Planning powers Harvey Nichols

Planning powers Harvey Nichols

Nottingham, UK - Retail Assist, the UK's only specialist retail IT services provider, today announces the completion of an assignment for Harvey Nichols, the luxury lifestyle retailer. The work undertaken will maximise the investment made by Harvey Nichols in the JDA Arthur Planning system and improve the planning and buying process in key areas.

The first project involved the development of JDA Arthur Planning to more closely fit the needs of the retailer, stabilise the infrastructure and increase data accuracy. The process involved initial consultation, investigation and scoping, and was followed by development, testing and implementation. The changes are now live and will for the first time enable the retailer to seamlessly integrate historical data from NSB Mercatus for accurate planning data provision and analysis.

 A Retail Assist analyst has been working with Harvey Nichols both on-site and remotely since September 2002 to provide a constant contact point, and as a result the project has finished within budget and ahead of schedule in mid February. The close working relationship Retail Assist favours has brought additional benefit to the retailer through the provision of continual feedback and fine-tuning of the work to exactly fit the business requirements.

 In addition, a new database has been developed to enhance the buying process. Retail Assist worked with the buyers themselves in a series of workshops to gain a clear understanding of how information is requested and used to ensure the most suitable solution was devised. As a result, innovative new features recommended by the buyers themselves have been incorporated.

  Retail Assist used Microsoft Access to create the new database, based on the existing spreadsheet system. It allows buyers to retain information, historical buying data, and expected / planned product mix to be bought for each supplier. Once actual category mix and volumes are decided and entered into the database, an electronic order reference is automatically generated and emailed to the supplier. Detailed copies of orders are also kept at Harvey Nichols' head office on a central master database.

 The result is an efficient, fast, secure structure more in tune with the way the buyers actually need to use the information available to them. The buyers- database was developed in December / January and the project is now complete, ready to be used for the first time at the start of the next buying cycle.

  Martin Schofield, Head of IT at Harvey Nichols commented, "Harvey Nichols growth demands that underlying business processes are adaptable and highly effective. This means working with companies that really understand the challenges and opportunities we face. Retail Assist has amassed a wealth of knowledge in the retail technology field and has shown itself to be a valuable resource that both intrinsically understands the retail industry and complements our existing IT resource to great effect."

 Alan Morris, Managing Director, Retail Assist commented on the project planning and buying are two of the most important parts of the retail cycle that need to be supported by robust systems and processes. Harvey Nichols has consistently excelled in this area and the introduction of these new tools will further improve its successes. Retail Assist has been working with JDA products for a number of years and by passing on our expertise to Harvey Nichols, we can maximise the return on its investment and accelerate the realisation of the associated benefits."

 

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