TCOG helps Horta put the customer first
As a retailer you need the right tools to serve the customer better. Thanks to the close cooperation with TCOG as a software partner, Horta employees can fully focus on the all-important customer contact.
Horta is a group of more than fifty independent garden and animal centers throughout Belgium. Each of them is run by enthusiastic experts who place a high priority on quality and service. The Horta Centrale, the service headquarters that coordinates these companies, wants to relieve the Horta stores of all their worries so that store owners and their employees can focus on taking care of their customers.
No straitjacket
“From its establishment, Horta has been a club of people with a heart for the business, who enjoy providing their customers with solutions,” says business process manager Rudi De Bondt, who, together with other managers, was one of the founders of the Horta concept. But to be able to serve the customer at his beck and call you need quality tools, and that’s where the shoe pinches. The ten-year-old ERP system was not being developed any further by the software supplier and Horta had to look for a new partner, and one that had proven its relevance in modern retail and had an affinity with the expectations of independent operators. “Because an organization of self-employed people, with various sizes of stores and different work organizations, will not be forced into a straitjacket of processes that are too rigid and not feasible for every business.”
Intuitive and intelligent
After an extensive selection process, TCOG (The Concept Group) was chosen. “They fully went along with the story that they would not only set up our new ERP system according to an intelligent interplay of best practices and Horta needs, but would also take responsibility as an integration partner with other software vendors for affiliated projects such as master data management, web sales, business intelligence, EDI and employee management.”
Horta chose to house its systems in Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform. TCOG built a solution for the retailer based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV (now Dynamics 365 Business Central) with LS Retail’s specialized add-on LS Nav (now LS Central). This is a very high-quality symbiosis that covers all the needs of modern B2C and B2B retail in an intuitive and intelligent way. In addition, each store can use the management tool according to its own needs.
“At the Horta stores, professionals and individuals are served through the same checkout. Conditions and specific documents have to be delivered smoothly to the customer every time, while cashiers only have to focus on the all-important customer contact. also, thorough promotional and event management with linked conditions is something LS Nav is strong in, while many other systems get bogged down on it.”
Solid foundation
Rudi De Bondt is very pleased with the collaboration: “TCOG is a tailor-made partner for an SME such as ours. Management and employees live and think retail. Where others often focus on problems, TCOG thinks in terms of challenges and solutions. This gives a drive to the project. The specialists on the TCOG team are therefore all very driven to model the supported tools so that they perform what is expected.”
The first store went live with the system in early February. “After a stabilization phase in which we further optimize the central data and processes, the other Horta retailers will also connect to the new platform. We are now assured of a solid foundation, on which we can continue to build together with TCOG to support our partner customers with customer-focused tools in their dreams and expectations and thus make Horta ‘top of mind’ in the garden and animal experience. Our Horta retailers and all employees can therefore look to the future positively and with confidence.”
