Reebok International, headquartered in Canton, Massachussetts in the US, is a leading worldwide designer, marketer and distributor of sports, fitness and casual footwear, apparel and equipment. The retailer, which turned over $3.8 billion in 2004, was acquired by sports brand icon Adidas in January 2006. It has 45 direct retail stores in Europe, distributed across 11 countries - the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

Sport and fitness is high on many consumers’ agendas, thanks to the recent media hype surrounding events such as the Rugby World Cup in France, not to mention the western world’s obsession with diet and exercise. To capitalise on this, Reebok has an aggressive expansion plan that will see the company open more stores across its key markets. To speed up the rate at which this could happen, it recently embarked on a comprehensive global EPoS renewal programme, designed to standardise systems across the international organisation and enable integration with the company’s wholesale systems, introducing new efficiencies into the retail operation.

The project began in 2004, with the replacement of the EPoS systems across all of its US stores. In Europe, the roll-out of the new systems began in October 2005, and was completed on schedule by February 2006, thanks to the attentive and creative implementation and support services of a&o. Reebok needed all of the equipment to be pre-staged, configured and tested and shipped to stores in advance of the roll-out date. The implementation had to be completed out of hours, to ensure no disruption to trading.

a&o’s approach

As the EPoS software being deployed (Store21 from Datavantage) came from the US, Reebok needed a European services partner to manage the roll-out of the new systems across all its stores on this side of the Atlantic. While other service providers proposed managing the implementation of the new European EPoS systems from a central base in the UK, Reebok selected a&o to spearhead the project because of its local presence in each of the ten countries within scope of this project.

a&o appointed a Prince2 project manager, a project co-ordinator and a solutions architect to work directly with Reebok to ensure the smooth and timely delivery of the roll-out. It assembled the Store21 software and the HP rp5000 PoS hardware systems on which this would run (sourced locally in the UK and the Netherlands), at its warehouse and staging facilities in the UK. Pre-staging and configuration, managed here, involved setting up each store within the facility, checking for the correct configuration, ensuring that all of the units functioned properly, and that all units were labelled and colour coded for each location.

The roll-out was completed on time and to budget, despite the aggressive timescales.

Key benefits

Of the three service specialists Reebok approached, only a&o could provide co-ordinated local support in each of its European markets. Not only did this ensure the fastest possible response and an understanding of regional differences, it also meant a more cost-effective solution, as engineers would not have to travel across Europe, or require accommodation.

The colour coding of equipment for each store, was developed by Reebok and a&o to eliminate the need to pay for on-site engineers, by enabling store managers to install equipment themselves. The build and configuration was documented and a 'how to' guide provided with details of the set-up of each EPoS and back-office station. Each unit was delivered to the store one to two weeks prior to the agreed store roll-out date, to enable staff training.

a&o conducted store audits prior to roll-out, as well, to further minimise the risk by ensuring that each environment was suitable, and that all power and structured cabling was in place and functioning. The audits proved highly valuable to Reebok, giving the company – for the first time - a clear picture of all the equipment it had in each of its stores. This ensured that no unnecessary products were ordered.

The smooth and rapid roll-out was achieved thanks to careful planning, the extensive local resources a&o had at its disposal, and the ability of a&o to respond and adapt quickly to changing requirements as the project unfolded.

Rapid response

With the new, standardised EPoS systems in operation, Reebok is experiencing multiple business benefits. As its wholesale and retail systems are now closely integrated, the company knows exactly what is on the shelves in each store, so replenishment can be much more responsive. Meanwhile, stores now receive advance notice of deliveries, and can quickly and automatically verify the contents of each box using bar codes. Previously this process had been conducted manually, which was time-consuming and incurred risks of inaccuracy caused by human error. Following the acquisition of Reebok by Adidas in January 2006, Reebok expects the new EPoS systems will be rolled out across even more stores belonging to the combined business.

Centralised support

a&o is now responsible for providing ongoing hardware support for the HP EPoS hardware, and peripherals such as scanners and printers, which it will provide through a centralised helpdesk. As well as being highly cost-efficient, this means store managers have a single point of contact for any problems.

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