32
CASESTUDY
NEW LOOK SUPPORTS
EXPANSION WITH ORACLE SOA
New Look, the UK fashion retailer has implemented Oracle Service
Oriented Architecture (SOA) Suite to help increase operational
¾ exibility and strengthen its foundation for future growth as it
expands internationally.
F
ounded in 1969, New Look has 608 stores in the 2007. Both markdown and purchase order (PO) projects
UK and Ireland and 287 stores in France trading have delivered real-time savings to the B&M teams and
under the Mim brand. It also has 23 New Look considerable strategic bene½ ts have been realised across
Oracle SOA branded stores in France and Belgium and franchise the business from the integration and expansion of new
Suite has
stores in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and channels and markets.
enabled us
Saudi Arabia. The retailer also recently opened an online The SOA Suite’s visibility and control has helped
channel, which is already receiving half a million visitors a improve the accuracy of 40 million stock keeping
to focus on week. unit (SKU) store records updated by the markdown
processes and
With 37% of the British female population having application and 3,000 POs raised each week. This has
the way we
purchased an item of womenswear from New Look in helped eliminate costly errors, ensure markdown cost and
the past year – amounting to just over 9 million individuals expenses to margin are properly assigned, and reduce
work, stripping – it also has a growing market share in the mens and lead-time through suppliers getting orders up to a week
signi½ cant
kidswear category, according to market researcher TNS earlier.
non-value
last September. At the same time, it held the number one The markdown solution has enabled a common
retailer of women’s shoes in the UK by volume, with a process to be adopted across the UK and international
effort from market share of 7.7%. stores for the ½ rst time, enabling the total impact of
the buying and
The fashion retailer implemented the SOA Suite markdown decisions to be measured.
merchandising
to exploit existing and future IT investments and help The PO solution has allowed New Look to introduce
accelerate business performance by re-engineering franchise speci½ c POs. This has helped to ensure that
teams processes within its buying and merchandising (B&M) the franchise channels have guaranteed stock and clear
function, initially focused on markdown management and visibility of commitment. And now, with the introduction
purchase ordering. of upstream hubs, SOA has enabled direct deliveries
A core team of senior business users within the IT and bypassing the UK. This alone has helped reduce three
B&M teams, Oracle and Accenture, supported by group weeks of lead-time to franchise markets, with the
directors as business sponsors, helped ensure that New associated handling and freight savings.
Look’s project remained focused on the business. The ½ nal stages of the project were expected to go
As one of the ½ rst retailers globally to deploy SOA to live in January and April 2009, delivering a consistent
achieve process excellence, New Look has championed a markdown optimisation solution across the trading ¾ oor
business-led approach, in contrast to other organisations and enabling complex POs to be raised re¾ ecting the
adopting a technology or integration approach. By various supply chain routings required to support New
focusing on the business objectives, SOA has quickly Look’s expanding franchise operations.
gained momentum across New Look’s trading ¾ oor. Carl McPhail, New Look chief executive of½ cer
To date, New Look has completed two of its four- commented: “SOA has been a huge success within New
phase SOA programme, which commenced in June Look and investing early in this emerging technology
has created real value. Oracle SOA Suite has enabled
us to focus on processes and the way we work,
stripping signi½ cant non-value effort from the buying and
merchandising teams, which in turn, has enabled them to
focus on growing the business. More importantly, SOA has
helped us create a ¾ exible platform for supporting our
strategic expansion.”
The success of the project also secured New Look
the ‘Back Of½ ce Solution of the Year Award’ at the recent,
third annual Retail Systems awards, which recognise
excellence and innovation in IT within the UK retail sector.
RETAIL TECHNOLOGY MARCH 2009
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40