Retail industry leaders EziBuy and the Briscoes Group have helped ease recessionary pressure by moving on to a tier one ERP SAP solution to improve business efficiency.Although both companies are reporting a fairly static sales environment, profitability is positive, says Briscoes Group Managing Director Rod Duke. "We expect our results for the half-year will show a gross margin for the group ahead of last year, inventory in great shape and the benefits of operating efficiencies,” he says. “These efficiencies have been generated from the cost minimisation initiatives implemented progressively since early last year, as well as from the changes we have made this year to the structure of our store management." The main driver of these cost efficiencies is the adoption of an ERP implementation, he says. But the move was one Briscoes Group CFO Geoff Scowcroft approached with caution.“I used to accept that if you’re not Fonterra then forget an ERP, but I’ve learnt that SAP can do a deal and you can make it work for your business.“The system we had running was at the end of its life. We could have upgraded it, we knew we had to do something, but ‘do we, don’t we’? Were we big enough to warrant a tier one system like SAP or its rivals?”Michael Niestroy, Manager of Ciber, the company that implemented the SAP ERP system at EziBuy, believes the move is good business. “Our experience with implementing SAP in retail businesses of all types led us to develop our own preconfigured SAP solution for retail – NovaRetail.This gives our customers advantages in cost, risk management and operational effectiveness.”Ciber has built a reputation in New Zealand as the leading implementer of SAP Retail and CRM, and has begun carving out its credentials in ERP implementations. “We’re really pleased to be able to bring a full scale ERP into New Zealand businesses and deliver benefits at a more than affordable price” said Niestroy. “Businesses can take SAP out of the wrapper, with a good implementer, and save money while gaining significant efficiencies.”