windows Server
2003 and SQL Server 2000 technology.
eSolutions offered Flemingo a solution that
met its immediate objectives:
a) Implementing 3e BOS solution with 3e
Synch at the Head Office in Mumbai
b) Implementing 3e Retail with retail synch
and 3e Synch at the various branches
The 3e solution leveraged Windows Server
and SQL Server to provide MIS reports in US
dollar and Indian Rupee. It also provided daily
branch transactions (in multiple currencies)
of sales and stock holding. The 3e BOS
solution was customized to monitor landing
cost of imports and local purchase, to ensure
profitability.
eSolutions implemented the 3e BOS solution
in 20 days at the first location in Trivandrum.
This was because the solution had to be
parameterized and data migrated from the
previous solution. The implementations at the
second and third location required minimal
hand holding and was completed in 2-3 days
at each location. The rest of the locations
have been implemented by the Flemingo DFS
IT team taking a couple of days per location,
without any onsite or offsite support from 3e.
Benefits
“With the implementation of the 3e BOS
solution on the Microsoft platform using
Windows and SQL Server database, we are
now able to track sales, inventory, accounts
receivables, payables, and bank transactions
across all locations from the Head Office.”
Vivek Bhatt, Chief Financial Officer - Indian
Operations, Flemingo DFS
Streamline Inventory Management
The solution integrates multiple bar- code
management module to track and manage
sales and inventory seamlessly. The
dashboard reports have enabled accurate
monitoring of stock movement streamlining
inventory management and improving
working capital management.
Improved Customer Satisfaction
“It was important for us to adopt a solution to
optimize employee efficiency while
maintaining high levels of customer
satisfaction.” comments Vivek Bhat, Chief
Financial Officer, Indian Operations, Flemingo
Duty Free Shop.
Flemingo employees can now track billing
procedures, handle cross currency
transactions and maintain customer
purchase history.
Timely and Automated Business Processes
An end-to-end solution starting from the retail
front-end (POS) to the back-end BOS, has
helped Flemingo do away with manual
operations to update financial statements. All
the daily transactions at the different
branches synchronized at the head Office.
Improved Operational Efficiency
3e BOS solution provides synchronization
features that leverage SQL Server 2000
effectively. This provides consolidated and
transactional level view of all the branches.
Flemingo has thus been able to merge all
receipts and payments from branches to
generate accurate financial reports for
improved operational efficiency.
Future Plans
Flemingo DFS intends to integrate all its
future branches using the 3e Business
Operating Software (BOS) and 3e Retail
(POS).
For More Information
About ESolutions Private Limited
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at 1600 111100.
To access information using the World
Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com/india
ESolutions Pvt. Ltd. is a company in the
“Enterprise software product space”. It is a
professionally run, credible provider of
business software that is easy-to-use and
cost-effective. Our smart business tools help
enterprises run more efficiently. ESolutions is
a part of ilabs Ltd. ilabs Ltd formed in August
1999,is an Intellectual Property driven
software product and technology
development Company. It was set up with the
objective of “mentoring” and incubating IP
based business.
ESolutions business strategy revolves around
providing cost-effective & user-friendly
offerings targeted at decision makers in
small-to-medium enterprises & in select
business verticals. The proposition is to ‘fill
the gaps in their current business’ by tracking
critical business activity for that vertical.
Delivering this in contemporary “web-based”
technologies & with rapid upgrades supports
the proposition. Our Flagship product is “3e”.
For more information about Flemingo DFS
products and services, call +91-22-02256619691 (Mumbai) +91-471-2508653
(Trivandrum)
For more information about ESolutions
products and services, call 91-44-2847
0100 or visit the Web site at
http://www.3e4u.com/
Microsoft Windows Server SystemTM
integrated server infrastructure software is
designed to support end-to-end solutions
built on Microsoft Windows ServerTM 2003. It
creates an infrastructure based on integrated
innovation, Microsoft’s holistic approach to
building products and solutions that are
intrinsically designed to work together and
interact seamlessly with other data and
applications across your IT environment. This
allows you to reduce the costs of ongoing
operations; deliver a more secure and
reliable IT infrastructure; and drive valuable
new capabilities for the future growth of your
business.
For more information about Windows Server
System, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem
About 3e
3e is built using the Windows distributed
Internet architecture. 3e is .NET logo and
Windows 2003 compliant. The Operating
system for running 3e is Windows 2000
Professional or higher version. The database
required is MSDE/SQL 2000 and the user
can access 3e on IE 6.0.3e is a licensed
software product that can be used both
offline and online.
Microsoft Windows Server System
© 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT
MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Microsoft, Windows Server, SQL Server and Windows Server
System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other
countries. The names of actual companies and products
mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective
owners.
Document published December 2004
Software and Services
Hardware
Windows Server System
 Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003
 Microsoft Windows SQL Server™ 2000
 Microsoft Internet Information Services
6.0
Office Server System
 Windows 2000/XP Professional
 Internet Explorer 6.0


Intel P IV Server (1 GB RAM, 40+ GB HDD)
Intel P IV Desktop (256 MB RAM, 20 GB
HDD)