Leading retailer Edcon to deliver high fashion across South Africa using the Eqos Sourcing solution
Time-to-market, supplier collaboration and cost savings drove leading retailer's selection of Eqos
Burlington MA, U.S.A. - 31st July 2006 - Eqos Ltd., a leading provider of global sourcing solutions announced that Edgars Consolidated Stores Limited (Edcon), the leading retail group in South Africa for clothing, footwear and textiles, has selected the Eqos global sourcing solution to improve supplier collaboration, support the expansion of its retail supply chain, deliver the latest fashions to consumers, and boost bottom line profitability. The solution will be implemented by a joint Eqos and Accenture team working closely with the Edcon merchants.
Operating as Edgars department store since 1929, Edcon today offers ten retail brands (including Edgars, Jet, C N A, Red Square, Boardmans, Legit, Jet Shoes, Temptations, Prato and JetMart) through its approximately one thousand stores across South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho.
Edcon's selection of Eqos was a strategic decision, enabling this major retailer to "respond quickly to market trends and minimize stockouts and markdowns," according to Jeannine de Chaud, General Manager for Jet- Softlines. "Through the Eqos solution, we will have the ability to implement standardized best practices and business processes, enabling us to improve both speed-to-market and supplier collaboration."
Mike Quinn, CEO, Eqos, explains: "I am pleased to welcome Edcon to the growing list of Eqos customers and appreciate this opportunity to deliver market leading solutions to this vibrant retail supply network. Edcon will leverage Eqos capabilities across its extended retail supply chain, from product conception and design, through managing a multitude of supplier relationships, and ultimately delivering fashion items to retail shelves for its millions of customers across the southern Africa."
Eqos Sourcing is a web-based solution that enables retailers to manage the sourcing of all goods from initial concept to product specification, bid management and assessment, estimation of landed costs, packaging, sampling, testing and final order confirmation. It reflects best practices across the extended retail supply chain through collaborative efforts with leading retailers such as Best Buy and Tesco. Eqos Sourcing includes critical path management, workflow, reporting analytics and an alerts and exceptions function. Its master repository reduces duplication and errors, providing a single view of the supply pipeline to across the retail supply chain.
"The importance of global sourcing has increased significantly; as we scale our buying operations we believe that Eqos will help us automate what has largely been a disparate set of manual tasks, " adds Calvin Low, Business Integration Executive, Edcon Group IT. Built on a robust and highly configurable platform, the Eqos solution will minimize the Edcon IT investment upfront and over time, ultimately delivering a lower cost solution and faster return on investment.
"Mobilizing a team comprising a mix of Eqos and Accenture resources to implement Eqos Sourcing will help to ensure that it delivers the anticipated benefits, by combining Eqos' sourcing expertise with Accenture's extensive supply chain experience and deep understanding of the Edcon business," said Adrian Bertschinger, Senior Executive responsible for Accenture's Outsourcing and Consulting work at Edcon.
Notes to Editors:
Edcon
Edgars Consolidated Stores Limited (Edcon) is the leading clothing, footwear and textiles (CFT) retailing group in South Africa trading through a range of retail formats. The first Edgars store was opened in 1929 on Joubert Street, Johannesburg. Since then, the company has grown to ten retail brands trading in approximately 1,000 stores in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho. More information can be found at www.edcon.co.za/Edcon/
Eqos Ltd
Eqos delivers flexible, proven solutions for Global Sourcing and Supplier Management over the Internet. Founded in 1997, Eqos is headquartered in Boston, USA and London, UK. Designed to streamline and standardize supply chain processes across the extended retail supply chain, Eqos solutions are built with an advanced technology toolset that enables the rapid configuration of processes and data models that facilitate collaboration between retailers, their suppliers, and other trading partners. Available as an on-demand service, Eqos solutions are used today by major retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Debenhams, Focus DIY, Virgin, Wickes and US electronics giant Best Buy; plus financial services clients Royal & SunAlliance, Lloyds TSB Insurance and CIS. More information can be found at www.eqos.com.
Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 133,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$15.55 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2005. More information can be found at www.accenture.com.
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