Habitat to launch online recruitment portal

Habitat UK, the international home furnishing retailer, has signed a five-year contract with Bond International Software to deploy Bond Talent - a hosted online recruitment & talent management software solution which will provide an online web portal-based recruitment application and applicant tracking system throughout its UK operations.

Habitat, which employs more than 900 people across the UK in 38 stores, will use the new system to manage all of its recruitment processes electronically - eliminating existing manual and email-based systems - to provide secure access to its business partners and line managers who need to manage more than 4,500 job applicants annually. Improving the system is expected to result in an estimated annual cost saving of thousands, together with significant increases in efficiency, speed of operation and time savings.

Sean Thomas, Habitat's UK head of HR and development, comments, "With all of our recruitment records on e-mail and paper, we had no systematic way of calculating even how many candidates we had for each vacancy, let alone a way of centralising all the information. With Bond Talent, the time taken from posting a vacancy to filling it can be dramatically reduced. We will see a substantial reduction in administrative time spent and we expect to save thousands through productivity and time savings."

"Through Bond Talent," Thomas continues, "all of our line managers, regardless of department or location, can post vacancies through the portal to which prospective candidates can submit their applications. These candidates can then be assessed and tracked all the way through the recruitment process. Moreover, our recruitment department has full visibility of each application and can create a 'talent pool' from which we can select appropriate candidates for future positions. We see this as a clear advantage for the business."

www.bond.co.uk

JD Sports outsources datacenter, disaster recovery and WAN services

Sports fashion retailer, JD Sports, has entered into a 5 year managed service contract with Pasporte, the UK provider of managed ICT outsourcing services. The managed service will upgrade, future-proof and secure the retailers' IT infrastructure, and support JD on the journey towards PCI DSS compliance.

The £2m deal includes the migration of JD's back-office applications and data, such as payroll and warehouse stock management, into a hosted environment; the implementation of a 24/7 disaster recovery programme to enable near real time recovery; and managed WAN between the retailers' 4 warehouses and head office.

Harry Willoughby, IT manager for JD, says, "As a leading high street retailer it's imperative our IT operations support JD's business development strategy. Our existing data centre infrastructure is no longer viable, and the potential for downtime too great a risk for the business. With our PCI DSS compliance programme underway, the opportunity to achieve a better foundation for our IT systems and accelerate our governance strategy made for a very compelling business case."

The migration of JD's applications was piloted over the Christmas trading period, testing Pasporte's migratory approach at peak transaction volumes.

Willoughby adds, "Pasporte demonstrated significant expertise and efficiency during this first phase of migration, and in the overall design of the solution. Already, at this early stage, we're seeing the initial benefits in the rationalisation of our IT systems, meaning our IT team can start identifying new and innovative ways to support JD Sports' long-term business goals."

Pasporte will complete the migration of JD's' estimated 3Tb of data in May 2008.

www.pasporte.com

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew gets the Midas touch

Sanderson, the UK provider of software solutions to the retail industry, has won a contract to provide its Midas retail solution to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew aims to inspire and deliver science-based plant conservation worldwide and has two sites in the UK - Kew Gardens in Surrey and Wakehurst Place, West Sussex. Sanderson will provide the Midas solution across the two sites that incorporate retail, mail order, wholesale and now a retail catering solution, to increase operational efficiencies across all channels.

Midas replaces two retail applications, giving the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew single visibility of product and stock files that will allow them to accurately place and track orders. The finance department will also have a consolidated view of the retail operation, enhancing control and auditability of the retail function, which is fundamental to their management decision-making process. Additionally, EPoS units will be installed at all seven catering outlets at Kew Gardens and Wakehurst Place to help improve the quality and speed of customer service from increased staff productivity and efficiency.

Mark Jackson, project manager at Kew, commented, "The solution from Sanderson was selected following a methodical selection process starting with specification of our requirements, invitation to tender, short-listing of potential suppliers, and selection of successful bid. We are confident that Midas was the best match to our requirements."

www.sanderson.com

Mothercare selects group-wide accounting system

Finance software specialist CODA Group, has announced that Mothercare plc has signed a contract for its Financials software and services.

Already in use at two subsidiaries within Mothercare, CODA underwent a competitive evaluation and was chosen as the preferred system for group-wide accounting at the International high street retailer. Its flexible nature and user definable screens, along with its ability to integrate smoothly with the retailer's other business systems, were instrumental in the decision.

"We are confident that CODA's software will support our complex Group structure," said Mike Rainer, group financial controller at Mothercare. "The CODA team worked closely with us to show how the core product functionality, along with its consolidation and reporting capabilities, would meet our critical business issues. CODA will link our merchandising and EPoS environments into our financial management systems helping us to automate further our accounting processes."

CODA's retail accounting solution supports; core accounting and procurement processes, specialist retail accounting processes and reporting requirements and links to leading merchandising and EPoS systems. The level of detail that can be captured in the CODA system means that all store transactions are held in detail, enabling in-depth analysis and reporting - for example by period, by week, by day, by store.

www.coda.com