Jaeger

The Jaeger brand can be traced to back over 100 years to when the first outlet was opened in London in February 1884. Within 5 years its success led to the opening of more shops and manufacturing capability.

Initially the Jaeger brand was synonymous with worthy clothing, but during the 1920’s this was changed as the company repositioned itself as a leading fashion house. By pioneering the colour matching and coordinating of items throughout the wardrobe, Jaeger offered a complete contrast to the department store where items would be scattered throughout the store.

At the start of the 21st century, Jaeger is now focusing on what it does best; making beautiful, elegant clothing and accessories. By offering customers affordable luxury Jaeger is appealing to both loyal and new customers with its unique fusion of style, elegance and British luxury.

The company now operates some 90 stores, outlets and concessions around the world.

Fast and modern IT infrastructure

The problems of managing such a geographically diverse operation in a fast moving environment are great. But when a new team of directors were appointed they realised that a fast and modern IT infrastructure would underpin the communications and information requirements of the company and remove any barriers to growth from this area.

Central to this strategy was the implementation of a company Wide Area Network (WAN) as the backbone on which applications and other business enabling technology could be delivered. After a thorough review of the options available to them Jaeger decided to partner with Stockport based Vodat International.

Retail specialists

Vodat are the only communication solution provider specialising in retail environments. Their innovative and cost-effective solutions enable retailers to utilise broadband networks to add value and deliver real bottom-line benefits to their organisation. With over 20 years experience of providing solutions to the retail sector, they are now the largest supplier of private, managed broadband networks to the UK retail market, overseeing communication systems in thousands of stores across the UK and Europe.

The Vodat strategic managed communication platform provides fixed-cost technologies that not only enable information to be shared between locations, but also offer the capability of additional profit-enhancing applications. Such as:

• Free telephone calls between stores
• Online training for staff
• In-store TV marketing
• Video conferencing

Richard Blunt, IT Director at Jaeger, commented:

“We chose Vodat because they were able to demonstrate to us that they understand our business and could apply the technology to make our operations work more efficiently and cost-effectively. Their proven track record in the installation of private ADSL networks was also an important factor.”

Simplifying branch procedures

Vodat utilised the state of the art communications technology of their partner Your Communications to deliver a private WAN on a managed-service basis. This infrastructure is also being used to facilitate Voice over IP (VoIP), resulting in free internal telephone calls between the HQ and stores.

Richard Blunt explained:

“Our stores are now part of the central system and will all have access to common information and the same telephone infrastructure as head office. This will enable us to simplify branch procedures and achieve our goal of freeing our staff up to sell, rather than carry out administration of the branches.”

The first phase of the implementation covered the UK stores and was completed in January 2005. This has enabled the stores and head office to dynamically monitor sales and special offers, as well as managing stock flow more effectively. In addition it has allowed best practices to be easily and quickly shared across the entire organisation.

Enabling the business

Phase 2 of the implementation saw the Jaeger concessions in stores such as House of Fraser and John Lewis, as well as the European shops brought onto the network, enabling them to share the benefits of the UK stores.

Richard Blunt concluded:

“The implementation the Vodat International managed broadband network has given us secure and fast communications to all our stores. With this in place we can now utilise the infrastructure to add further business-enabling applications.”

Having implemented VoIP, Jaeger has now installed the Vodat Retail Payment Portal. These provides a single, fast and secure interface for all EFT transactions generated through stores it also handles e-commerce sites, mail-order or telesales.

In addition a new EPoS network has been implemented across all the stores, and this too runs on the Vodat managed Broadband network.

Mike Bielinski, at Vodat International added:

“We are dedicated to helping retail organisations realise the potential of broadband by introducing innovative applications that make the best use of this new technology. The managed network that we provided was really only the start of the project.

What differentiates us from other network suppliers is that we offer a range of products and services specifically developed for the retail environment. These harness the power of always-on broadband and bring to life the flow of data between stores and head office.

This approach delivers a flexible technology platform that can grow with your retail business.”

To learn more about Vodat International's managed communication networks for UK retail including Wide Area Networks (WAN), ADSL and SDSL broadband, VoIP and EPOS networks, call Vodat today on 0161 406 1820 or contact us by e-mail.