Bikini Village Selects Epicor Retail SaaS Solution
Epicor Retail IT Infrastructure to Help Drive and Enhance Swimwear Retailerâs Renovation and Expansion Strategy
IRVINE, Calif. (July 31, 2008) – Epicor Software Corporation (NASDAQ: EPIC), a
leading provider of enterprise business software solutions to the midmarket and Global 1000
companies, today announced Canadian swimwear retailer Groupe Bikini Village inc. (TSX:
GBV) has selected the Epicor Retail Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to provide the
infrastructure, software and best practices to streamline its retail organization and support longterm
growth plans.
Serving Canadians for almost a quarter-century, Bikini Village, is a leading swimwear
retailer with locations across Eastern Canada. Bikini Village is known for offering customers a
vast selection of swimsuits, beach and vacation accessories, and cruise wear, from a wide
range of well-known brands including Roxy, Christina, Gottex, O’Neill, OP, Anne Cole, Guess,
Body Glove, and Tommy Hilfiger. Headquartered in Boucherville, Québec, the company
operates 60 stores under the Bikini Village banner in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia.
Bikini Village has made a significant investment in overhauling and refreshing many of
its stores–part of an ambitious renovation and expansion strategy–which is now beginning to
yield impressive financial results. The company recently posted a 25 percent increase in Q1-
2008 year-over-year revenues.
To support its growth, Bikini Village sought an end-to-end fully integrated, retail solution
that would give the company greater inventory visibility, improve operational efficiencies and
streamline business processes. To this end, Bikini Village chose the Epicor Retail SaaS solution
to provide the right infrastructure and best practice methodologies.
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 eliminating the need for an 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 for retail 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 live, the Epicor Retail SaaS solution for retail offers
significant time-to-market benefits.
For a fixed fee plus a one-time start-up charge, the SaaS offering delivers Epicor’s
acclaimed Store, Merchandising, Planning, Audit & Operations Management, CRM and
Business Intelligence 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 and infrastructure, and provides round-the-clock data security, backups and complete
system maintenance–all at a fraction of the cost of a traditional 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.
“The Epicor Retail SaaS solution offered everything we were looking for,” said Yves
Simard, president and chief executive officer, Bikini Village. “We wanted a solution that offered
flexibility and could evolve over time as our business needs and requirements changed.
Additionally, because we do not have an extensive IT support team, we were keen to find an
outsourced solution that would offer us best-of-breed functionality without requiring a major
investment in resources and talent to run the new systems.”
Simard says the Epicor Retail SaaS solution will help Bikini Village with its efforts to
consistently replenish stores and provide an overall better experience for shoppers, improve
margins, enable quicker turn, lower inventory and reduce the need for inventory markdowns.
The solution will also help Bikini Village address key compliance requirements, financial
systems reporting and controls, and provide greater operational visibility. Bikini Village will also
benefit from Epicor’s multilingual help desk support.
“We’re delighted to have the opportunity to add Bikini Village to our impressive roster of
retail clients,” said David Henning, executive vice president and general manager for Epicor
Retail. “Bikini Village has made great strides in reinventing and reinvigorating its business model, and the company’s investment in Epicor’s Retail SaaS offering will further the adoption
of industry best practices as the company continues to hone its execution.”
Bikini Village is the latest in a growing list of retailers that have selected the Epicor Retail
SaaS solution to streamline operations and drive cost efficiencies, including Boot Barn,
Kellwood Company, Metropark, Twigland Fashions and Eclipse Stores.
Source: Epicor
