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Net4Barter pioneered the Indian corporate barter industry, when it commenced operations in June 2000. The company developed a huge opportunity for barter transactions among Indian companies. It enabled companies to buy products and services—without spending cash— by paying in kind, which in turn can resolve their excess stock problems. The solution Net4Barter needed revolved around the creation of an organized trade exchange at a national level which facilitates trade among a network of companies. The implementation of Microsoft® Dynamics–Nav® has helped Net4Barter to restructure business processes. It has enabled the company to automate its bartering transaction processes and also to integrate transaction workflow and processes with accounting. The company is now competent to maintain its barter balances and manage transaction status updates in real time, which has helped the company to save as much as 40 percent on operating costs.
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| Situation |
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Net4Barter is an Indian barter and trade exchange where buyers and sellers
can meet and exchange their product and services, as barter and cash
transactions. Net4Barter acts as an exchange and collects commissions on the
transactions.
A typical example of barter would be Dainik Jagaran, India's most read daily
newspaper. Dainik Jagaran buys products for running reader contests, incentives
for distributors, gifts for advertisers in its newspaper. It also buys services
such as conference facilities, hotel rooms for internal consumption. All it has
to offer is advertising space which is what it sells on a daily basis. It
chooses products and services from any of the thousands of members of Net4barter
and in return offers similar value of advertising in Dainik Jagaran.
It has built a strong base of loyal and satisfied clients across a number of
industries over the years, which include well known Indian and international
companies such as Business India, Business World, Godrej, Grand Hyatt, Hindustan
Times, Hotel Radisson, Helene Curtis, MTV, Kinetic, Sahara Airlines, Timex,
Indian Express, Britannia, Monte Carlo, Amar Ujala, Cadila (EverYuth), Epson,
Eureka Forbes, CavinKare, G.M. Pens (Reynolds), Vijay Karnataka, Polar, Nomarks,
Nike, Oyzterbay, Symphony, and Rasna.
With its corporate office in New Delhi, the company has grown to an 80-member
strong team of sales and marketing professionals over the last three years, with
operations across 14 locations in India including New Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay),
Bangalore, Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta), Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Cochin,
and Hyderabad.
The company was using Tally, a financial package by an Indian software company
and the Microsoft® Office Excel® spreadsheet software for managing accounts.
Each member’s transactions were recorded on Microsoft Office Excel to track
their barter balance. Net4Barter has to ensure that no one company buys too much
in comparison to its sales. It is critical to monitor the process of barter
transactions and to ensure that there are no violations in the nature of
exchange.
The challenge with such a process was that the company was unable to track the
transactions effectively. The barter processes could get skewed in favor of some
customers if not monitored closely, because it was difficult to track the
buying, selling, and customer balances.
In addition, Net4Barter used to provide statements to its members giving
transaction details of both the buying and selling. In the future, it wanted
this information to be available in real time to its members as well as to its
employees so that it could check the buy versus sell limits, and take corrective
steps.
The second issue that faced the organization was billing its members for the
services of the exchange. Net4Barter charges a fee for each transaction. This
was managed using the financial solution, Tally. There was a need to provide a
single solution that integrated the sales, finance and barter balance all into a
single solution. Thereby, the company could monitor each transaction at every
stage of a transaction. The company could then raise invoices for the fee as
soon as the transaction is completed.
An efficient control and process monitoring was required to create checks and
balances for healthy barter exchange .
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Microsoft Dynamics–Nav has provided us excellent integration between our barter transaction management and accounting
Rakesh Bhatnagar
Chief Executive Officer, Net4Barter
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| Solution |
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The company evaluated several products, including 3i’s Orion and Computer
Associates product ACCPAC.
“We chose Microsoft Dynamics–Nav®
instead of the other products due its flexibility, scalability, and the
Microsoft brand, which ensures that the product will have longevity and a clear
product plan,” points out Manish Dutta, Chief Operating Officer,
Net4Barter.
Headstart Business Solutions, a Microsoft Business Partner, customized Microsoft
Dynamics–Nav to create a bartering-focused solution that would
manage the needs of bartering transaction accounting and also build a deal
approval and management process. The solution helps in monitoring the
transactions, acquiring updated information on buyers and sellers, applying set
buying and selling limits, and generating accurate transaction statements.
The company implemented the Microsoft Navision modules for sales and
receivables, purchasing and accounts payable, fixed assets, general ledger,
inventory, human resources, and payroll.
The sales and receivables module has helped in generating updated bartering
account balances and to control receivables. The purchasing and payables module
is integrated with sales and general ledger modules.
The inventory module helps in working capital management and also provides a
virtual tool for managing trade and logistics of the deals in transit.
The payroll module is localized to scenarios in India to include: employee
details, wages, reimbursements, wages in arrears, pension fund, employees’ state
insurance, tax deductions, and tax planning for individual employees.
