La Senza goes live with Workforce Management solution

Workforce Management consulting firm, Axsium Group, have announced that La Senza Corporation, a leading Canadian and international intimate apparel specialty retailer, has gone live with Infor HCM Workforce Management at over 50 retail locations.

Axsium Group was selected by La Senza Corporation to lead the implementation, successfully achieving the go-live milestone on time and on budget. Infor HCM Workforce Management, previously known as Workbrain, is now enabling La Senza to optimise employee scheduling to drive down labour costs, improve overall operational efficiency and enhance the customer experience.

With over 3,000 employees scheduled manually in more than 340 retail locations across Canada, La Senza realised that it needed to improve and apply consistency in the processes around scheduling and managing its workforce. To help accomplish this goal, La Senza selected the Infor HCM Workforce Management solution to implement labour forecasting and scheduling optimisation functionality.

The rapid go-live was achieved using Axsium's Axselerate methodology - a proprietary suite of implementation tools and processes designed to streamline the implementation of workforce management solutions and ensure that the end result of the implementation is closely aligned with corporate goals and expectations.

"Axsium delivered on its promise to implement the Workbrain for Retail solution in under six months, exceeding our expectations. Our executive team cannot believe how quickly we implemented the system, meeting our stores' operational requirements, without costly implementation over runs," said Anne Pitts, EVP store operations, La Senza Corporation. "Based on the enterprise configuration completed up-front by Axsium, our internal project team is able to continue the rollout to our remaining retail locations in rapid succession".

www.infor.com

Survey reveals poor customer service driving UK Shoppers to the Internet

Poor customer service and out-of-stock products are driving U.K. shoppers out of shops and onto the Internet, according to an Accenture survey of nearly 1,000 UK consumers released this week.

The research into consumer attitudes found that 55 percent of respondents said that shops often did not have enough tills open and nearly half (49 percent) said that stores are frequently out of stock of the products they want.

Worryingly for retailers, the survey results make clear that if consumers do not find what they are looking for in one store, they do not hesitate to go to other stores. This is particularly true of shoppers for entertainment equipment and devices (91 percent) and for furniture (90 percent).

"Retailers know that issues such as poor customer service and out-of-stock products frustrate their customers, but what is shocking is that only a small number of successful retailers translate this customer insight into meaningful operational customer service improvements across their retail and product channels," said Richard Wildman, head of Accenture's Retail practice in the United Kingdom.

Internet-savvy retailers appear to be benefiting from these disgruntled consumers. The survey found that more than half of male shoppers (56 percent) said they prefer to buy via the Internet than in traditional bricks-and-mortar stores, and 44 percent of all respondents - both men and women - expressed a preference for online shopping over in-store shopping.

The Internet is also becoming an integral part of the shopping experience for those visiting traditional high street stores. Almost three-quarters (71 percent) of respondents said they use the Internet to compare prices and then go to the store with the lowest price, and nearly half (44 percent) said they go online to determine if a product is in stock before starting their shopping trip. In addition, two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents said they research products via the Internet before shopping in a physical store.

"The Internet has become an extension of the in-store shopping experience," said Wildman. "UK consumers are making wide use of it to not only buy products, but to check availability and find the best prices. Retailers need to make sure that if their website says they have a product, it really is on their shelves and not out of stock."

www.accenture.com

Multi-channel retailer chooses 'searchandising' solution

Findel plc, a leading supplier of merchandise to the home shopping, education and health sectors, has chosen Mercado's searchandising solutions to strengthen online sales for its home shopping division.

Findel Direct is the online trading division of Findel plc, the fourth largest direct mail order company in the UK, providing a personal shopping service to around 1.5 million customers. Two of its online brands, Letterbox and Kitbag, have recently adopted Mercado's solutions as part of a major upgrade of its online functionality, with a number of other brands in the Findel portfolio to follow.

Tim Broughton, Findel Direct's IT director, has chosen to significantly enhance its eCommerce capability, concentrating on improving its customers' online shopping experience. The company was impressed by Mercado's focus on providing shoppers with an intuitive product discovery process which provides search results with relevance to their area of interest.

'By using Mercado's powerful searchandising solution, we are making our primary focus how we can improve our customers shopping experience. It is not just about improving search and navigation, it's about finding better ways of allowing customers to find exactly what they want, when they want it - resulting in an increase in conversion rates', commented Broughton.

He continued, 'We have chosen Mercado because it goes beyond the traditional site search of other products we evaluated, empowering our business users with effective online merchandising and product presentation. By enabling the business to make instant changes to merchandising strategies without requiring input from IT staff the Mercado solution exactly supports our business objectives.'

www.mercado.com

Fortnum & Mason outsource logistics

For the first time in its 300 year history, London department store Fortnum & Mason has outsourced its logistics; and chosen multi-channel logistics company iForce as its partner. The three year contract will see iForce provide a logistics operation to replenish the store's grocery products and hampers and efulfilment for products ordered on Fortnum & Mason's web site, which has been newly redeveloped to celebrate the 300th anniversary.

This outbound efulfilment service operates from iForce's South West London site, from where iForce process, pick and pack customer orders for Fortnum & Mason's luxury grocery products such as conserves, chocolates and biscuits. iForce will also be providing fulfilment for gifts, including teas, wine and champagne.

iForce's daily replenishment service for the Piccadilly store also operates from the London site and will share a similar stock profile to the online sales of sweet grocery, tea, seasonal lines and hampers.

Commenting on the appointment of iForce, Ian Weston, supply chain director at Fortnum & Mason said: "Previously Fortnum & Mason used the basement of the store for warehousing stock and packing orders and this is the first time in 300 years that we've outsourced our store merchandise logistics. We wanted to ensure we would maintain the high service levels our demanding customers expect. iForce were able to demonstrate an ability to scale their operations to meet our needs and its location was very attractive in terms of getting stock to Piccadilly. When it came to efulfilment, we were extremely impressed with iForce's track record with leading department stores. We expect our business to grow significantly with iForce as we further outsource other key areas of store replenishment from Piccadilly. Our success over the Christmas period is been helped significantly by the efficiencies bought to our fulfilment process by iForce".

www.iforcegroup.com

Specsavers focuses on virtual benefits

UK optician brand Specsavers, has appointed Vanco, the global virtual network operator to design, implement and manage its global Wide Area Network.

The five-year agreement, with a contracted value of over £4.5 million, will deliver complete end-to-end connectivity. The solution will use DSL technology across more than 800 sites in six countries.

Specsavers selected Vanco to manage its network in order to increase its bandwidth and scalability, allowing stores to be networked in the most efficient way to allow further growth. Meanwhile, Vanco's Active Negotiation Process allows Specsavers to reduce its IT costs and keep up with the latest technology developments year-on-year.

Ruskin Snow, Specsavers' IT operations manager, commented, "Vanco's technical and carrier independence made a considerable difference to the way they approached our requirements, and I am convinced they will supply on-going benefits to Specsavers."

"We decided to use Vanco because they have consistently demonstrated technical innovation and, very importantly, a clear focus on customer service. Vanco's ability to provide us with the most suitable network for our needs means that we have the freedom to carry on growing and evolving. This combination of services allows us concentrate on what we do best - providing value-for-money eyecare."

www.vanco.com