Carrefour Spain was one of the first businesses in Spain to use the Allegro VAN (value added network). Joaquin VICISIO, Sales Director of Carrefour Spain, describes the benefits that using Allegro has bought.

A commitment to the future

“Although the appearance of electronic interchange heralded deep-rooted changes in the way businesses are organised, we did not hesitate to use this technology from the beginning. It was a commitment to the future, in line with our policy. Innovation put to work in supporting our customers was in the long term going to improve the efficiency of our transactions.”

An example to follow

“Our initiative was conclusive. Other companies wasted no time in following our example, in turn integrating EDI solutions into their systems. For Carrefour Spain, Allegro’s technology, expertise, experience and quality of service were successful differentiation factors.”

Constantly improve

“Allegro kept its commitments perfectly. Even better, the results obtained up to this point have exceeded our hopes. This challenge, successfully met, is now bearing fruit. This is evidenced by the government starting to implement this technology and to encourage its use.”

Objective met

“Our objective at Carrefour Spain is to maintain what we call “our 15 minute lead”. Counting on innovation and technology means we deserve to be considered as a benchmark for our customers and our suppliers.”

Seres: Could you introduce Leroy Merlin in a few words?
Leroy Merlin: Leroy Merlin is a chain of DIY superstores, with 216 stores in nine countries, including 110 in France. Leroy Merlin is part of the Adeo Group and has 47,000 staff worldwide. More than 1,000 suppliers deal with Leroy Merlin currently.

Seres: Leroy Merlin was an EDI trailblazer in France. What were the reasons that originally took you towards EDI?
Leroy Merlin: In 1988, our orders were sent to our suppliers by the French Post Office. EDI seemed to us to be an excellent way to facilitate and speed up the handling of our orders by our suppliers, especially for those who were receiving 500 to 1,000 order lines every day.

Seres: How has your use of Allegro changed over 20 years?
Leroy Merlin: By 1994, 70% of our order lines were already being sent by EDI. It was at that time that we started paperless invoicing with our first supplier. By 1998, 50% of our invoice lines were paperless with our suppliers. We then started an ambitious project to send and receive product data sheets by EDI and Web EDI. Now, in addition to invoices and orders, we are exchanging dispatch notes with 20 suppliers [using EDI], this project was initiated in late 2006.

Seres: What benefits do you gain from electronic data interchange in Leroy Merlin’s daily business?
Leroy Merlin: EDI enables Leroy Merlin to improve in terms of speed and reliability, at an attractive cost.

Seres: You were the first user of Allegro. Twenty years later, you are still using our VAN. How would you sum up these 20 years of using Allegro and working with Seres?
Leroy Merlin: Allegro is a reliable, highly-available service. The rare cases of downtime are dealt with quickly and with good levels of communication. Our contacts in both the technical and development teams at Seres are always available and attentive to our needs.