Salmon selected by Jacques Vert Group to develop new multi-channel eCommerce platform

Watford, London – May 2010 Salmon specialists in delivering eCommerce solutions are delighted to announce they have been selected by Jacques Vert plc, to design, deliver and manage the implementation of their new multi-channel eCommerce platform. Salmon will develop new sites for the four womenswear brands within the Jacques Vert Group including, Jacques Vert, Planet, Precis and Windsmoor. Ian Johnson, Finance Director at Jacques Vert said, “We needed to replace our existing system as it was becoming difficult to manage and unable to cope with our plans to provide a more personalised and relevant customer experience. We chose Salmon and their SAFE™ framework as we were looking for a mature and highly scalable eCommerce platform to support our future growth and drive continued success.” Ian further commented, “One of the reasons we selected SAFE™ was because it can be delivered quickly and at relatively low risk and cost, providing us with around 80% of the standard retail eCommerce functionality we need, and allowing us to focus investment on those areas that differentiate our brand.” Sue Pratt Account Director, at Salmon said “We are delighted to have been selected by Jacques Vert, and look forward to working with them over the coming months. Many of the recent sites we have developed have been based on SAFE™ and as a result continue to do well, yielding higher conversion rates and average order values.” The project is being delivered using a phased approach focusing mainly on the 4 UK Brands before investigating the opportunities offered by the extended sites functionality inherent within SAFE™. This approach will save Jacques Vert Group considerable amounts of development time and spend because all the sites will sit on one instance of IBM WebSphere Commerce and the majority of data and business logic will be shared. The implementation will be built on SAFE™ (Salmon’s Application Framework for eCommerce) which extends IBM’s WebSphere Commerce product. Salmon will integrate the Group’s new eCommerce platform with a number of partner solutions including, CyberSource, Omniture Search and Merchandising, Omniture Site Catalyst, and Experian QAS, to enhance the overall customer experience. Chris Hoskin, Head of Marketing at Salmon said, “It’s clear that fashion brands need to continue to invest in eCommerce, as it’s proved to be a very successful sales channel for many and one of the few areas where retailers are seeing growth. On average sales from an eCommerce website represent around 6.0% of total sales, so a robust online offering and an improved customer experience is vital. In this regard, SAFE™ is ideally placed to meet the multi-channel needs of the fashion sector.” <ends> About SAFE™ SAFE™ (Salmon’s Application Framework for eCommerce) is a series of pre-configured, reusable and customisable eCommerce components which combine with a mature eCommerce project delivery methodology. SAFE™ facilitates the rapid delivery of very sophisticated eCommerce solutions, significantly lowering the risks inherent in launching a new eCommerce capability, or replacing an existing eCommerce platform. In the interests of customer choice and commercial flexibility, SAFE™ can be implemented in three ways: either as a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, as a starter store with rich 'out-of-the-box' capabilities, or as a framework to support a fully bespoke and extended eCommerce implementation. About Jacques Vert The Group retails four womenswear brands: Jacques Vert, Windsmoor, Planet and Precis. Sales are made predominantly in the UK, Canada and Eire through circa 1,000 outlets and via the Internet. About Salmon Salmon is a highly innovative regional systems integrator whose commitment to on-time, on-budget projects is increasingly embraced by the leading names in retail, insurance and financial services markets. Since 1989, leading brands have been turning to Salmon for its ability to build, integrate and support business-led systems that add measurable competitive value to their day-to-day operations – and to their bottom line. Salmon quickly understand business needs, creates realistic development schedules, and efficiently delivers solutions to plan; based around an ethos that marries a depth and breadth of development skills, with a management process that removes virtually all risk from successful project roll-outs. Customers include Argos, Ann Summers, Bristol & West, Halfords, ICI Paints and Swiss Re. Salmon is headquartered in Watford, Hertfordshire and has offices in US, China and Australia. For more details about Salmon visit http://www.salmon.com

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