ArtsMagna Business Management Software

Client: Golden Shapes by Gaspari

Industry: Distribution - Production

Key Solution: To enable ‘user friendly’ management of a substantial quantity of considerably complex items (each made up of a number of components) and to supply the correct National and International documentation in an uncomplicated manner

Key Benefit: To increase control and efficiency, enabling the client to concentrate solely on the management of his own company

Background - The Environment - The name Gaspari is synonymous of great prestige and elite quality in the international jewellery field. One only needs to glance at a few of their client names in Paris, New York and London to see that they are among the top in their field. To better understand the complex level of production Gaspari have, it is enough to compare them with other elite giants in their field like Cartier or JAR.

Background - The Requirements - The problems of greatest priority to the client were: 1)Production management, 2)Management of Carnet ATA, and 3) Management of orders and Consignments. To elaborate on point 1); this IT problem consisted of finding an appropriate way to manage the production of all models, including the management of components necessary for production and to accurately determine their value. Point 2) on the other hand, refers to speeding up the phases of preparation of Carnets, a fundamental operation for businesses whose stock constantly travels around the world to all the major Jewellery Fairs and for specific sales meetings throughout the world’s capital cities. To prepare a Carnet consisting of thousands of items, with detailed description of their various components and carat weights, individual item photos, with stock items that have been manufactured literally minutes before they are sent to customs ....... and all of this occurring several times a month, was not exactly an easy challenge. Point 3) particularly concerned the sales representatives; thus providing the potential to speed up and better the order management process.

Solution - The Warp Corporation has put to use the already` sophisticated quality` of the ArtsMagna software to manage many aspects relating to these above mentioned IT requirements. Many, however, were the modifications and implementations necessary in order to reach our pre established goals.

Point 1. During the first phase , our priority was the management of production. Here, in fact, the Stock acquisition data files were perfectly adequate to cope with the company’s complex production requirements , including image management. Notable, however, have been the modifications needed in order to successfully manage the reports and documents (during the printout phase) for these complex items, both on an individual level and on a total level. We have, in fact, implemented a complex system of management capable of allowing great flexibility to the client. Often, there are tens of different component records on the same Stock item, which needs to be managed from various viewpoints during the printout phase. For example, lets imagine that we are producing an item in which we will utilize Diamonds, Sapphires, Rubies, and Emeralds. These will be subdivided in various groups of colors (records) in our components table: White Diamonds (Db), Black Diamonds (Dk), Pink Diamonds (Dr), Yellow Diamonds (Dy), Blue Sapphires (Zb), Yellow Sapphires (Zy), Pink Sapphires (Zr), etc. . We must also add the aspect of size sorting to this, which also contributes in increasing the necessity adequate record management: Db1, Db2, Db3, Db4, Dk2, Dk4, Dr3, Dr4, Dy1, Dy2, Dy3, Zb2, Zb3, Zb4, etc. . And if, to this, we then add the aspects of clarity, single stones, pearls, metal types, and workmanship ....... the picture is almost complete. That’s right, "almost", seeing that in the document printout phase, labels, reports (e.g.. generating printouts of components required for the production of items contained within orders made at fairs from sample stock), all of this must be capable to be managed in an analytical manner or grouped by Components(D, Z, R, etc.) or by Components+Color(Db, Dy, Zb, etc.) or by Components+Color+Size (Db1, Db2, Dy3, etc.) and so on.

Point 2. Once these aspects have been resolved, the requirement in question remains confined only by the preparation of a series of photographic printouts matching the traveling stock. All of these preparations have supervised with the expert advice of Ferrari (specialized courier service, Valenza).

Point 3. The other fundamental aspect of interest to Gaspari was the possibility to increase efficiency in their order process (point 3). In particular, they wanted to speed up the order compilation phase which was to be carried out in the presence of the client. The agents, in fact, were discontent with the excessive slowness due to the ‘on the spot’ preparation of Consignment notes for the stock chosen by the retailer. In fact, in the case of jewellery items, beside the usual data like Code, Description and Weight in grams, all of the above mentioned data regarding gem stones must also be inserted! Sales representatives, therefore, complained of spending more time compiling documents than making the sales. All working against the daily sales potential. Another aspect of interest was to provide the possibility for retailers to easily choose from a complex selection of non repetitive sample stock. The agents, in fact, had requests based on very precise data , e.g.."A ring with a yellow princess cut diamond from 2,5 to 2,9 Ct. and with two triangular Ceylon sapphires on the sides. Given Gaspari`s non repetitiveness of products, it was necessary to provide fast visualization of all similar existing products available, in an archive of thousands of models, to allow the client a prompt selection from which to choose. In order to address the above issues Warp has decided to utilize their ASP software i-amWeb, slightly modified to work in a "Mobile" version for agents. While this product`s Web interface was perfectly suitable for the catalog part, several modifications were implemented to allow easy management of real stock carried out by the agents who wanted to be able to use a BarCode reader to add items to the "Cart" module. The final result is a very user friendly software that allows the agents to easily synchronize their laptops with their main office bi directionally, allowing them to visit a customer, sell them stock from live display, insert these chosen items in the Shopping Cart via BarCode reader, add modification detail, size, change quantities and price, apply discounts, work in any exchange rate, integrate orders for stock to be produced and print notes complete with images. If this isn't enough, we can now also manage returns and payments in this unbelievably simple software which is run from a simple Web browser interface such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.

Result - Gaspari's new IT infrastructure provided the robust, flexible platform necessary to support the company's new business software. ArtsMagna provides Gaspari with management and operation service that ranges from simple reports generation to complex management functions. The benefits to Gaspari are many:

• Reduced the possibility of errors in the cost calculations of Stock
• Largely simplified management of all business documentation (Consignments, Carnet, Invoices, Reports, etc.)
• Greater control of finished items and raw materials (Diamonds, Emeralds, etc.)
• Vastly improved Agents and Trade Shows management
• It offers fixed network running costs and fixed, documented deliverable`s
• There is measurable Quality of Service

As a result, ArtsMagna has allowed Gaspari to improve and speed up all their higher priority business processes and has started a revolutionary technological change in the overall management of this company.