RL - Retail

axway.com CUSTOMER CASE STUDY Sewing up retail efficiencies for smart store operations To become a fashion-forward retailer, Varner had to modernize its past A leading fashion retailer in Northern Europe, Varner operates 1,380 stores in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland, Latvia and Iceland. Varner established its first fashion apparel retail store in Oslo in 1962, and now operates stores under the brand names Bik Bok, Carlings, Cubus, Dressmann, Solo, Urban, Vivikes, Wearhouse and WOW. Clothing is sourced from suppliers in Turkey, China, India and Bangladesh. With over €1.3 billion in sales and growing rapidly, Varner currently adds about 100 stores per year. As a major fashion retailer in Northern Europe, Varner has to manage complex interactions with its ecosystem of diverse, global partners. To do this, they need an infrastructure that facilitates communication and helps the company manage those connections. Varner's partner network includes internal stakeholders in each of the different countries where it operates stores, and external partners such as suppliers, transportation and logistics providers and financial institutions. To ensure that apparel is delivered to Varner stores when and where needed, an automated replenishment process is essential. To this end, Varner uses EDI messaging with its partners to automate key business processes, including purchasing, logistics and payments. With a steadily growing business and rapid advances in B2B community integration technologies, Varner knew it had to modernize its infrastructure and processes to retain its competitive advantage and position itself for the future. Dressing for success Moving to the next level with Axway B2B Integration An early adopter of Axway technology, Varner deployed an Axway solution to run its EDI processes some 13 years ago. "From the start, we chose the solution because of its capabilities and stability," said Ole Martin Holt- Jacobsen, Head of Business Applications at Varner. INDUSTRY Retail GEOGRAPHY Billingstad, Norway CHALLENGES Select and migrate to a new EDI solution that provides native support for a full range of EDI formats, is compatible with the corporate ERP, is highly stable, and offers an array of new functionality SOLUTION Axway B2B Integration RESULTS • Automated data interactions with partners for vastly more efficient purchasing, logistics and payments processes • Agile processes that enable the company to grow in new markets • A highly stable and reliable automated replenishment process • Data flow governance that ensures time-critical business processes occur on schedule

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