08 NEWSDIGEST
DOBBIES BUSINESS BLOOMS WITH NEW SIGNAGE
GERRY WEBER
◆ Independent
boutique
CHOOSES RFID SUPPLIER
Dobbies, one of the UK’s largest garden centre retailers with 25 stores throughout Scotland and England, is implementing Retail Enterprise Suite from Episys to produce shelf edge labels and promotional signage centrally, for availability to the stores through the in-store user interface.
The Episys solution will enable
Dobbies to add rich content to signs, maintain consistent branding across the store estate, reduce lead times for signage production, cut down on wastage through the delivery of store specifi c batches, all of which will and lead to a signifi cant reduction in labour at both the head offi ce and store. John Hawkins, head of visual merchandising for Dobbies, said: “The Episys solution will support us in a number of ways, particularly when we are opening new stores. The new system will remove the labour-intensive obstacles we encounter when opening new garden centres, meaning business as usual for all our stores.”
The implementation of Retail
Enterprise Suite has also enabled Dobbies to move to in-store printing and Episys will be providing printers that not only have the capability of producing internal signage, but also printing on waterproof, UV resistant media that can be used externally. Peter Lewis, Marketing Director
at Episys, said: “Dobbies has ambitious expansion plans, aiming to open 100 stores within the next 10 years. It is vital for Dobbies that, as they grow, they ensure that their customers continue to see consistent messaging and the Retail Enterprise Suite is the ideal system to enable this.”
RETAIL TECHNOLOGY MARCH/APRIL 2010
CoChineChine, in Hampstead, London has selected new retail management systems. Using Eurostop’s retail solution, e-rmis and e-pos at till point in-store, the boutique claims more effi cient stock management and increased sales through better merchandising.
F
ashion and lifestyle company, Gerry Weber International recently chose Nordic ID as their handheld radio
frequency identifi cation (RFID) supplier. The international, chain-wide RFID project stipulated high mobility requirements, which Nordic ID said its PL3000 UHF RFID Cross Dipole computers fulfi l. The delivery of the handheld devices will be in July 2010 to the “Houses of Gerry Weber” in Germany and throughout Europe. The RFID handhelds will be most
heavily used in goods receiving and inventory management at about 150 stores. “Nowadays it takes us about two
days to complete the inventory on a 200-square-foot retail space,” said Christian von Grone, Gerry Weber chief information offi cer. “After the roll out this process will take only about 10 minutes.”
Nordic ID handsets were chosen
after a rigorous selection process, including extensive testing of different devices. The fact that the PL3000 Cross Dipole is able to read tags from up to four feet away, even through closed boxes, was the deciding factor in its choice. For Gerry Weber, this is especially important when tagged goods, in individual boxes, are transported in bulk on pallets. Due to the innovative cross-
polarising antenna developed by Nordic ID, the device is capable of reading tags both horizontally and vertically. For the Gerry Weber project this was one of the factors to choose Nordic ID PL3000 Cross Dipoles, since the affect of the orientation of the RFID tags is negligible during the reading process, in rapid succession and this speeds up the company’s processes signifi cantly.
PARTY PEOPLE INVEST IN VOICE
Amscan, a global leading designer, manufacturer and distributor of party products, will implement VoiteQ VoiceMan middleware and Vocollect Voice at its distribution centre in Milton Keynes to increase productivity and accuracy in their conveyor picking and stock taking operations. VoiteQ’s solution will replace the paper-based picking system previously used
at Amscan for their conveyor picking operation and follows a successful six-week trial, proving benefi ts that should lead to a return on investment in 12 months. Gerry O’Dell, director of distribution and logistics at Amscan, said: “The
fl exibility that VoiteQ has built into the system allows us to combine the way we want to work with industry best practice, rather than the system just dictating the operation.”
◆ Research
carried out by Sterling
Commerce among 300 senior IT managers across France, Germany and the UK found that 72% of respondents plan to invest in a cloud-based business-to- business (B2B) integration strategy as a means of delivering cost savings and the ability to scale infrastructure. But France and Germany led the way, with 72 and 77% respectively claiming they would invest in this area within the next 12 months.
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