Accenture Teams with Retek to Forge Scientific Retailing Alliance
Accenture’s Intellectual Property and Industry Experience to be Coupled with Retek’s Retail Software
MINNEAPOLIS, MN May 17, 2001 – Accenture and Retek Inc. today announced an alliance designed to help retailers achieve enhanced revenue and profit growth through a combination of Accenture’s intellectual property and industry experience and Retek’s robust suite of retail-specific applications.
This alliance draws on science and analytics to fuel the “art” of retailing. The solution will be designed to help retailers develop the capabilities to achieve and sustain industry-leading levels of business performance, with the ability to enhance sales growth by up to 15 percent and gross margin and inventory turns by as much as 30 percent.
As part of the alliance agreement, Accenture will license and embed its knowledge and intellectual property, including patent-pending analytics, to help enhance Retek’s suite of retail-specific software. Additionally, Accenture will receive equity in Retek and become the developer for the company’s predictive applications -- software that enhances retailers’ ability to make decisions based on a clearer view of their supply- and demand-side business information.
“After a decade of collaboration with Accenture, they were a natural choice for Retek as we look to maximize our ability to create value for the largest and most complex retail operations around the globe,” said John Buchanan, CEO of Retek. “The combination of our retail products with Accenture’s intellectual capital, global reach, results-driven approach and delivery excellence will help create a unique solution designed to empower retailers with the tools to redefine the entire retail industry.”
“This alliance takes the best practices Accenture has designed and developed over time and institutionalizes this knowledge into our products, with the goal of helping retailers realize more standardized and predictable business benefits,” Buchanan added.
These new Scientific Retailing solutions are designed to provide retailers with fact-based insights; these solutions will help integrate merchants’ understanding of their customers’ behaviors with decision-making at individual stores -- while simultaneously maintaining the comprehensive view of the organization necessary for operational efficiency and practical execution.
Specifically, these solutions are designed to integrate and optimize both the demand and supply side functions of a retailer’s business. Key areas of demand include: assortment and space optimization, pricing and advertising decisions and the integration of insight about consumer behavior into a retailer’s merchandising functions. On the supply side, key areas of focus include dynamic fulfillment, integrated and synchronized planning, in-stock optimization and vendor collaboration.
“Retek is the proven market leader in software solutions for the retail industry,” commented Angela K. Selden, managing partner, Accenture Retail practice - North America. “By pairing our track record of creating substantial business value for clients with Retek’s predictive applications -- this alliance will be poised to deliver custom, scalable decision-making capabilities, which are designed to help retailers maximize business results.”
This alliance will serve retailers worldwide, with a focus on the U.K., U.S., Central European and Japanese markets.
Organizational Support Delivered through Solution Centers
As part of this alliance, Accenture has dedicated a portion of its Atlanta-based Solution Center to the design and support of Retek’s Scientific Retailing solutions. This facility is part of Accenture’s global network of Solution Centers, where teams of professionals combine their deep industry knowledge and experience to seamlessly integrate quality applications into clients’ existing information technology environments. More than 500 Accenture professionals deliver Retek solutions through centers located in Minneapolis, Cincinnati and Chicago as well as Manchester, England and Manila, the Philippines.
About Accenture
Accenture is the world’s leading provider of management and technology consulting services and solutions, with more than 70,000 people in 46 countries delivering a wide range of specialized capabilities and solutions to clients across all industries. Accenture operates globally with one common brand and business model designed to enable the company to serve its clients on a consistent basis around the world. Under its strategy, Accenture is building a network of businesses to meet the full range of any organization’s needs -- consulting, technology, outsourcing, alliances and venture capital. The firm generated revenues of $9.75 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2000 and $5.71 billion for the six months ended February 28, 2001. Its home page is http://www.accenture.com.
About Retek
Retek Inc. is a leading provider of software solutions and services to the retail industry. Retek’s collaborative solutions help the retail industry create, manage, and fulfill consumer demand. Many of the world’s leading retailers use Retek solutions, including Tesco, Best Buy, Family Dollar Stores, Eckerd Corp., Kohl’s Department Stores and The Kroger Company. For more information, visit http://www.retek.com, or call 1-888-61-RETEK. Retek can be contacted in Europe at +44 20 7563 4 646.
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