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skillnetinc solution is a consulting and technology services company that delivers transformative customer centricity and engagement solutions to global retail, government, and telecom organizations

News & Opinions

Skillnet shines at the CrossTalk – Disney Store POS Rollout Boosts Sales 25% at Upgraded Sites

Jul 07, 2012: Technology upgrades that included the rollout of a new POS solution integrated with iPod Touch devices for store associates have boosted sales by 25% and traffic 20% in 320 Disney Store locations.

For Full Aricle: Disney Store POS Rollout Boosts Sales 25% at Upgraded Sites

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SkillNet spotlighted along side Disney Store in a story run by the Strat.

Aug 24, 2011: SkillNet alongside Disney Store in a story run by the Strat.e.gize magazine on Disney Store’s efforts to elevate their brand by transforming their IT infrastructure and style-of-business in all their stores, including international locations.

“…When Disney wanted to roll out its new POS system, it turned to partners Oracle, Deloitte, and SkillNet…”

More at this link, Fall 2011 issue, page 54.

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SkillNet Continues to Gain Momentum in Telecom, Signs on MTN

June 22, 2011: SkillNet, a leading provider of consulting and technology services to retail, telecom, and government industries announced yet another telecom customer today, MTN (Mobile Telephone Networks). Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a multinational telecommunications group, operating in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East, with over 40 million subscribers.

“SkillNet has had great success in Oracle Retail solutioning to the retail market worldwide. We are seeing a similar trend in extending those competencies to the telecom industry,” said Anurag Mehta, VP, Oracle Solutions at SkillNet. “MTN is a large retailer of telecom products, and SkillNet can provide deep value in translating retail best practices to telco business processes.”

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SkillNet Integrates Alltel Wireless’ Point of Sale Inventory

June 22, 2011, Oracle Crosstalk: SkillNet, a leading provider of technology and business consulting services to retail, telecom, and public sector industries, is continuing to be an integral part of Alltel Wireless’ end-to-end IT transformation, involving implementation and integration of best-of-breed OSS/ BSS systems.

SkillNet is collaborating with Alltel Wireless to integrate new point of sale inventory and billing systems. “In addition to continuing to support our existing customers, Alltel Wireless is improving its operations and IT infrastructure to continue meeting the growing needs of our customers. Our IT transformation entails working closely with partners who have experience in integrating retail POS solutions and expertise, such as SkillNet.” says Sandy Morgan, IT Director at Alltel Wireless.

“SkillNet’s deep roots in telecom and our extensive work with marquee retailers around the world has helped us bring a unique combination of retail best practices and telco process innovation to Alltel Wireless. Leveraging best-of-breed systems such as Oracle Retail considerably shortens the implementation cycle and reduces integration costs,” says Anurag Mehta, VP-GM, Oracle Business, at SkillNet.


SkillNet is a Gold level member in Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).


About Alltel Wireless

Allied Wireless Communications Corporation (AWCC), doing business as Alltel Wireless, is a wireless telecommunications provider serving customers in six states. Headquartered in Little Rock, AR., AWCC is a subsidiary of Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATNI).  For more information, visit www.alltel.com or www.awcc.com.


Trademarks

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

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SkillNet To Enable Cutting-edge Planning Solution for Ahlens

June 21, 2011/ Oracle CrossTalk: SkillNet, a leading provider of retail consulting and technology services announced it has been selected by Ahlens, one of Sweden’s top retail groups for the implementation of its next generation Retail Planning Solution. SkillNet will leverage best of breed applications to achieve this for pre-season and current merchandising decisions.

Ahlens’ specialized merchandise in fashion, beauty, and interior design attracts more than 90M visitors a year. Keeping it at a competitive advantage is its strategy to be the favourite shopping destination for women by enriching their shopping experience. When completed, Ahlens’ Merchandise Financial Planning solution will deliver a single, common platform on which its pre- and in-season financial plans based on accurate forecasts can be developed, reconciled, and approved.

“To be the preferred shopping destination, we need to be able to understand customer demand and market changes and quickly execute on our merchandising and financial plans so that our discerning customers get the right product, at the right time, at their preferred stores, for the right price”, said Nina Junehed, Administrative Purchasing Director for Ahlens. “SkillNet is the right partner for this.”

