A move to more flexible IT systems

As a speciality retailer, you know that the retail industry is continually evolving. Whether it be collections, customers or suppliers, the market is changing day by day and in order to keep pace with this rate of change, retailers need to be agile. They need to be able to quickly react and adapt to changing market trends. This is where service-oriented architecture (SOA) comes into play. When SOA first emerged, it was heralded as a completely new way of thinking, a framework in which IT programmes could be decoupled into autonomous service areas which all communicate with each other. The result is that when your organisation wants to upgrade its customer management, purchasing or logistics systems, you can do so quickly and without upgrading your entire IT system. With SOA retailers can finally use their IT solutions to support their retail processes, rather than the other way round!

This is why, for the last three years, we’ve been building our new head office software solution, Colombus.NEXT, entirely on Microsoft .NET and SOA architecture. We took this long term technological and strategic decision so that your information system can adapt to the changes in your business, such as an increase in product references, new store openings or international expansion for example.

SOA is no longer a concept, it is a reality and is already being used by VCSTIMELESS clients. It’s a reality you can see in operation at our testing centre in Montpellier.

Enjoy the read!
François Miton
VCSTIMELESS R&D Director