36 CASESTUDY
MINT VELVET IT PARTNERSHIP PAYS DIVIDENDS
One year on, Mint Velvet sales top £10 million, “exceeding expectations” and Retail Assist partnership is recognised by prestigious industry awards
We started with a blank sheet and… established the merchandising system by taking Merret ‘out-of-the-box’ and we’d set up head offi ce systems in just six weeks. Incredible
I
n June 2009, women’s fashion start-up Mint Velvet engaged Retail Assist as its outsourced IT partner. Mint Velvet’s exacting brief was that all IT systems, including software, hardware, infrastructure and communications had to be fully operational for go-live on 1 October so the retailer could run a fully multichannel business from day one. Retail Assist was tasked with delivering a fully operational infrastructure from scratch, across the head offi ce, logistics hub in Milton Keynes, two ‘solus’ stores, and 14 House of Fraser concessions. Stuart Grant, Mint Velvet’s Commercial Director,
explained: “If our deadline had been missed, it would have been impossible to trade in House of Fraser stores. Failure, just being a little late, wasn’t an option. We’d have had to defer launch until January or February, losing up to six months’ trading.” First, Retail Assist recommended systems fl exible
enough for all requirements, including head offi ce and warehouse, systems integration across the supply chain with e-commerce, store systems and the 14 concessions. The optimum mix of business-critical software and applications, delivered as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) managed solution, was identifi ed to meet all business, retail and operational criteria included Merret for merchandising management, supply chain, warehousing – integrated with point-of-sale (PoS) partner solution Infi nity PoS, and all built and confi gured for IBM System i hardware. It also required the implementation and design by BT Fresca of its FrescaCommerce Express e-commerce platform, with proven stability and ease of integration between Merret/Fresca to share product/ pricing information, pass sales data back to Merret, and send fulfi lment data to the logistics centre.
The provider also enabled remote access using Cisco technology for staff to access services via laptops running a deployment of Microsoft-based head offi ce infrastructure including Exchange, fi le and print, and Outlook Web Access. Remote management capabilities also extended to website use, mail scanning and verifi cation. Finally, Retail Assist also took on the retailer’s physical warehouse setup, creating a working offi ce space and implementing a radio frequency network. Chris Inman, Mint Velvet non-executive director, commented: “We started with a blank sheet and met Retail Assist. From then, we’d established the merchandising system by taking Merret ‘out-of-the-box’ and we’d set up head offi ce systems, in just six weeks. Incredible.” Retail Assist also managed solus store openings and designed and delivered extensive support services including a dedicated fi rst-line support service desk; second-line support for Infi nity PoS via the expert store systems team and Merret support via a dedicated applications team; third-line support for software and applications; hardware maintenance; and operational support for all devices including the head offi ce server infrastructure. Despite the pressure and the scale of the undertaking, the team delivered – on time and for 17% less than the original budget – a powerful, scalable, multichannel merchandising system and fully transactional website, founded on a robust end-to-end retail IT and communications infrastructure. Mint Velvet’s fi rst three months’ trading exceeded expectations and the company rapidly expanded, with Retail Assist project managing further implementations. The systems accommodated a second wave of openings in Spring that doubled the size of the business (20 additional House of Fraser concessions, three concessions in Fenwick, an outlet in an independent store). One year on, Mint Velvet was able to impress the industry by reporting sales in excess of £10m. Autumn/Winter saw Mint Velvet trading in 62 outlets after expanding into John Lewis in the UK and Menarys and Arnotts in Ireland. The existing IT infrastructure made this growth seamless across the varied solus, concession and shop in shop trading formats.
The exceptional nature of the Mint Velvet launch meant that both they and Retail Assist quickly gained industry recognition. The partnership was awarded ‘Project Implementation of the Year’ at the annual Retail Week Technology Awards, and was shortlisted in the ‘IT Project of the Year’ category at the Retail Systems Awards.
RETAIL TECHNOLOGY MARCH/APRIL 2011
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