Vision Express, part of Europe's biggest optical retail group, has implemented Retail Manager from Retail Manager Solutions Ltd. (previously Triangle) to enhance and speed up its head office to store communications.

As a result, the company has been able to cut paperwork, boost productivity, reduce communications costs and give front line store managers more time to spend with customers, so improving service levels and providing more sales opportunities.

David Hart, supple chain director at Vision Express UK said: "In terms of revolutionizing our head office to store processes, this was a very exciting project for Vision Express. Retail Manager has enabled us to effectively communicate boardroom vision and effectively manage store-side execution."

Vision Express wanted to communicate with its stores in a timely and efficient way. It also wanted to gather input and feedback from stores, and ensure staff could focus on customer service without spending inordinate time hidden from customers in back office. The company had previously used a mix of phone, fax and email for store communications, which meant problems in terms of audit trails plus the expensive, unreliable and time consuming nature of paper-based communications.

It also implemented a basic intranet system but soon ran into the major limitations inherent in this approach, including strictly limited one-way communication, the same access rights for all store staff, and resource intensive content upload procedures.

Retail Manager has given the company complete two-way visibility and communications between head office and stores. The Stores Attribute Database underpinning the system would ensure only the correct and appropriate information would be issued to specific stores. And a choice of business forms has been developed to meet specific process needs.

"We chose Retail Manager Solutions Ltd. (previously Triangle) for its ability to deliver a packaged solution that, after evaluation, fitted our core needs to control and direct a measurable communication channel" Said A. Edwards. IT Support manager at Vision Express UK. "The Tool has now opened the door on a method of uniform information delivery focused to all. We now have a great platform to develop and grow with our ever changing business needs."

October 2007

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