Empowering Retail Excellence for Leading Mexican Retailer, Soriana, with a Centralized Business Rule Engine

Soriana x SOUTHWORKS Case Study

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Context

In the fast-paced and ever-evolving world of retail, staying competitive requires modernizing business processes and embracing innovation. For Soriana, one of Mexico’s most prominent retail organizations with more than 824 stores, this meant revolutionizing its daily price calculation and distribution process for its supermarkets.

Soriana’s existing process involved a complex logic for calculating and dispatching daily product prices to various supermarkets. The previous approach, which involved parts of the logic stored in SAP, resulted in difficulties in tracking, verifying, and approving price changes. The cumbersome nature of this system led to errors and necessitated code deployments for any modifications or additions to the pricing logic.

To address these challenges, Soriana required a centralized and flexible business rule engine capable of simplifying the process, providing a unified platform to track, update, and approve price change logic without code recompilation or redeployment.

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So Soriana turned to SOUTHWORKS

"It has been one of the best experiences I have had with technology providers. We had an error rate above 20%, and now it is almost zero. When SOUTHWORKS told us it would take three weeks we didn’t believe it was possible - three weeks later we had the finished solution. I think we achieved a very good synergy in working.”
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‍ Mario Alberto Estrada Palacios, Regional Manager of Technology, Soriana

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With the aim to optimize efficiency, Soriana sought the expertise of SOUTHWORKS, introduced through Microsoft under their Code-With (Dev Squad) programme, due to SOUTHWORKS extensive knowledge and experience in retail and data handling.

‍"SOUTHWORKS is an invaluable partner in Soriana's modernization, leveraging their extensive Azure expertise to deliver exceptional results. Their technical acumen, proactive communication, and quick response times enabled us to create a centralized, flexible, and scalable engine that surpassed expectations. I highly recommend SOUTHWORKS as a trusted engineering partner, both locally in Mexico and globally”.

‍Patrizzio Virgili Technology Specialist - Microsoft Dev Squad LATAM‍

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‍Solution

‍Soriana and SOUTHWORKS embarked on a collaborative journey to implement the kernel of a centralized business rule engine. Working in tandem with Soriana’s data team, the two teams set out to create a cutting-edge business rule engine that would operate within the Microsoft Azure cloud environment.

With dedication and expertise, SOUTHWORKS delivered a powerful business rule engine tailored to Soriana’s unique requirements. The newly developed engine brought forth an array of capabilities that proved transformative:

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1. Centralized Cloud Engine

The engine operated within Microsoft Azure, providing a unified and easily accessible platform.

2. Flexibility and Agility

A flexible core allowed seamless definition, updates, and execution of business rules for determining product prices.

3. Scalable Performance

The engine was equipped with a parallelizable core capable of processing millions of records daily, enabling swift price calculations.

4. SAP Data Model Compatibility

The rule engine adapted to changes in the SAP data model and handled large volumes of data without additional demands.

5. Streamlined Logic Management

Eliminating the need for code recompilation and redeployment, business logic changes were smoothly integrated into the system.

6. Seamless Communication

The engine facilitated notification to subscribers when new price batches were ready for consumption, ensuring an efficient flow of information.

7. Supermarket Integration

The engine’s API integration with supermarkets enabled easy access to their corresponding price changes.

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By partnering with SOUTHWORKS and implementing the state-of-the-art business rule engine, Soriana accomplished its objective of streamlining its price calculation and distribution process. This newfound efficiency enabled Soriana to stay ahead of the competition and offered a seamless experience to their customers.

‍"SOUTHWORKS has been a transformative partner in the journey of innovation and application modernization for our customers.Their profound expertise in cloud architectures, backed by a highly specialized technical team that sets an example for our clients, has been instrumental. They brought their industry competence and cutting-edge technology adoption into the creation of a business rule engine in Soriana that far surpassed our customer expectations. Their ability to deliver exceptional results in record time will help our customers to move forward confidently into the future”.

Victor del Angel, App Innovation Solution Specialist at Microsoft Mexico.

Soriana’s innovation journey is not only about staying competitive; it was about embracing innovation and transforming its business processes to modernize and monetize. With SOUTHWORKS as the trusted partner, Soriana achieved its goal of streamlining its price calculation and distribution process, setting new standards for efficiency and customer satisfaction in the dynamic world of retail.

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