“SkillNet provides focused retail consulting aimed at enabling customer centricity for retailers. Our best-practices driven capabilities across merchandising, supply chain, stores, and e-commerce solutions have driven better margins, higher returns on inventory, and more operational efficiencies for retailers across the world. Working with Ahlens will give us an opportunity to offer the same gains in the Planning function,” said Anurag Mehta, VP-GM, Oracle Business at SkillNet.

About Åhléns AB
Åhléns is one of the leading retailing companies in Sweden specializing in consumer goods within fashion, beauty and interior design.
Åhléns wants to be women’s favourite shopping destination and improve, simplify and enrich the lives of many women.
The company is well positioned; commanding significant market shares in its niche sectors, attracting more than 90 million visitors a year.

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SkillNet Energizes Merchandising Solution at Middle Eastern Oil Company

Feb 4, 2011 – SkillNet today announced its first ever go-live for the fuel industry. The client is a leading oil company in the Middle East that owns and operates hi-tech service stations, fuel supply and distribution fleets, ship-ship bunkering, and self-branded lubricants. This major implementation involved customization and integration of merchandizing, point-of-sale, and eBusiness solutions from leading vendors with the existing client infrastructure and processes. The custom implementation will empower aggressive growth plans that include tripling the number of stores and expanding to neighboring countries.

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Latin American Telecom Operator Takes Stock of Aggressive Growth with SkillNet Solution

Jan 19, 2011- A SkillNet solution that customized Inventory management for a major telecom operator in Latin America went live today in 3 self-owned stores. The operator faced intense competitive and coping pressures, being that it was the first to launch a GSM network in the country. Better inventory management at all stores was key to maintain agility and real-time view into product/ plan purchases. A significant aspect of the growth-plan also, was having visibility and control over franchisee transactions and inventory. The SkillNet solution empowered the client to dictate recommended order quantities and work on an approval workflow with franchisees, along with other efficiency-building features. The solution is anticipated to go-live in several franchisee stores in February 2011.

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SkillNet Featured in Oracle Implementation Success!

Disney Store Completes International Implementation of Oracle® Retail Point of Service
Oracle Partner Network (OPN) partner and systems integration company SkillNet helped to complete the global rollout of Oracle Retail Point of Sale in all 330 stores in November 2010, to coincide with the grand opening of Disney’s highly-acclaimed 20,000-square-foot store in New York’s Times Square. Visit for more detail »

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SkillNet Partners With hybris To Offer Agile Ecommerce Solutions to Retailers

Sunnyvale CA, September 14, 2010 – SkillNet, a leading provider of customer-engagement solutions to international retail, telecom, and government agencies, today announced a new technology partnership with hybris, a leading multi-channel commerce software vendor. This systems implementation relationship further expands the range of vendor-agnostic technology solutions and services SkillNet offers, especially in the domain of Ecommerce.
The internet has always been integral to revenue generation for B2C and B2B businesses and it is now rapidly evolving into a mechanism for consistently engaging with the customer. Ecommerce platforms as a consequence have to also double up as tools to initiate and maintain an ongoing dialog with the customer. Multi-locational transactions and internationalization are now need-to-have features. There is no longer talk of multichannel integration, but of how one channel can seamlessly function as any other. The prolific use of the mobile phone is posing additional challenges to Ecommerce vendors: Consumers now use mobile Internet for shopping, research and networking. In this new virtual world, transactions and interactions occur everywhere and all the time, forcing businesses to constantly adapt and evolve, which in turn has raised the bar on feature-expectations of new generation Ecommerce platforms.

hybris provides a complete multichannel commerce software solution that integrates content, commerce and cross-channel sales to help retailers, manufacturers and other business to create a unified and seamless experience for their customers.

“We value our relationships very highly”, says Carsten Thoma, COO hybris Group and president hybris U.S., at hybris. “We are delighted to be partnering with such a significant name in the consulting and technology services market as SkillNet whose solutions have helped worldwide retailers transform their user experiences. Partnering with hybris will enable its customers to maintain a leading edge in the ever-evolving ecommerce ecosystem where transactions and interactions occur everywhere and all the time.”

The partnership with hybris marks a major milestone in SkillNet’s endeavor over the years to empower its clients to stay customer-centric with innovative technology. For more information on the Skillnet-hybris relationship, please visit www.skillnetinc.com or www.hybris.com

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Meet SkillNet at Oracle Openworld’s Retail Pavilion!!

Sunnyvale CA, August 31, 2010 – Meet SkillNet at Oracle Openworld’s Retail Pavilion!! Hotel Palace, Sep 20-22, San Francisco, CA.

