Indigo Books & Music and PCMS partner to deliver exceptional store solutions to enhance the customer experience.
Cincinnati, Ohio – Jan 16, 2006 – Continuing a successful 14 year partnership, Indigo Books and Music, Canada’s largest retail bookstore chain, has just completed the rollout of PCMS’ BeanStore software to its 300 stores. BeanStore is PCMS’ open, state –of –the art, java-based store system and includes a powerful promotions engine that processes, automatically, extremely complex promotions.
“We selected PCMS as our partner for a variety of reasons, including a 14 year partnership, during which PCMS provided us with first class services and support” said Doug Caldwell, chief technical officer for Indigo. “We were confident that the PCMS team would ensure we met our very aggressive targets for modifying and deploying BeanStore to all our stores in under 12 months. We were right.”
“Another reason Indigo selected PCMS’ BeanStore store system,” added Caldwell, “is its solid architecture and its flexible user interface, which allow us to adapt BeanStore to Indigo’s multiple store formats without changing the underlying business logic. This includes mall stores, large format stores, hospital bookstores, and college bookstores.”
“As a result of the new technology, an innovative promotions engine and a flexible integrated payment module, we have seen an improvement in excess of fifty percent in checkout times, with a significant reduction in lineups,” added Caldwell. “In our business, this has a direct impact on our bottom line, as most of our profits are generated during a few, very busy days of the year.”
Hanif Nanji, director of store systems at Indigo, noted: “Our promotions offerings were so complex that they were causing delays at the cash register and increasing cashier errors. PCMS’ promotions engine now calculates, automatically, simple and complex promotions, in small and large baskets, in seconds, without errors or any cashier involvement. Furthermore, should Indigo acquire another chain with a different POS, we will be able to use that same promotions engines without replacing the POS.”
Richard Smith, managing director for The PCMS Group, commented: “We were delighted by Indigo’s decision to chose BeanStore, because it confirms that our focus on building a long term partnership with our customers, based on trust, excellent service and a high degree of customer satisfaction does indeed pay off and cements relationships with our clients. These long term partnerships, spanning multiple product generations, is a hallmark of PCMS and are unmatched in the POS industry. Indigo’s recognition of PCMS’ commitment to customer service directly coincides with our leading nomination in RIS News’ Leaderboard which surveys retailers around the globe.”
About Indigo Books & Music
Indigo is the largest book retailer in Canada, operating 300 bookstores across Canada under the names Indigo Books & Music, Chapters, The World's Biggest Bookstore and Coles. Indigo operates www.chapters.indigo.ca, an online retailer of books, gifts, videos, and DVDs.
Indigo is a publicly traded company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the stock symbol IDG. To learn more about Indigo, please visit the About Our Company section of www.chapters.indigo.ca.
About PCMS Datafit
PCMS Datafit is a leading provider of integrated software and services. PCMS's signature Java POS product, BeanStore, is installed in multiple retail segments with customers in apparel, hospitality, grocery, appliance and electronics, automotive aftercare, airport retailing, optical products, and music and books. Headquarted in the United Kingdom, PCMS is also in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Australia and Japan. For further company and product information please visit www.pcmsdatafit.com.