Retail-only solutions and service provider Retail Assist plans to rollout its award-winning Merret supply chain solution on the Microsoft .NET platform from Q2 2008.
IBM System i has proved to be a great platform for many retailers who use Merret to achieve measurable business benefits, explained Nigel Illingworth, Product Director at Retail Assist. By extending Merrets proven capabilities into the highly flexible and cost-effective Microsoft .NET arena, we can give retailers more choice in how they deploy and benefit from the solution, whatever retail model they employ and whatever stage of maturity their business is at. We believe Merret has been one of the industrys best-kept secrets despite its huge potential to drive better business, and we want to ensure it can reach as wide an audience as possible.
Alan Morris, Managing Director at Retail Assist, added: Retailers know better than most that customers like to have a choice. Were simply following the same approach, giving retailers another way to deploy Merret, to improve efficiency and achieve cost savings. Retail Assist is uniquely positioned to harness the strengths of both the IBM and Microsoft platforms.
Until now, Merret was only available on System i (previously iSeries), a platform chosen by many retailers for its robustness and scalability, and the solution will continue to be developed in System i. The Microsoft .NET programme follows discussions with existing and prospective Retail Assist clients, and will help the company extend its growing Merret user base by leveraging the brand loyalty and familiarity associated with Microsoft products.
Merret has achieved exceptional success since launching in 2001. No stranger to industry accolades, its most recent win was the 2007 European Retail Solutions Award for 'Best use of e-commerce in a retail environment' in partnership with Fresca and Rubicon Retail.
About Merret
Launched in 2001, Merret from Retail Assist is a real-time, multi-currency, multi-channel, retail Supply Chain solution. It encompasses all areas of the retail supply process with the exception of EPoS. These include product content, purchasing, warehousing, replenishment, inward and outward distribution, store back-office, retail financials, in-season planning, CRM data capture and reporting.
Merret acts as a core centralised retail component and has a number of standard interfaces which enable it to work seamlessly with either best of breed peripheral solutions or bespoke applications.
With its multiple channel options (web, mail order, internal & external concessions and store sale/ordering) Merret represents maximum flexibility and opportunity in todays fast-moving retail marketplace.
Merret clients include Harvey Nichols, Burberry, Paperchase, Principles and Warehouse.
About Retail Assist
Combining understanding of retail business needs with industry experience and technical skills, Retail Assist is a UK market leader in providing IT solutions and services that add value to retail operations. Made-to-measure services are designed to develop, optimise and manage IT functions and to support the entire retail supply chain: from product design to warehousing, from store sales to online retailing.
Whichever business model is in place, from established PLC to owner-managed, a truly collaborative approach sees Retail Assist working closely with a client's business, its personnel, existing systems and other service providers to deliver measurable return on investment.
The company's Nottingham head office is supported by locations in Northampton, Bingham, central London and operations at client sites. Clients include adams kids, mini mode (Boots), Warehouse, Principles, Oasis, Karen Millen, Whistles, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, New Look, Thresher Group, World Duty Free Europe and Odin Retail.
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