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SkillNet Launches “Mobile Commerce” Initiative for Retailers:

SkillNet partners with Unbound Commerce to “mobilize” sales for retailers leveraging the Endeca Information Access Platform
Sunnyvale CA, February 26, 2010 – In line with its mission of helping retailers enhance their customer-engagement, SkillNet, a leading, innovative multi-channel solutions provider, today announced an initiative that will let retailers harness the power of mobile phones that consumers are adopting in droves. The “Mobile Commerce” initiative aims to provide a solution empowering retailers to engage with their customers on any mobile device of choice, in effect enabling “anywhere-anytime commerce.” Together with Unbound Commerce, the leading mobile web software company, SkillNet has developed an offering which leverages the power of the Endeca Information Access Platform to enable retailers to invest in the mobile experience they are delivering to their customers.

“A mobile presence is an integral part of the shopping process, in that it gives the retailer a customer interaction-continuum as opposed to a single touch-point. You never have to get out of contact with your customer. Online, mobile, stores, the call-center, a paper catalog- all of these channels can work seamlessly now.”

The SkillNet solution will provide mobile real-estate for any retailer’s website. A shopper can now access favorite stores from anywhere, even to comparison shop while physically in a competitor’s store. From the retailer’s point of view, the ability to influence a sale at all times provides a superior customer retention and acquisition advantage. With a mobile presence, they can eventually target the shopwardly mobile customers with customized messages. These messages can take the form of a promotion that shows up on the mobile screen when the shopper is near or in a store, or they could show up as suggestions to say, accessorize that skirt that was purchased at the store a few days ago.

“The ability to serve customers anytime-anywhere is very powerful for retailers,” said Keith Lietzke, VP of Marketing at Unbound Commerce. “Mobile-based services lead to many more touch points with customers – dining with friends, when traveling, even at the mall– leading to more selling opportunities. The SkillNet – Unbound Commerce solution gives retailers just what they need to capture these rapidly emerging customer opportunities.”

For years, the constricted and varied form factors of different mobile devices have held companies back in terms of having meaningful mobile visibility. That is no longer the case. New technologies have kept pace with the ubiquitous use of the cell phone, mandating a change in way retailers interact with their shoppers. SkillNet’s forward looking Mobile Commerce initiative leverages this momentum to empower retailers to go mobile. The SkillNet-Unbound Commerce solution uses Endeca’s open APIs and is designed for multi-channel use.

“Sophisticated retailers are executing on a mobile strategy because they know that the more channels they use to engage with their customers, the higher their sales are going to be,” said John Andrews, VP of solutions marketing and product management, Endeca. “Supporting innovative organizations like SkillNet and Unbound Commerce that leverage the extensibility of our Platform to build rich user experiences on mobile devices is a critical part of our eCommerce product strategy. Creating continuous value to our retail customers in programs like the Mobile Commerce initiative is what makes SkillNet and Unbound Commerce ideal partners.”

Given that consumers are ready to adopt mobile commerce, SkillNet is promising to implement a mobile strategy for retailers in as quickly as three weeks. Companies wanting to “mobilize” speedily can email mobilize@skillnetinc.com. For more information, visit www.skillnetinc.com.

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SkillNet is now an Endeca Certified Consulting Partner:

Accreditation underscores commitment to state-of-the-art technology and standards.
Sunnyvale CA, January 06, 2010 – SkillNet, a leading provider of IT consulting services and solutions to the retail market, today announced that it has received the “Endeca Certified Consulting Partner” accreditation. This honor represents the highest level of competence and expertise of Endeca’s Information Access Platform, and is awarded to partner companies that have the requisite number of trained consultants. SkillNet currently has double the amount of consultants needed for gold accreditation; with more certifications scheduled for later this year.

With five years of experience and more than 25 successful engagements in search and guided navigation projects, SkillNet has proved its mettle as a cutting edge technology solutions enablper.

“Our customers are looking for both state-of-the-art products such as the Endeca Information Access Platform, as well as reliable long-term systems implementers and integrators like SkillNet to solve specific high-ROI business problems with lower cost-of-ownership, faster time-to-results, and greater value than other alternatives,” said John Andrews, vice president, solutions marketing and product management at Endeca. “By extending their knowledge of the Endeca Information Access Platform, SkillNet has not only raised the bar in regards to quality and delivery, but is reaffirming our joint commitment to our customers by allowing them to create a superior site experience.”

