Kewill has provided Mothercare with a web-based order management solution to support the expansion of its international operations. Through Kewill Trade, the retailer issues, on average, 5,000 purchase orders electronically per week and receives on average 1,900 invoices electronically per day from suppliers.

The system provides access to supply chain data including supplier inventory, purchase orders, ASNs and invoices and has inbuilt data integration points which allow the exchange of multiple formats of data with other business systems, including merchandising and warehousing systems by JDA Software and Manhattan Associates.

Mothercare has plans to grow its business internationally. It already has over 600 overseas stores and much of this growth has been achieved by entering into joint ventures and franchise arrangements. The company announced its intention to open 200 stores in India in September 2010. James Blackburn, enterprise architect at Mothercare, says: "The Kewill solution supports the trading of our entire franchise network, yet none of the franchisees are aware of the involvement of a third party system. Suppliers find the system simple to use and the integration with our own systems takes place seamlessly, behind the scenes, which is exactly the way it should be done."

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