EOI & Hobby World is found across the island of Mauritius. They are famous for their publishing, retail and distribution books and stationary products.
About Editions de l’Océan Indien & Hobby World
Industry: Book Publishing, Retail and Distribution of Books Stationery Products
Size: 75 employees (Editions de L’Ocean Indien and Hobby World combined)
Location: EOI & Hobby World headquarters is situated at 22 B Marcel Cabon Street, Stanley, Rose Hill and it operates a number of outlets across the island of Mauritius
Editions de L’Ocean Indien
The Editions de l’Océan Indien (EOI) was formerly a state-owned company established in 1977. In 2016, it was acquired by the Hassamal Group. EOI wants to regain the leadership position in providing quality education and learning through the supply of textbooks and general books at affordable prices for the students and the Mauritians at large.
EOI Laboratory equipment, chemicals and healthcare
Set up in 1991, the Laboratory equipment, chemicals and healthcare department regularly supplies laboratory equipment and chemicals to nearly all secondary schools in Mauritius and Rodrigues.
Through its diverse sources of supply, EOI has brought the very best products in terms of quality and reliability, at very reasonable prices. EOI have been successful in establishing strong working business relationships with British, Chinese and Indian suppliers to meet the exigencies of its customers.
ISBN Agency Representation
In 1992, EOI was appointed by the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) Agency, based in London, as the official representative to set up and coordinate the use of the system in Mauritius. The ISBN is an international organization which aims at numbering every book published anywhere in the world.
Hobby World Ltd.
Hobby World is a distributor of garment accessories, haberdashery, school & office stationery, arts & craft products and adhesives, sealants & construction chemicals. Established in 1986, with over 25 years experience, Hobby World has a retail chain with four outlets located in the main commercial business districts. These are located in Rose-Hill, Port-Louis, Curepipe and Mall of Mauritius-Bagatelle.
Hobby World also has exclusive distributorships with world-known brands such as: DMC threads, Anchor threads, Faber-Castell, Deli, Omega, Maped, Fevicryl, Conte Pencils among others.
The Challenge
Both EOI and Hobby World were experiencing outdated and disparate (on-premise) information systems.
The challenges faced included:
- Lack of information visibility, clarity and ownership
- Too many warehouse mistakes
- Sub-optimal business processes
EOI was using Sage Pastel and some in-house solutions developed on the Microsoft.net Platform. Whereas, Hobby World relied on an Inventory Management and POS system developed on the PHP and MySQL Platform. Besides these information systems, Microsoft Excel was also used to keep track of business-related transactions and for reporting purposes for both businesses.
The support provided by their in-house information system was not reliable, causing them to experience downtime frequently. Additionally, the system was poorly documented, which made in-house level 1 support overly complicated.
Furthermore, there were several instances of their information systems running independently at different branches, causing data redundancy. Access to real-time data for important decision-making was not possible at this point. Once NetSuite was implemented with its robust business intelligence and customized for Hassamal, it was game-changing.
The Solution
The Hassamal Group opted for the NetSuite ERP and VendHQ POS System as a replacement solution for Sage Pastel and all the other in-house information systems.
By becoming cloud-based, the information system could be accessed anywhere, anytime. There is practically no system downtime as long as the Internet connection is up. NetSuite brought a whole new user experience for the employees. Now, business-critical information is readily available because all branches are connected in real-time. All B2B transactions are performed on NetSuite, while retail sales transactions are performed on the VendHQ POS, which is automatically synchronized with NetSuite.
The new information system is more secure and robust. Intercompany transactions such as transfer orders can be done in clicks (not multiple phone calls). In line with its objective of becoming a leader in this market segment, Hassamal can now use the powerful CRM features available in NetSuite. Launching online targeted marketing campaigns easily with low to no additional costs is now possible.
