UK retailing giant Morrisons has just recently launched an online application known as MSD (Morrisons Supplier Database). This was developed in Malta by a team from Crimsonwing’s solution centre. The concept of a supplier exchange is well accepted within the UK supermarket sector – it allows retailers to share applications and information with

suppliers, hence improving their customer service.

Founded in 1899 by William Morrison, the company has gone from strength to strength, becoming the UK’s fourth largest and rapidly growing supermarket chain. With over 120,000 staff employed in stores, factories and regional distribution centres, today’s Morrisons is a far cry from the original egg and butter stall on Bradford market.

Development of the new application was handled by the Crimsonwing team, who spent about six months working on the new system. A project manager was based onsite at Morrisons head office in Bradford, coordinating all the parties involved, which also included Morrisons’ IT and Trading departments, BT as the Hosting Providers and IBM. Joe V. Scerri, Crimsonwing’s project manager for MSD, commented: “This was a very challenging project and one that has been delivered through a strong cross functional project team working together, often beyond the call of duty.

“It is thus very rewarding to note how stable the application has been since it went live and, moreover, that it’s delivering the expected results to the business.”

So far, MSD has been rolled out to 200 suppliers and the number is increasing week by week. The response has been both encouraging and positive. Numerous suppliers have commended the system for its ease of use, as its intuition and the sharing of data has proved instrumental in improving the working relationship between their trading teams.

Stewart Runeckles for NAM Premier Foods had this to say: “In the short period of time that we have been using the MSD system, we have found it to be invaluable in the way we can now monitor sales and stock levels of our product range.

“From the sales side, we can now track daily promotional performance and from the stock details we can use this to further improve our forecast accuracy and in turn assist our manufacturing sites to produce the right products at the right time. This has been a huge step forward in the way that we work with Morrisons and there are undoubtedly more benefits to come from using the system.”

Many users claim that the application has improved the relationship between Morrisons and suppliers, thereby allowing for better planning. The application also caters for the sudden growth in the Morrisons chain, key to which is the regular availability of goods.