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Fashion retailer, Comptoir des
Cotonniers, with 300 stores in Europe, Asia
and the US, has implemented new point-of-sale
software through VCSTIMELESS. The Microsoft
.NET based solution has allowed the company
to keep track of sales and stock levels in real
time. It has also led to operational tasks for
stores becoming simpler and more efficient.
The rollout was completed in a record two months,
despite the size and scale of an international
IT project. An innovative approach to remotely
installing the new software meant that the old
software could be partitioned and replaced with
no disruption to services.
Updating IT systems for expansion
The Comptoir des Cotonniers business
has grown fast, since opening its first two
boutiques
in France in 1995. It continues to expand, with
around 130 more international stores planned
for opening in the next few years. Due to its
rapid expansion, Fast Retailing, the Japanese
fashion group which owns the label (and other
brands like Uniqlo and Princesse
Tam-Tam), decided
in 2006 to upgrade its information technology
systems. It chose Microsoft’s ERP system
for its head office: Dynamics AX, Windows Server
2003, a SQL Server 2005 database with 125 GB
of storage space, and .NET 2.0 web services.
Then, in 2007, the group needed to consider
technology for its stores. |
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“
The existing
system didn’t have any capacity for storing
data at the store level,” said Marc Bernhard,
IT director at Comptoirs des Cotonniers. “Whenever
there was a problem with the internet link with
our central server in Toulouse, our stores lost
all the IT tools necessary for running an efficient
retail business, and so they had to do all the essential
tasks manually.”
Technologically advanced
store solutions
Comptoir des Cotonniers opted to equip its stores
with the new point-of-sale (EPoS) solution,
BeStore,
from VCSTIMELESS. Following successful trials
in two stores, the retailer rolled-out the technology
to all its 300+ stores. The latest technological
innovations, inherent in BeStore, enabled the
VCSTIMELESS teams to deploy the software in record
time without sending a single support engineer
to site! This was possible thanks to BeStore’s
Installation Manager feature within the GlobalStore
module which enables packets to be automatically
sent to the stores. Using this system, around
10 stores were deployed per night, totalling
about 50 per week. Deployment began in September
2007 and by the end of just six weeks, all 300
international stores had been equipped with the
new solution.
The EPoS
software was geared to
each country’s
own language, currency and fiscal regulations.
BeStore manages payments, the price changes during
sales, stocks as well as processes returns and
inter-store transfers, credit notes and gift tokens.
Store personnel have their own user interface with
easily identifiable buttons for transactions and
other customer service offerings, like loyalty
schemes or alterations. It also gives instant access
to information on stock, such as when articles
will be delivered to stores.
“With increasing pressures as our retail
business expands, BeStore can cope with our busy
sales periods and replenish articles within a day,
every day,” said Bernhard. “Our old
system took at least twice this time, and it wasn’t
always reliable. What’s more, markdowns now
only take a matter of hours, unlike days before.”
System benefits
A number of benefits have been achieved using BeStore,
including:
- Faster re-ticketing
for markdowns (preparation for sales is now
four times faster)
- Greater autonomy at a local
level (eg, in case
of loss of internet connections with head
office)
- More reliable, quality data
- Compatibility and
ease of integration with Microsoft software
- Exchange
of sales data in real time
- Merchandise now replenished
daily
- User interfaces easier to use
- Faster transaction
times
The
company’s IT director said that the
most modern technology and service-orientated
architecture (SOA) of BeStore was extremely important in their
decision, because it would make it easier to integrate
new tools as the retailer’s needs evolved
in future. The point-of-sale
software is controlled
centrally from the head office, which means that
stores don’t have to worry about updating
their terminals. It also guarantees continuity
and reliability of data in all its stores throughout
the world.
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