24 OUTSOURCINGISSUE
ongoing, daily e-business tasks that do not fall within their own core, speciality areas of retail expertise.
E-COMMERCE WINS WITH OUTSOURCING
A
s a full service digital agency, Chapter Eight has certainly found companies are now outsourcing a variety of
It has signed two more existing clients onto its eBusiness Outsourcing service, allowing them to focus on the strategic direction of their business while Chapter Eight manage the day-to-day operations of the website. Berry’s Jewellers and Paul Costelloe are the latest clients to sign up for the service, following Lyle & Scott and Share Jewellers who have already benefi ted. In addition to designing, building and maintaining the website, clients enjoy a wide range of services including social media management, targeted direct email campaigns, supply chain integration and additional promotion of the site itself. In addition, clients can take advantage of Chapter Eight’s state-of-the-art photographic studio for high quality product images for their websites. Chapter Eight managing director, Mario Thomas (pictured), said: “Clients typically use our eBusiness Outsourcing service where they do not have resources in-house to deal with
the growth of their websites, or when they wish to concentrate on their core business whilst leaving the management of their online operations to us.”
The success of Share Jewellers to see the impact outsourcing can have on a business. The company, who have stores in Leeds and Barnsley, has seen a 900% increase in turnover since they took up the service six months
ago. Share Jewellers’ owner, David Share, said: “Outsourcing the management of the website has allowed me to place greater emphasis on expanding the business into a wider market. These days I get to concentrate on customer service and ensuring that our orders are picked, packed and shipped as quickly as possible, instead of having to worry about the nuances of running a website.”
DESPAR CELEBRATES TEN-YEAR PARTNERSHIP
Despar, a leading Italian grocery retailer and wholesaler, has realised benefi ts following the implementation of Oracle Retail solutions by Wipro Retail, over a ten-year period. As part of the global Spar brand, Despar wanted to standardise its processes and IT platform, using just one enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. It selected Wipro Retail as its partner to implement Oracle’s ERP solution, and in particular, the Oracle Retail Merchandise System, Oracle Retail Data Warehouse, Oracle Retail Invoice Matching, and Oracle Retail Warehouse Management System. Paolo Crea, Despar chief information
offi cer, said: “We’ve been working with Wipro Retail since 1998, and in that time they have helped us maintain our systems and implement new functionalities that has enabled Despar to expand into an even more successful business.”
RETAIL TECHNOLOGY MARCH/APRIL 2010
Despar has enjoyed a raft of benefi ts from its partnership with Wipro Retail. Crea explained: “Major benefi ts to our business have included the improvement on the control of our product range and margins. We’ve largely reduced the number of invoices that weren’t automatically matched and have largely reduced the number of days required for matching. We have also seen great improvements in our distribution centres, with an increased number of SKUs [stock-keeping units] managed in the warehouse. One of our core aims was to deploy a single system to manage the company, and this has also been realised. We know also have one version of the truth, in terms of data, with our data warehouse.” Other benefi ts that have been achieved, include the fact that Despar now has all the conditions required to support
collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) one of the most important project scheduled for 2010, which means it will achieve large benefi ts on stock management improvement and reducing out-of stocks. Crea continued: “The new systems have
allowed us to put a category management practice in place, and we have also seen an improved labour performance per picker in the warehouse. In terms of our supply chain, we’ve been able to reduce the average stock movement, and our administration has seen a boost, with faster processes in place for the end-of-the-year reports. We also have much greater quality of information, for example in the past we could only seen the margin for category on a monthly basis – now it’s daily, which is crucial for us to make informed business decisions.”
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