$1.8 billion retail giant, Ripley, selects new on-demand WMS from LogFire

LogFire, a global provider of supply chain software and services for retail and consumer goods companies, has announced that Ripley Corp S.A., one of the largest retailers in Chile and Peru, has selected LogFire's new on-demand warehouse management system (WMS). The system will be implemented in four regional distribution facilities across Chile beginning October 2010. Its deployment is expected to reduce Ripley's annual costs associated with expensive hardware, implementation, maintenance and upgrades.

According to Ripley's CIO, Gustavo Pardo, "The flexibility offered by LogFire's WMS on-demand model is really attractive to us. With this approach, there is no expensive hardware to purchase, no client/server implementation to manage, and no hefty maintenance fees to pay year after year. Plus, we will benefit from a constant flow of incremental upgrades, and never face the need to divert our energies to a massive upgrade, all this with a world-class WMS."

"The fact that a major retail powerhouse like Ripley has decided to deploy our new WMS really speaks to the strength and scalability of the solution," said Diego Pantoja-Navajas, founder and CEO for LogFire. "While most WMS providers offer one solution for Tier 1 and 2 companies and another for Tier 3 and 4 customers, we're changing the game by offering a single easily implemented and fully functional solution for distribution operations of practically any size or level of complexity."

LogFire's WMS also features a scalable pricing model that will allow Ripley and its vendors to benefit from the breadth and depth of a Tier 1 solution from day one versus having to work with limited functionality because of limited budgets. According to Mr. Pardo, the delivery model was a key selling point. "LogFire's flexible transaction-based pricing model is a perfect fit for our business. It means we don't have to worry about the number of users or number of sites and it enables us to cost efficiently deploy a single solution across our regional logistics network."

LogFire's WMS offers functionality not currently available in typical on-demand WMS solutions. For example, Ripley plans to benefit from advanced Direct to Consumer capabilities, and sophisticated retail functionality including the ability to execute value-added services and manage reverse logistics. In the future, the web based application will also improve upstream visibility by enabling Ripley's vendors to collaborate online with the retailer in order to create advanced shipment notices (ASNs), barcode labels and shipping documentation.

Upon the completion of the implementation, Ripley's supply chain will facilitate the shipping of 70,000 active SKUs from 38 countries to 51 stores. The four regional distribution facilities along with its reverse logistics operation will utilise the LogFire solution in conjunction with Ripley's 650,000 square foot state-of-the-art national distribution centre located in Santiago, Chile.