While our lives have been disrupted by the pandemic, it has been equally disruptive for all types of businesses. To ensure customer and employee safety, eCommerce and digital integration have become a necessity.
Recognising these trends, cricket Legends and now reputed investors, Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara, joined the founding team of Providore, which aims to revolutionise grocery shopping by offering quality products safely and conveniently to consumers.
“While the process of eCommerce is straightforward, when it comes to food, customers need to know how it is stored, handled, transported, and delivered with the confidence that all necessary safeguards are in place. Unfortunately, this was often lacking, and so we created Providore to fill this gap,” stated Mahela.
Customer schedule
Providore offers 1,200 imported and locally manufactured products while ensuring delivery to the customer’s doorstep within two hours. The platform also enables the customer to schedule deliveries up to four weeks in advance.
Helping make this possible is Blue Lotus 360, which builds Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for companies worldwide in a variety of industries, helping them adapt to changing market conditions.
“This required a robust ERP system to accept orders online while enabling real-time stock management, automated purchase orders, and also helping them to reconcile finance with the unique DFCC bank integration,” expressed Blue Lotus 360 CEO, Uthayakumar Nadarajah.
Through a partnership formed with John Keells Logistics (JKLL), Providore provides end-to-end services (warehousing, fulfilment, and delivery of goods), guaranteeing the quality of products and delivery, and unparalleled customer experience. The Blue Lotus 360 ERP is in the process of being integrated into the JKLL Infor Warehouse Management System (WMS) to ensure everything operates smoothly from start to finish.
“Acting as the bridge between a customer’s screens to their goods delivered through JKLL, it is one of our greatest accomplishments that we were able to go live with this state-of-the-art system for Providore in under three months,” adds Blue Lotus 360 COO Nithushan Uthayakumar.
Pending purchase
The process starts when the team at Providore places an order with the supplier. The WMS is simultaneously notified of a pending purchase order via email. Once the supplier sends the goods, a Goods Received Note is raised, which updates existing stock levels.
Customers may browse the online collection of goods and fill their virtual shopping cart, before conveniently paying for their order via the DirectPay payment gateway – the order is then shipped to their doorstep.
Blue Lotus 360 was part of the John Keells X Startup Accelerator programme and has now grown to be the developer of over 200 ERP systems for numerous clients in Sri Lanka and the UK. Their local clientele includes the country’s largest fast-food chain together with leading boat, packaging, shoe manufacturers in Sri Lanka and a few of the biggest real estate and road contractor companies. As it grows rapidly, Blue Lotus 360 continues to help companies digitise themselves with their systems, creating a new era of business operations in a post-pandemic Sri Lanka.
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