of constantly creating spreadsheets in cluttered desktop folders and struggling to balance information between different programs and systems. Many of our original cus- tomers were retailers with wholesale divisions and Chain- Drive meant they could leverage both inventories at a single glance – which was revolutionary in a lot of ways.” When e-commerce came into its own, Multidev was faced with a dilemma: Reinvent the wheel, or adapt the Chain- Drive model. Amzallag and colleagues noted that while more and more companies were completely skipping the brick and mortar model, they still needed to leverage inventory over multiple channels. “So our approach had to reflect this,” Amzallag said. E-comDrive “is a complete and fully-integrated Back-Office System exclusively designed and developed for the web retailer. E-comDrive’s com- prehensive suite of solution components offers all of the visibility and functionality required to manage and grow a successful e-commerce business within one system. It’s a robust, reliable and revolutionary system that caters to the unique requirements of today’s web retailer, offering the most all-inclusive advanced e-commerce software on the market,” according to Multidev.com. Catering to these divergent off and online clients isn’t the juggling act you’d imagine. “While the customers and their needs vary a lot, we mostly focus on a few verticals: apparel, department store, footwear, home décor, jewelry, specialty, sporting goods. We remain within those verticals because of the volume of business we enjoy by specializ- ing. We have a lot to bring to the table in those verticals. We’re a smaller company, so digging our heels in to a certain niche or two is our best practice,” Amzallag said. It’s a strategy that’s been working for Multidev through three decades of economic and technological change. “Each year, Multidev grows upwards of 25%; last year we achieved 25% growth,” he said. “We were able to do that because we diversify within the seven verticals we operate in. We have customers all across Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean and when visions are more dynamic than others, we meet the challenge. Meeting client’s needs grows the brand and that makes it easier to sit through the cycles of the economy. The
999 Boulevard de Maisonneuve O – a five minute walk from the Montreal Eaton Centre – is like a second home to Multi- dev’s family of 50. “In our nearly 20 years in business, we’ve always been located in downtown Montreal – we’ve moved a few times, but we’ve never left downtown,” he said. “We pride ourselves on our beautiful and spacious offices, our fitness centre, and the many services we offer our employ- ees. We try to find balance in everything we do here.” “We’re a smaller company, so digging our heels in to a certain niche or two is our best practice.” In a way, what they do at Multidev is bottle up their balance for retailers, e-tailers, and wholesalers. ChainDrive, as described at Multidev.com, “is a complete end-to-end scalable, fully integrated omni-channel retail management solution that enables retailers to gain greater control over all of their business processes. From point of sale to opera- tions and web order fulfillment all the way through to finan- cials and more, the ChainDrive Platform delivers all of the functionality required to become a retail success.” “When we started, we always envisioned software that encompassed everything in one database,” Amzallag recalled. “This, our thinking was, would allow managers to instantly leverage information. It would mean the end
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • OCTOBER 2016
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