Elvira Kadyrova
In 2007, the Shaylan Group company began its activity as a distribution service engaged in wholesale sales of Pepsi products. Then 15 years ago, the company had neither its own transport nor warehouses, but only a small office with two employees.
Although a number of operational issues were resolved over time, business documentation was still fragmented across various digital platforms, and the lack of a single integrated IT system complicated the work.
By contrast, today Shaylan Group is one of the national leaders in the distribution industry in Turkmenistan, an expert in the field of export/import, offering a wide range of logistics services, confidently entering the foreign market and significantly expanding the number of jobs. The key to success was the digitalization of the management system and adopting innovative IT solutions.
In 2019, Shaylan applied for participation in the USAID Innovation Facility program. With the financial support of the Innovation Facility, which operates within the framework of the USAID project on competitiveness, trade and job creation, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems were procured, including warehouse and transportation management software for the company Shaylan. Thus, one of the first fully automated warehouses appeared in Turkmenistan.
The ERP system eliminated weaknesses in data management and information exchange, consolidated Shaylan’s investments in physical infrastructure. As a result, additional cold storage facilities were created and the storage area grew to 7000 square meters. The company’s vehicle fleet has acquired new refrigerated trucks, bringing their number to 30.
The introduction of IT solutions contributed to the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the company.
Eventually, thanks to the consolidated system of business operations and statistics, the company launched new logistics services not only to local, but also to foreign businessmen. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and e-commerce modules of the ERP system allowed Shaylan to expand its customer base.
“With USAID’s assistance we’ve implemented an integrated ERP system which enables us to measure, record and analyze all business data. We started not only with logistics inputs, but also with finance and accountancy, marketing, sales and e-commerce,” Imamberdi Durdiyev, head of logistics department said.
It is also important that the digitalization of the company’s activities has significantly enhanced the strategy of targeted marketing through calls and e-mailing, and allowed monitoring progress in business goals.
With the help of the ERP platform, the company Shaylan entered the market with new services – outsourcing from the best local manufacturers, organization of international transportation, customs brokerage, managing stocks and inventory in-warehouse, delivery to retail outlets and online sales.
And still, there are no limits to business excellence in rapidly changing and competitive market environment. The Shaylan Group plans to integrate internal software so that customers can view prices and send requests for restocking via mobile apps.
Along with this, in the future, Shaylan intends to open temperature-controlled warehouses in other provinces of the country in order to provide modern logistics and warehouse services to local producers and farms.
And most importantly, the company expects to increase its exports by 20% by the end of the year, using the new cold chain infrastructure and ERP system. Emphasis will be placed on locally produced dairy products, semi-finished meat products, vegetables, fruits and other frozen products.
Taking into account that today Turkmenistan sets ambitious goals in the field of boosting exports of its products and the private sector is at the forefront of the trend, new prospects are opening up for the Shaylan Group’s sustainable development of activities.
Through co-financing mechanisms, the USAID Innovation Facility program has realized many innovative projects in Central Asia since 2017. The implementation of IT solutions for business, such as ERP systems, has proven its high efficiency and demand. ///nCa, 1 September 2022