Samyuktha Karnataka writes on retail super powers getting together at Retail NEXT India to discuss Next Gen retail solutions

Global brands and retailers participates in Images Fashion Forum 2007

22 January 2007, Singapore (Immediate Release) – ETP International, an enterprise software company focused on developing and delivering its cutting- edge ETP V5.2 solution for the retailindustry, today announces the signing of a Premier Business Partnership agreement with Datascan Berhad. Datascan Berhard is listed on the Malaysian Exchange of Securities Dealing & Automated Quotations and recognized as the market leader in F&B Business Management solutions and total business solutions for other industries.
Under the terms of the agreement, Datascan will represent ETP in the sales and marketing of its suite of solutions – ETP V5.2 in Malaysia specifically for the retail and distribution industry. ETP V5.2 is a powerful world-class, next-generation retail software solution which enables retailers to take proactive decisions that make all the difference between success and failure. It covers POS, Warehousing, Distribution, Procurement, Merchandise Planning, CRM and Promotions Planning, Retail Analytics, Online Sales, Call centre Sales, Supply Chain Management, Business Strategy Development and Enterprise Integration.

The 2007 edition of Images Fashion Forum (IFF) in India attracts fashion brands and retailers from across the globe besides investors, real estate developers, IT systems, support and shop fitters to fashion the future of retail in the Indian sub continent and the middle-east.

The magnum opus of Indian fashion retail, IFF was held from January 23-24, 2007 at the fabulous Renaissance Hotel in the business capital of India – Mumbai.

ETP participated in the Images Fashion Forum with a booth showcasing the ETP V5 solutions. The booth enjoyed high traffic from the conference delegates who stopped over for introductions and a demonstration of the capabilities of the ETP V5 suite.

IFF 2007 housed simultaneous and concurrent Leadership talk sessions, exhibits of futuristic concepts in fashion forecasting, branding and retailing, the best of retail spaces across India, and an unparalleled opportunity for business networking.

Over 2000 captains of the fashion retail world participated in various events of IFF like Asia Shop, Spring Board, Franchise Expo, The Future Shop, L Cube, Retail Access, Fashion Theater, and The Evening of Fashion Titans . The Forum culminates in the LYCRA® Images Fashion Awards , with 20+ presentations in an “Academy Awards” type atmosphere.
Retail World, UK Jan 2005 report ranked IFF among the 10 best events that would shape the future of world retail.

A leading diamond jewellery in India which is an ETP V5.2 customer has gone ‘live’ on 6th April 2007 and have started rolling out to all their stores in India. The Roll Out as a success and the system is stable and robust – in 34 outlets, 1 warehouse, 1 factory. All existing stores are ‘live’ now and the whole roll-out process took 1.5 months.
The diamond jewellery retail chain has chosen to implement the integrated ETP V5.2 retail solution across all of its India Retail operations. The values of ETP V5.2 met the retailer’s plans to expand to 50 stores in the immediate future – an integrated system to scale with its business, increase business efficiency, reduce operating costs, improve customer’s in-store experience. ETP is committed in its delivery at all stages, resolving issues quickly and exceeding customer’s expectations.
ETP provides the platform for the retailer to reap the benefits of an integrated inventory management and visibility, proactive CRM, effective, season and promotions planning, category management capability and improved service levels to its customers. ETP enables the company to increase their efficiency and productivity, consolidating and integrating all of its business entities including the franchisees onto one single platform. ETP helps the retailer in improving its customer service, enabling a shorter cycle time at lower costs, selectively adjusting its systems for different regions. It not only increases customer service time for transaction cycle, but also enables additional work/service to be done, eg. size alteration. Most importantly, it allows invoices to be generated in each store in a much shorter time compared to the past. There is greater business efficiency now as the company can decide what stores get what merchandise based on the sales analysis. The ability of inventory lookup across stores also reduces loss sales. Staff has commented that ETP system is user-friendly and easy to navigate.

The diamond jewellery chain is part of a large group which has achieved an outstanding reputation by creating unique end-to-end supply capability. With offices, factories and stores in 15 countries, 15,000 employees and US$1.7 billion in sales, the parent company is firmly established across the value chain and in all major diamond and jewellery centres globally.

The company currently has 34 stores across India. It is perhaps the only jewellery company in India which has tie-ups with the three leading jewellery organisations namely, DTC (De Beers), PGI (Platinum Guild India) and WGC (World Gold Council). The main thrust of the business is retailing diamond jewellery. The size of the store ranges from 700 square feet to 3,500 square feet, depending on the location. Stock held in each store ranges from 700 to 2,000 pieces.

About ETP International Pte Ltd
ETP International is an enterprise software company focused on enabling retailers to run their business proactively using the cutting-edge ETP V5 Retail Solution. Founded in 1988 ETP has its International HQ in Singapore, R&D centre in Mumbai and a network of partners in over 12 countries, selling, implementing and supporting ETP solutions. ETP’s three digit growth is driven by the wide acceptance of its flagship product ETP V5 by leading retailers.
0ETP V5 is a 4th generation solution designed to help retailers move from a push based business model to a push-pull based business model, making them more proactive in planning, execution, analysis and decision making. It is seamlessly integrated through POS, CRM, Online Sales, Call Centre Sales, Merchandise Planning, Promotions Planning, Procurement, Distribution, Warehousing and Analytics. Developed with reliability, scalability and globalisation in mind, ETP V5 is capable of handling multiple languages, time zones, currencies, taxes, company and group structures, 20 users to 1000’s of users, various hardware platforms and operating systems and can be implemented comprehensively or modularly.