API

Who is API?

Village grocery stores represented essential places of passage, meetings, and habits. They were, along with the church and bakery, everything that makes the soul of a village. API is a new generation of connected convenience stores, always open, with a daily presence, fulfilling their original and essential function of proximity and social connection that the countryside deserves to regain.

API aims to revitalize rural areas by establishing self-service convenience stores. A complete and modern proximity offer: 700 to 800 references per store, available at prices similar to supermarkets, as well as a range of "super local" products. All accessible 24/7. Three strong axes support API's economic model: a supply chain partnership with Carrefour, providing logistical strength and a wide range of everyday products; autonomous, lightweight, and eco-friendly installations that can be quickly deployed; a convenience store manager for a cluster of 5 stores to contain costs.

The API concept materialized on November 15, 2022, with the opening of the first convenience store in Claix, Charente. The opening plan in 2023 will focus on Nouvelle-Acquitaine, with a target of 40 operating stores. Then, 160 stores by the end of 2024 and 600 by the end of 2026, nationwide.

API's goal is for each convenience store to generate a turnover of €200,000 in the long run.

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API's rural convenience stores rely on SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud (RISE)

A start-up full of potential and ambition, API felt the need to rely on the SAP ERP to structure its processes and ensure the reliability of data related to its stocks. It opted for the SAP S/4HANA offering deployed in public cloud mode (RISE with SAP) by the Applium teams.

Finding an ERP to support its growth...

"Our growth rate is strong and should accelerate further from January 2024, with a rate of 10 new openings per month," explains Fabien Espinasse, CTO of API. "We need a robust ERP to support this growth and centralize our accounting, stock management, and control." We wanted to have a complete ERP from the start, capable of supporting us when we have to manage 600 stores across France."

Today's start-up aims to become a major player in rural distribution and, therefore, needed an ERP capable of supporting it and providing it with credibility vis-à-vis its partners and investors.

... And a partner capable of supporting it on its project

After a false start, API turned to the experts at Applium, with whom the company's CTO had already had the opportunity to collaborate.

"Applium is a reputable French company capable of supporting us nationwide and offering serious, certified consultants who master the implementation best practices recommended by SAP," summarizes Fabien Espinasse. "A key element to meet our deadlines and budget, relying on a fit-to-standard approach that will allow us to limit the risk of accumulating technical debt in the future. Applium's support will also give us more weight in our exchanges with SAP."

The project is extremely short: 3 months between May and July to complete all tasks from framing to realization, including user training, followed by a month to ensure an initial version upgrade (the next version of the RISE offering arriving in August), accompanied by the usual regression tests. A marathon of months that will result in the solution going live in early September. Applium will subsequently offer its AMS services to cover API's ongoing needs and support it in the semi-annual version upgrades of the RISE offering in public cloud mode.

The ERP scope remains traditional (purchases, sales

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