Vodat International makes work easier for TJ Hughes’ store managers

Published 9th May 2008

Stockport, May 8th 2008 – TJ Hughes, the UK’s only discount department store chain, has improved the way that its communicates with its stores, using broadband and Retail Back Office from Vodat International, the leading provider of communications solutions to high street retailers.

Task information distributed from Head office is now delivered to the right people and actioned in a timely fashion.

Colin Rockliffe from TJ Hughes Central Operations explains, “We were totally reliant on paper; to send out an instruction to all stores would take four hours. Now we can send out instant communications to all 50 stores simultaneously. We can then view who has read them and whether they have been actioned, all three of these functions are invaluable, especially for emergency and compliance issues.”

Retail Back Office has also enabled staff to spend less time on administration and more time selling to customers as Dave Golder, store manager at Watford elaborates “My Retail Back Office diary is probably the most helpful business tool I have at my fingertips. I receive head office instructions at a certain date that have to be completed at a certain time, this has let me get on with the business of selling rather than filling in forms. Productivity has certainly gone up.”

TJ Hughes initially installed Vodat International’s private managed network to reduce costs, improve productivity and improve customer service. Some of the immediate benefits included super fast transaction times for Card Authorisations which had previously taken in excess of 30 seconds.

Retail Back Office was then deployed to provide instant messaging and workflow. The goal is to give TJ Hughes much greater control over the activities of the stores and to support them by providing the data, processes, workflow and network to manage pricing and ticketing, promotions, merchandising, starters and leavers and emergency procedures.

Mike Bielinski, CEO at Vodat international commented, “This project is further evidence that Vodat’s broadband solution is not just about the internet, it is value added retail communication.”


Ends

For further information:

Laura Grocott
Fieldworks Marketing
Tel: +44 (0)1435 873 080
e-mail: laura@fieldworksmarketing.co.uk


Notes to Editors

About TJ Hughes

T J Hughes is a discount department store company founded in 1912 in Liverpool, England. The company has fifty department stores in the United Kingdom. T J Hughes specializes in home and fashion, fragrance and cosmetics.
The company floated on the Stock Exchange in 1992, and was acquired by JJB Sports.



About Vodat International

Communicating Excellence - Vodat International is the leading provider of communications solutions to high street retailers, helping them to boost sales and customer service through the store and on line. Many of the UK’s best known brands rely on us to put new life into their networks and meet their most pressing operational challenges. They encompass 42 well-known high street retail clients, including Mosaic Fashion Group, Lush, Shoezone, T J Hughes, Beaverbrooks, Fat face, Faith Shoes and Jaeger.
http://www.vodat-int.com