Case Study: Profi ROM Foods

Profi-Case-Study-Pepas-Cloud

Profi, one of the largest and fastest-growing retailers in Romania, wanted to manage more efficiently its network of over 1,645 stores. Together with partner Crayon and Pepas Cloud, Profi built multiple tailored solutions. The applications were designed to streamline internal audits, eliminate errors, double auditor productivity, enhance store compliance and customer experience. Additionally, another solution brought automation and visibility to employee task management, saving team members more than 30 minutes every day.

Operating since 2000, Profi is a top grocery food retailer in Romania. With over 1,645 stores and 28,000 employees throughout the country, it is also Romania’s largest private employer. “Every day, more than 1.2 million customers visit our stores, and we are still scaling fast,” says Paul Cărămidariu, Director of Business Support Office at Profi, who led the implementation. 

To sustain its growth and manage the vast network of stores, Profi decided to digitize its processes. “Initially, we considered using readily available software, but we opted for building an application from scratch so that it could be tailored to our needs,” explains Catalin Pavel, IT Digital & Data Director at Profi. “We chose to power our solutions with Microsoft Power Platform and Power Apps because of their flexibility, scalability, and fast delivery.”

Saving time and improving the shopping experience

Profi reached out to partners Crayon and Pepas Cloud for help with building the applications, estimated the returns on investment for each idea and got to work. The first solution was designed to streamline biannual internal audits in stores. “The entire process used to be done on paper, taking our auditors additional time to transfer everything to their computers,” explains Amalia Turcanu, Audit Department Manager. 

With the new solution, audit tasks are automatically assigned to auditors. They perform audits by entering all the information digitally, using web and mobile applications and generating real-time reports in Power BI. “We have eliminated to a considerable extent the risk of errors and our auditors have doubled their productivity,” adds Amalia Turcanu. “Given the saved time, auditors can now suggest improvements to the stores, helping them become more compliant. As a result, products and information are more readily available to our customers.”

We have eliminated to a considerable extent the risk of errors and our auditors have doubled their productivity. As a result, products and information are more readily available to our customers. 

Amalia Turcanu: Audit Department Manager

Profi

Another solution streamlined task management for store employees. “Previously, our staff used to access a list of tasks on the office computers, executed each task on the shop floor and returned to the computers for reporting, resulting in a lot of back-and-forth,” explains Catalin Pavel. “With the new solution, regional and area managers can easily assign recurring tasks and track progress, establish key performance indicators as well as see real-time results. This increases transparency and saves our team members at least 30 minutes every day.”

It took us only a few months to digitize some of our most important workflows, and we can continue streamlining and automating our everyday tasks. 

Paul Cărămidariu: Director of Business Support Office

Profi

Finally, a third solution empowered Profi to track its store expansions within a single platform and in real time. “Working with applications that are naturally integrated into Microsoft ecosystem made it easy for us to generate reports in Power BI from Audit and Task Management applications,” adds Catalin Pavel. 

Moving forward, Profi wants to streamline other processes with Power Apps and increasingly rely on machine learning for supply chain predictions. “With our partners so focused and supportive of our needs, it took us only a few months to digitize some of our most important workflows, and we can continue streamlining and automating our everyday tasks,” concludes Paul Cărămidariu.