Elite Skiwear Outfitter Spyder Chooses Epicor SaaS Offering To Streamline Retail Operations
IRVINE, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Epicor Software Corporation (NASDAQ: EPIC), a leading provider of enterprise business software solutions to the midmarket and Global 1000 companies, today announced Spyder Active Sports, Inc. has selected the Epicor Retail Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to provide the infrastructure, software and best practices to streamline its retail operations and support future expansion.
Based in Boulder, Colo., and founded some 30 years ago, Spyder is the largest ski-specialty brand in the world. Renowned for its authentic performance-driven skiwear, Spyder outfits the world's leading athletes in the sport, including the US Alpine and Canadian Alpine Ski Teams. In early 2008, Spyder acquired Cloudveil Mountain Works, Inc., producers of innovative technical outdoor, mountaineering, and fly fishing apparel.
Spyder boasts several hundred styles and adds some 20,000 new SKUs each year. The company sells products in the United States and Canada to more than 550 high-quality specialty retailers, and outside North America in 50 countries through its Spyder-Europe office and through independent distributors around the globe. In 2006, the brand opened its first retail store in Wrentham, Mass., followed by Woodbury Commons, N.Y., and recent openings in the Philadelphia and Chicago suburbs. Cloudveil operates a flagship retail store in Jackson, Wy. and has direct e-commerce operations through http://www.cloudveil.com.
To help streamline its retail operations and support its growth, Spyder selected Epicor Retail as its technology partner, and its SaaS solution as the IT platform. The Epicor Retail SaaS delivery model is a turnkey retail solution that provides retailers with access to Epicor's award-winning suite of solutions for the specialty retail marketplace while virtually reducing the dependency on on-site retail IT infrastructure. The "pay as you go" SaaS pricing model eliminates the need to amortize the cost of "traditional" software licenses, providing substantial total cost of ownership advantages as a result. The Epicor Retail SaaS solution includes the associated implementation and integration services, support and maintenance as well as ongoing updates and upgrades, giving retailers the freedom and flexibility to focus their IT resources on other parts of the business. With a proven four-month project timeline from project kick off to go live, the Epicor Retail SaaS solution offers significant time-to-market benefits.
For a fixed fee plus a one-time start-up charge, the SaaS offering delivers Epicor Retail's acclaimed Store, Merchandising, Planning, Audit & Operations Management, CRM and Business Intelligence solutions directly to store locations and the head office, via reliable, high-speed networks. Epicor hosts the software on secure, redundant servers, supplies and installs all hardware, software and infrastructure, and provides round-the-clock data security, backups and complete system maintenance--all at a fraction of the cost of an on-premise software licensing and implementation model. The SaaS offering also includes ongoing updates to the latest Epicor Retail software releases, making it the last migration a retailer will ever need.
"Epicor offers a tremendous value proposition for small to medium retailers such as Spyder," said Kevin Smith, chief information officer for Spyder. "With Epicor, we can have an end-to-end integrated solution that offers best-of-breed capabilities the likes of which are used by large retailers, with minimal up-front cost and turnkey service and support--everything from help desk to infrastructure and application development. This basically eliminates all of the traditional barriers to entry for small to midmarket retailers.
"It's not easy for a wholesaler to go to a direct sale model," Smith said of the company's move in recent years to open up its own stores. "We wanted to make this transition properly, ensuring that we can meet and exceed the needs of our customers when it comes to quality, value, selection and customer service."
And Smith cites yet another reason Spyder chose the Epicor Retail SaaS solution: to establish the right IT infrastructure to support the company's future operations, should they opt to leverage Cloudveil's e-commerce channel or build one for Spyder. "If we move in this direction in the future, our Epicor Retail SaaS framework will enable us to support a seamless consistent experience across all of our channels--so customers could shop online and return to the local store, or shop online and have their merchandise delivered to their home or available for pick up in store." Smith also added Epicor's multilingual and multicurrency support is a plus, as the company has a global presence.
"Epicor Retail has extensive experience in delivering end-to-end retail solutions to help specialty retailers such as Spyder innovate and expand their brand presence," said David Henning, executive vice president and general manager for Epicor Retail. "Our SaaS solution enables retailers to refine and streamline their retail operations via our best-of-breed technology capabilities, with a value proposition that offers fast time-to-market and low total cost of ownership."
About Epicor Retail
Epicor Retail solutions are used by hundreds of the world's leading retailers to become more profitable, productive, and competitive. Our solutions leverage proven Microsoft .NET technology to improve business operations and meet the evolving merchandise and service expectations of today's cross-channel shoppers. Epicor delivers comprehensive retail management solutions to enterprises in all tiers--from regional chains to multichannel global brands. Our retail customers include hundreds of marquee names, from Aeropostale, American Eagle Outfitters, and Ann Taylor to Zales and Zumiez. Epicor employs more than 800 employees in retail-focused operations.
About Epicor Software Corporation
Epicor is a global leader dedicated to providing integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and professional services automation (PSA) software solutions to midmarket companies and divisions of the Global 1000. Founded in 1984, Epicor serves over 20,000 customers in more than 140 countries, providing solutions in over 30 languages. Employing innovative service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Web services technology, Epicor delivers end-to-end, industry-specific solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality and services that enable companies to drive increased efficiency, improve performance and build competitive advantage. Epicor solutions provide the scalability and flexibility to meet today's business challenges, while empowering enterprises for even greater success tomorrow. Epicor offers a comprehensive range of services with its solutions, providing a single point of accountability to promote rapid return on investment and low total cost of ownership. Epicor's worldwide headquarters are located in Irvine, Calif., with offices and affiliates around the world. For more information, visit http://www.epicor.com.
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