Supermarkets (1960) Ltd and Retail International Ltd, the distributors for Marks & Spencer in Malta and Libya respectively, have chosen Shireburn Software to power their businesses.

All five shops in both countries, as well as all back-office systems, switched to Shireburn’s software solutions on 1 October.

The implementation of the Shireburn Business Suite has enabled a fully integrated solution from one vendor covering 360 degrees of operations from point-of-sale operations to back-office inventory, order processing, automated stock replenishment, voucher management, accounting, reporting and analysis and integration with the M&S systems in the UK. The software has resulted in a reduction in duplication of data entry, better automation and improvements in both productivity and controls, as well as enhancing customer service.

The Shireburn Business Suite, developed entirely by Shireburn’s in-house developers, provides a fully integrated solution for inventory, accounting and payroll/human resources functions and currently drives the business of over 500 organisations running thousands of companies.

A major challenge was that the migration and switchover to the new systems, which comprised 37 retail POSs, all had to happen overnight and the teams involved spent months preparing for the smooth changeover.

“This was a very ambitious project and we had just one opportunity to get it right. The team at Shireburn have been very effective and professional in ensuring the success of this project,” said Retail International’s IT manager Sergio Schembri.

The M&S project was carried out after a number of other successful brand implementations in Libya for the companies including La Senza, Oviesse, Next, Aldo and Punt Roma. The POS systems were installed in Tripoli with full inventory management hosted in Malta. Shireburn currently supports over 420 POS systems including installations in Malta, Libya, Gibraltar and Italy.