UK-based Littlewoods, a leading multi-channel retailer with sales of lb1.9 billion annually, has implemented an assortment planning and performance analysis package to improve the accuracy of buyer decisions and increase its effectiveness in the marketplace.
Littlewoods is implementing JDA's Arthur Assortment Planning, Performance Analysis and Arthur Information Manager (AIM) database to help create balanced and targeted assortments for each of its approximately 250 stores, home shopping and catalogue businesses.
JDA Software Group is an international provider of enterprise retail solutions and is represented by Dimension Data Group company SPL locally.
Having previously implemented Arthur Planning in its Littlewoods stores, the company also expanded its license agreement with JDA to implement Arthur Planning to support all retail operations. The selection of Arthur is part of Littlewoods' strategy to improve efficiencies, reduce costs and increase its effectiveness in the marketplace.
According to Group IT Director, David Hallett, having realised success with Arthur Planning, it was logical for Littlewoods to invest in the added capabilities of Arthur Assortment Planning and Performance Analysis powered by the AIM database.
Hallett says: "With the totally integrated Arthur solution, we will now be able to maximise the profitability within each of our channels by centralising our buying process. In addition, our buyers and merchandisers will be able to improve the accuracy of their decisions by analysing the effects of interrelated assortments, pricing and purchasing before taking actions that effect our bottom line."
Greg Morrison, managing director, JDA Arthur and senior vice president, JDA analytical solutions, adds: "We are pleased that Littlewoods has decided to expand their relationship with JDA based on their positive results with Arthur Planning. With the added capabilities of Assortment Planning, Performance Analysis and AIM, leading retailers such as Littlewoods can further maintain healthy profit margins and better serve customers by more focused product selection and greater financial control of buying decisions."
Hallett noted that Littlewoods expanded its Arthur license to replace existing systems that no longer had the capacity to support the volume requirements of each channel, let alone the anticipated increase in transactions and system users across the newly merged channels.
"From a systems point of view, the Arthur applications along with the AIM database provides the best match for us in terms of scalability. It handles large volumes of data and is designed with the functionality to enable stock planning and management across a range of levels. Importantly, Arthur is also designed with the flexibility to meet our changing business needs," says Hallett.
In addition, Assortment Planning will help Littlewoods effectively plan for proper merchandise assortments from both a store and corporate viewpoint.
The Arthur solution links Littlewoods' core business processes to the Oracle database. JDA will be porting Arthur to the Sun Solaris operating system, Littlewoods' chosen platform.
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Dimension Data & SPL
Dimension Data Holdings Limited is a global Information Technology Integration corporation based in Sandton, South Africa. The company, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, has a turnover of approximately US$1.5 billion. The Group has representation on five continents and operates out of 36 countries. The Group has achieved a compound annual growth rate of 98% in turnover and 57% in headline earnings per share over the past 5 years. The Group is focussed on communications/ networking infrastructure and electronic commerce software applications, two of the highest growth sectors of the information economy.
SPL, part of the Dimension Data Group, has long been recognised as a high value IT partner to South African corporations and government. The company focuses on customer management, information management and enterprise systems.
JDA Software
JDA Software Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:JDAS) is the leading global provider of integrated retail software products and professional services with more than 740 clients in over 50 countries. Addressing the requirements of both brick and mortar and "click and mortar" companies, JDA's state-of-the-art solutions include merchandising, planning, allocation, decision support and financial systems; warehouse management and logistics systems; point-of-sale and back-office in-store systems; and the industry's first integrated commercial e-retail applications. Founded in 1985, JDA employs approximately 1,100 associates operating from 21 offices worldwide. With headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company has offices in major cities throughout the United States as well as internationally in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Japan, Singapore, and Australia.