May 2006 For eleven years, Vista Retail Support has provided help desk and IT field service support to some of the UK's best-known retailers, including Spar, River Island, Primark and Lloyds Pharmacy. In purely support terms, there is little of interest in this, however, it is Vista's approach that makes it unique.

MD, Vince Haffenden, says, "We first consider retailer's business issues and see how we can address them. We are not just there to support what is already in place, but to see how we can make things better."

For instance, James Hall & Co., one of SPAR's largest regional distribution centres, which supports 450 of Spar's 2,700 UK store estate, has relied on Vista for 10 years now to provide a refreshed POS systems estate every 4-5 years with a dedicated, responsive maintenance service contract.However, Vista has added value over time by implementing a collaborative call reduction strategy and new POS systems with advanced diagnostics.

Stuart Lockhart, scanning manager, James Hall & Co SPAR, said, "Significantly increasing our systems uptime, Vista's call reduction strategy has made a real impact to our IT performance. A simple measure of an average call can take between 4 to 8 hours. We are effectively eliminating the disruption across our entire store estate by introducing a preemptive, analytical and solution-led approach."

Vince Haffenden continues, "The market is consolidating and it is becoming harder to do business
as systems are so much more reliable now. I was brought in to change the company's approach. Retailers want a broader range of services from companies like us and we must be more than just
a service provider, we aim to be seen by our customers as their flexible champion".

Vista has achieved success because of the calibre of its people and the company has a reputation
for recruiting the best. Haffenden says, "We invest in people and empower them to solve problems
and to make the costs more visible, which is what the market is looking for."

The company was bought by International Retail Solutions Group a few years ago, IRSLG has
a global turnover of £70m. The company has a strong partnership with Digipos, which accounts for
20% of Vista's £10m business and a strong channel through PC Pos.

Contact
Vista Retail Support
www.vistaretail.com
02920 542460