ActiveRetail, the award winning Microsoft-based software product suite developed by UCS Software Manufacturing (UCSSM) - the outsourced retail product development arm of JSE Securities Exchange listed UCS Group Ltd - has landed their first UK-based contract since going the outsourcing route.
The deal, with UK-based furniture retailer, The Pier, initially amounts to R1 million, and will be serviced by ActiveRetail partner, Arnel. The Pier has more than 40 furniture-focused stores scattered around the UK.
Michael Deg'e, Outsourced Product Development (OPD) executive of UCSSM, said: "Our development machine is tuned to deliver software that meet our clients' product needs. This contract, won by our customer in one of the most competitive retail product markets, proves unequivocally that our OPD teams build products that meet the rigorous and evolving requirements of the competitive marketplace."
The pilot site will start at one of their stores in Glasgow, Scotland, and, if successful, Arnel will roll out the solution to their stores throughout the UK, which number more than 40. They will also assist with the customisation of the ActiveRetail software, to ensure that it meets the local requirements of The Pier.
ActiveRetail provides retailers with a complete, flexible and scalable retail management solution comprising head office, branch management and store-based points of service that is able to grow with the changing demands of today's retailers.
Commenting further, Deg'e said that the UCSSM OPD teams leverage unique development processes, designs, and component libraries that enable complete product lifecycle management on behalf of independent software vendors (ISVs).
"Our teams understand the needs of the retail in-store target market and end users. We deliver quality software in a multi-platform, multi-deployment world. Our driving mantra is "Predictable quality on a predictable date". We build to "Ship" on time, every time.
Eric van Heerden, Business Development Executive of UCSSM, highlighted that UCSSM provides outsourced software product development services as one of two lines of business "In OPD we create world-class products and world-class teams to help product-owning companies win globally with high quality code, shorter timeframes and better software development economics. Our retail product development experience of over a decade is built by partnering global retail software majors and VC-funded technology firms. Our OPD unit provides end-to-end product development services: scoping, functional and technical design, development, cross-platforming, testing and release-to-market."
The Pier pilot site commences in May.
Share