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3 big retailers open purses for Modernization IT

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI, INDIA: Micro Focus, a provider of Enterprise Application Modernization, Testing and Management solutions, today announces that three of the world's five largest global retailers rely on Micro Focus application modernization solutions to reduce costs and improve competitive differentiation and customer satisfaction.

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Micro Focus modernization solutions, it claims, which are being used by retailers such as Wal-Mart and Tesco, enable customers to reduce IT costs by as much as 90 percent and increase developer productivity by more than 30 percent.

In total, Micro Focus has more than 2,000 retail customers across the globe. Retailers using Micro Focus modernization solutions are able to cost-effectively deliver new applications and services, respond quickly to changing customer requirements and deliver new business functionality up to 40 percent faster. These development benefits can help retailers develop a significant competitive advantage, adds a company release.

When looking to modernize their IT systems, some retail organizations opt to completely re-write mission-critical mainframe applications, or to replace them with an off-the-shelf package. These options often result in projects running over-budget and tying up IT resources for years. In addition, they typically result in the loss of invaluable intellectual property that often have been built up for decades, and provides critical competitive differentiation.

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However, succeeding in today's low-growth, low-margin retail industry requires the release of capital to enable business transformation, the company says. Modernizing existing mainframe applications with Micro Focus enables retailers to successfully shift focus from short-term stability to long-term business growth and prosperity.

"The retail industry has been hit particularly hard by the economic downturn, and the traditionally razor-thin margins make it even more critical for retailers to not only cut IT costs but avoid burdensome, recurring mainframe costs over the long term," said Ashish Masand, Country General Manager, Micro Focus India. "At Micro Focus we work with our retail customers to identify which applications make sense for modernization and execute modernization strategies that reduce hard costs and enable increased flexibility, competitive differentiation, and business growth."

Tesco, the UK-based retail giant, chose Micro Focus to modernize and extend its supply chain management system to support international expansion. Peek&Cloppenburg, one of Germany's largest upscale clothing retailers, migrated its entire enterprise resource management system from the mainframe to Windows, saving millions and improving batch performance by 57 per cent. REI, the Seattle-based outdoor equipment retailer, chose Micro Focus to provide connectivity in a Windows environment and support functionality with existing vendor software.