The general ledger helps in managing profitability statements, balances, and
bank details, and it provides a snapshot of the entire client organizations'
accounts. It also helps in managing various reporting requirements through
accounting schedules.
“Microsoft Dynamics–Nav has provided us
an excellent integration between our barter transaction management and
accounting systems,” comments Rakesh Bhatnagar, Chief Executive
Officer, Net4Barter.
Net4Barter is in the process of developing a Web portal based on Microsoft
ASP.NET for the retail market. This will help the company to manage the deals,
create account summaries for customers, and help in the execution and logistics
management of the deal fulfillment for smaller retail outlets. The portal will
also have a product and services catalogue, to offer customers the best deals
for them, and a range of barter business opportunities. The portal will be
integrated with Microsoft Dynamics–Nav for the centralized master
records on customers, vendors, terms, balances, accounting management and
back-office operations.
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| Benefits |
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“The Microsoft Dynamics–Nav has made
the entire barter process simpler and far more efficient.” notes
Ashish Chaturvedi, Head-Corporate Projects, Net4Barter
Provides Accurate Barter Statements
“The Microsoft Navision solution provides us
accurate account statements. The solution also integrates transactions for all
business areas of a single client's organization, to provide real-time,
consolidated transaction information for the entire company—and makes it
available online,” notes Rakesh Bhatnagar, CEO, Net4Barter.
Manages Barter Transactions
Microsoft Dynamics–Nav helps monitor each deal. It also helps to
build checks and balances in the bartering marketplace and make corrections in
policies, based on the information processed at a consolidated level.
Consolidates Business Processes
The back-office operations are automated to avoid re-entry and repetition of
tasks, thereby increasing productivity, managing operations at multiple
locations, and reducing consumption of office supplies. And, in addition, the
back-office systems help Net4Barter efficiently manage working capital by
providing accurate and timely accounts receivable statements.
Reduce Operating Costs by 40 Percent
The company has been able to manage its head count and make its staff more
productive. Earlier, Net4Barter had 13 employees managing the accounts for the
company. With the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics – Nav,
this has been reduced to seven employees
About Headstart Business Solutions Private Limited
Headstart Business Solutions is a Microsoft Dynamics Partner.
Headstart has a core team of people from multi domain with qualitative and
quantitative experience in the areas of IT strategic and tactical operations
both at national and international arena..
Headstart offers IT and process related services with an objective to leverage
the strengths of these individuals through forging alliances with Microsoft
Dynamics for ERP solutions successfully.
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics offer integrated business applications and services
that allow small and midsize organizations and divisions of large enterprises to
connect employees, customers, and suppliers for improved efficiency. The
financial management, customer relationship management, supply chain management,
and analytics applications work with other Microsoft software, including the
Microsoft Office System and the Microsoft Windows® operating system, to
streamline processes across an entire organization. This gives businesses
insight to respond rapidly, plan strategically, and execute quickly. Microsoft
Dynamics are delivered through a worldwide network of channel partners
that provide specialized services and local support tailored to a company's
needs. For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:
www.microsoft.com/india/dynamics
Contact Microsoft
Dynamics India
Call : +91 99999 09 654
SMS "DYNAMICS" to 8243
or e-mail at
connect@microsoft.com |
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| Solution Overview |
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| Company |
| Net4Barter
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| Industry |
| Professional Services |
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| Industry Size |
| Medium |
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| Customer Profile |
| Net4Barter, an Indian trade exchange firm, facilitates trading transactions through a member network. It also markets products and services to its members, as well as maintaining records and accounts, and underwriting transactions. |
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| Business Situation |
| With the absence of an integrated business solution it was impossible to monitor and manage the business efficiently. Consequently, Net4Barter needed a solution to manage the barter exchange and monitor the transactions of each member |
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| Solution |
| Net4Barter deployed Microsoft® Dynamics-Nav®, with the help of Headstart Business Solutions, to manage its commissions, barter balances, and credit management processes. |
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| Benefits |
• Accurate barter statements.
• Barter transactions managed more efficiently.
• Consolidated business processes
• Reduced operating costs by 40 percent
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| Software and Services |
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Windows Server System |
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Microsoft Windows Server 2003 |
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Microsoft Dynamics |
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| Hardware |
| Hewlett Packard desktops Pentium III and IV, 256-megabyte RAM, 80-gigabytes Hard Disk Drive |
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| Partner |
| Headstart Business Solutions Private Limited |
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| "The Microsoft Navision solution provides us accurate account statements. The solution also integrates transactions for all business areas of a single client's organization, to provide real-time, consolidated transaction information for the entire company—and makes it available online"
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Rakesh Bhatnagar
Chief Executive Officer, Net4Barter
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