Eqos Announces Retail
Report from Industry Directions
"Driving Growth through Product and Supplier Innovation"
Retail Agendas Shifting Toward Strategic Private Label Programs
Burlington, Mass, US & London, UK - Oct. 18, 2006 - Eqos, Inc. (www.eqos.com) a leading provider of global sourcing and supplier management solutions for the retail supply chain, today announced the release of "The New Retail: Driving Growth Through Product and Supplier Innovation" by analysts Industry Directions. The study, available for download on the Eqos web site, was commissioned as part of Eqos' commitment to delivering knowledge and solutions that foster collaboration between retailers and their supplier networks.
Industry Directions' research reveals that leading retailers are moving beyond severe cost-cutting measures of the past decade to pursue more strategic private label programs that deliver differentiated products with higher margins to the market.
"Retailers that are able to leverage the expertise of their buying and merchandising teams to seize the revenue-generating opportunities presented by private labeling, fast fashion and global sourcing, will be the leaders of tomorrow," explains William Brandel, principal, Industry Directions, and the report's author. "However, this requires commitment to new cross-organizational processes and technology-enabled collaboration that support the product lifecycle - from product concept to delivery to the importer - coupled with the ability to proactively manage a multiple of tasks, activities and relationships across the enterprise."
Other key recommendations to retailers looking to drive good growth objectives include:
- Retailers must prepare to work collaboratively within their supplier ecosystem to increase customer value while addressing corporate social responsibility.
- The combination of manual processes, excel spreadsheets, and disparate technologies that most retailers use today will not support the collaboration required to deliver differentiated products into global markets.
- Retailers must gain visibility into emerging product concepts to streamline and coordinate efforts across their organization and throughout the supplier network.
- Retailers, sourcing offices,agents, suppliers and other stakeholders require the ability to share critical information in a timely and appropriate manner.
- Sustainable competitive advantage will belong to those retailers that are able to leverage the expertise of their buying and merchandising teams to build synergistic and strategic partnerships with selected suppliers.
"Our first-hand experience working with some of the world's largest retailers supports the findings of this report, which concludes that product and market innovation are key contributors to dramatically growing private label business," confirms Jane Biddle, Eqos' chief marketing officer. "We are committed to helping retailers improve their performance by strengthening and expanding their global sourcing opportunities."
About Industry Directions
Industry Directions is an industry analyst firm that conducts research on the business processes and enabling technologies used in manufacturing value networks in specific vertical industries. Areas of focus include supply chain, business-to-business, production, lean and other improvement initiatives, enterprise management, product lifecycle management and performance management. Industry Directions Principal, William Brandel, who authored the report is a recognized industry analyst, e-Business practitioner and award-winning journalist, with almost 20 years of experience in the technology industry. To learn more, visit www.industrydirections.com
About Eqos, Inc
Eqos is a leading provider of global sourcing and supplier management solutions for the retail supply chain. Founded in 1997, Eqos has offices in the US and in the UK. Eqos' solutions streamline processes from product concept through product development, buying, manufacturing and delivery to the retailer. Eqos' solutions are built on its award-winning collaboration platform that enables the rapid configuration of processes between retailers, their suppliers, buying offices and other trading partners. Today, Eqos' solutions are used by major retailers such as Best Buy, Debenhams, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Virgin Megastores. More information can be found at www.eqos.com
For further information, please contact:
Dayna Guzik, DPR Group Inc, USA
Tel: +1 919 678 9200
E-mail: dguzik@dprgroup.com
Linda Laderman @ Laderman PR, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7436 6676
Fax: +44 (0)20 7580 0555
E-mail: lindal@ladermanpr.co.uk
