16
PROCESSES&POWER
ARGOS JOINS JEWSON JOINS UP
UP CUSTOMER
PROCESSES
DESIGN SERVICE
J
ewson, the UK’s leading supplier of building or into their ordering system. Jewson also use
materials is using Planit Fusion design and the Fusion system to produce customised
visualisation software within its kitchen and letters using various templates.
bathroom showrooms. Regional managers can access sales
The DIY retailer offers an extensive range statistics, proposed quotes and processing
of kitchens from budget, express through to orders via the ‘Connect’ section of Fusion,
bespoke, ready assembled kitchens. It also to keep them up-to date with day to day
offer full surveying and planning services, as business activity at each of their showrooms.
well as a photo quality kitchen or bathroom “We use Fusion for kitchen and bathroom
design service using Fusion. In addition, Fusion planning and design and back of� ce
eGain Communications Corporation, the
offers additional functionality to manage their management information,” Hazel Simpson,
leading, on-premise or on-demand, today
back-of� ce administration duties. Jewson procurement manager. “The Fusion
announced that Argos, the UK’s leading
Planit Fusion has developed a customised software is invaluable in providing our
home and general merchandise retailer,
quotation system for Jewson, incorporating customers with excellent designs of their
is implementing the on-demand version
of eGain KnowledgeAgent, following a
special discounts and margin limits. It also desired kitchens. And the back-of� ce support
successful trial period.
has the functionality to provide multi-price that it provides enables us to give an ef� cient
The hosted version of KnowledgeAgent
functions, where one design can be priced in and high
from provider of multichannel customer
various different ranges at the click of a button. quality service
service and knowledge management
Fusion can also translate the design into a list and improve
software, eGain will help Argos to
of stock-keeping unit (SKU) codes and prices our business
ef� ciently resolve customer queries of to be incorporated into a customer quotation processes.”
varying complexity across the full range of
product and services.
Following a competitive tender, Argos
opted to pilot eGain KnowledgeAgent
ETHEL AUSTIN INTEGRATES
with a select number of its agents in their
brown goods aftersales department. NEW COMPANY PROCESSES
Graham Dear, service improvement
and development programme manager at
Ethel Austin, has brought Au Naturale, the homeware brand acquired last year, onto its
Argos’ parent company, Home Retail Group
Island Paci� c platform.
explained: “Without the assistance of a
The main aim of the purchase was to complement Ethel Austin’s overall offering, and to
knowledge base, our agents naturally found
introduce a homeware product offer across Ethel Austin stores. Following on from this, a
it dif� cult to resolve complex customer
selection of Ethel Austin product will also be introduced into selected Au Naturale stores.
queries without having previous experience
A customer of Island Paci� c’s since 1993, Ethel Austin uses all modules including
of that particular issue. Given the increased
Merchandising, Warehousing, Sales Audit and Financials. The company has taken every
complexity of brown goods queries, the
technology upgrade released since then.
decision was taken to introduce a robust
Martin Draper, group head of IT at Ethel Austin told Retail Technology, the main aim of
knowledge management system to improve
the integration was to maximise the value of Ethel Austin’s warehouse and distribution
customer experience, contact centre agent
operations and combine both retailers’ purchase orders, invoicing and pricing systems, while
productivity and � rst-contact resolution. running Au Naturale as a separate business.
“Based on the pilot alone, we have He said: “We were keen to bring everything onto one platform, so needed to use Island
seen a notable improvement in our Paci� c across the 30 stores that Au Naturale was being introduced to. This was purchased
service operations, with repeat calls at no additional cost, because of the way our existing licence works. Not only has this saved
down by 10% and avoidable returns purchasing costs, but it has also created real ef� ciencies with merchandising and buying
and engineer service visits reduced work� ow.”
dramatically.” The � rst store to undertake the combined offer was Eccles, Greater Manchester.
During the pilot, KnowledgeAgent Mike Dotson, European managing director for Island Paci� c added: “Transferring Au
enabled agents of varying expertise to Naturale onto the Island Paci� c platform was a seamless process, which we completed
� nd the answers they needed easily
before September 2008. The IT team at Ethel Austin was able to complete the transfer
and ef� ciently through a broad range
internally, with no interruption to the business. And, at the same time, the retailer took the
of knowledge access methods; including
latest upgrade of Island Paci� c – the 3.2 release.”
FAQs, search and browse, as well as
“The integration and upgrade allows us to have greater � exibility of resources and products
guided help, powered by eGain’s patented
from both brands across that will go into selected stores, but that offers combined information
Case-Based Reasoning Technology (CBR).
system management capabilities, across the two distinct businesses,” concluded Draper.
RETAIL TECHNOLOGY APRIL/MAY 2009
14-19 Processes & Power.indd 16 6/5/09 9:51:13 am
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