EDEKA Receives Retail Technology Award

The EDEKA Group, Germany’s leading food retailer, was presented the Retail Technology Award in the Best Enterprise Solution category at a gala event for its success in introducing innovative retail processes as part of its LUNAR program and presenting them as future software solutions at its showcase “Market of the Future.” The key partners in completing what is the largest IT project in the retail sector, even in the international arena, have been SAP and GK SOFTWARE AG, which jointly developed the crucial software elements for EDEKA’s “Market of the Future.” The first pilot market using the new software began commercial operations just one day after the prize-giving ceremony.

The jury of experts associated with the EHI Retail Institute awarded the Retail Technology Awards (RETA) for the third time since 2009. One of the coveted prizes in the Best Enterprise Solution category went to EDEKA’s “Market of the Future” or the innovative retail processes on display there. They have been developed as part of EDEKA‘s LUNAR program and its end-to-end integration with the central SAP system. They are on display at the EDEKA Group’s enhanced in-house showroom in Hamburg. There EDEKA provides its member companies with the opportunity of obtaining information about new software solutions and technologies for their business processes at an early stage. The project partners for the “Market of the Future” included SAP and GK SOFTWARE, which jointly developed the core elements of the new software. These primarily involve the infrastructure solutions taken from EDEKA’s LUNAR program. The new template versions based on SAP components are fully integrated in the new retail software, which was developed by SAP and GK SOFTWARE AG in a close development partnership with EDEKA. As a result, EDEKA’s “Market of the Future” provides extensive insight into the usefulness of this unique end-toend approach.

The first market in the EDEKA south-west region to commercially use the new retail software developed by SAP and GK SOFTWARE AG successfully launched productive live operations on schedule, just one day after the prize-giving ceremony on 28 February 2011. This market is also using three solutions developed by GK SOFTWARE AG, which were directly sold by SAP as part of a reseller agreement: GK Store Device Control from SAP, GK Offline Mobile Handheld Applications from SAP and GK Point-of-Sale from SAP (including a link to the mobile consumer software provided by valuephone). As a result, the new complete software for stores, which is part of the LUNAR template, is now in commercial use for the first time. The new store software was jointly adapted to the requirements of the LUNAR program by SAP and GK SOFTWARE AG in just one year and was installed on schedule. This means that SAP and GK SOFTWARE AG now have a new, completely integrated software solution to cover all the processes at retail enterprise headquarters and stores; it can be used in every retail sector at regionally administered enterprises, independent retailers, chain stores or franchisees.