Shoe retailer steps into five-year support contract

Shoe retailer Clarks has signed a multimillion pound IT services contract covering systems and equipment in its 670 UK and Ireland stores.

The company, which sells 20m pairs of shoes every year, has agreed a five-year deal with its existing supplier PinkRoccade.

The services cover support and maintenance for 1,500 PCs installed in shops, as well as the firm's point of sale equipment and other devices such as electronic foot measuring machines for children.

PinkRoccade is now responsible for most of Clarks' IT operations, including the maintenance of the company's central server architecture and software applications.

Retail services manager Alistair Smith says it is important that the retail arm of the company has one main IT vendor.

'We have an objective to reduce the number of suppliers we have because it brings benefits in overhead reductions and we get the economies of scales,' he said.

PinkRoccade handles all calls to the Clarks help desk, which vary from 2,000 to 6,500 enquiries a month, says Smith. He says call quantities depend on the time of year and system events such as the installation of new software.

Clarks decided it wasn't necessary to conduct a full supplier selection process when it renewed the contract.

'We didn't really want to go completely out to competitive tender because of resource issues,' said Smith.

PinkRoccade is also looking after the installation of Chip-and-PIN anti-fraud technology from BT Expedite in all Clarks stores (Computing, 15 January).

Smith says the installation process, which began in March, 'is going well' and more than 120 stores have so far been fitted with the equipment.

He says the project is on course to be fully implemented by the end of July.