The accreditation has jump-started SkillNet’s plans for 2010 to expand its already substantive Internet technology practice by getting more of its consultants trained and certified in related domains. In addition, the company will reach out to the retail market including existing clients to get them engaged in search and guided navigation, SEO and Web 2.0 best practices.

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SkillNet Dresses Up Men’s Apparel Retail Website With Endeca 6.1

Sunnyvale CA, December 15, 2009 – Even after overhauling it’s eCommerce infrastructure, this men’s apparel store was seeing less than anticipated conversions online. SkillNet helped the retailer answer the question “What do my customers want” by implementing Endeca 6.1. For more information on the solution, which included PageBuilder powered landing pages and JDBC connectors, email info@skillnetinc.com

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Saudi Telecom Retailer Digico Chooses SkillNet to Implement Oracle Suite of Applications:

Telecom Retail Start-Up Seeks to Differentiate Customer Service Offering and Drive Aggressive Growth Strategy with Oracle
Sunnyvale CA, October 30, 2009 – Saudi Arabia’s Digico has chosen SkillNet to implement a broad suite of Oracle applications to help manage operations at its new telecom retail chain, Blink. The two-phase implementation plan will support an aggressive growth strategy as it establishes its business in the Middle East. The suite of applications include Oracle® Retail applications, the Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle’s Siebel applications. Parent company, Saudi Inteltec, formed Digico to benefit from the considerable opportunities in the Middle East market and the telecom retail start-up is now operating 25 Blink stores and continues to grow rapidly.

Digico expects the integrated Oracle applications to provide insight and intelligence across its business, helping to define its customer offering through more targeted deals and services while also more effectively differentiating itself from the competition. By implementing the Oracle applications at this early stage of Digico’s business, the telecom retail start-up is seeking to avoid implementing one set of solutions now and migrating to a larger solution as its business grows.

“We’ve been implementing applications for the retail industry for a long time now; telecom is an exciting foray for us. Our consultants have significant experience in Oracle and telecom, and we look forward to supporting Digico in achieving their goal of aggressive growth” says Anurag Mehta, Vice President of Oracle Business for SkillNet.

Digico plans to use Oracle Retail Point-of-Service, Oracle Retail Central Office and Oracle Retail Back Office to support the development of best practice to manage critical store operations and drive a consistent shopping experience for its customers. The implementation of Oracle Financials, Oracle Inventory Management, Oracle Order Management, Oracle Purchasing, Oracle Human Resources Management, Oracle Payroll, all part of the Oracle E-Business Suite, will help create a scalable and flexible architecture that supports the growing demands of Digico’s business and provides a holistic view of business performance.

The implementation of the Oracle E-Business Suite applications is expected to improve integration and consolidate operational results between its stores and back-office systems as well as enhancing reporting capabilities.

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SkillNet Enables Web Analytics Trendsetter Achieve Online Transparency With Endeca 6.1

Sunnyvale CA, September 18, 2009 – This web analytics firm had Content, Unorganized; in the form of blogs, documents and product data-sheets on various mediums. This was undermining the sales messages, resulting in prospects turning away from the website unenlightened, and tech users getting frustrated with lack of ready-help. To learn about how SkillNet search-energized the data and brought transparency to the customer-engagement, email info@skillnetinc.com

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Chicago METRA chooses SkillNet to implement Oracle POS and E-Business solution.

Sunnyvale CA, September 01, 2009 – METRA, the largest commuter rail agency serving the Chicago area, has awarded SkillNet & AST Corporation a contract to implement Oracle POS and E-Business solutions. METRA has been in the planning stages of revamping its backoffice and customer interfacing systems since early 2009. The passing of the May 2009 legislation mandating credit acceptance at METRA stations precipitated the decision to overhaul its POS and E-Business systems. The new systems will go live in August 2010. METRA customers can then make their ticket purchases via credit card as well as check.
For more info, please contact gov@skillnetinc.com

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Perry Ellis Selects SkillNet’s Technology to Optimize Customer Shopping Experience

International Fashion Retailer Improves System Functionality Through Common POS System

NEW YORK – NRF Booth #358 – JANUARY 15, 2007–-SkillNet, Inc., the only consulting and technology solutions company focusing exclusively on the retail industry, today announced that Perry Ellis International, a leading fashion retailer, has selected SkillNet to implement a next-generation, Java-based POS solution, integrated with Merchandising, Inventory and Sales Audit systems, across its stores worldwide. StoreHub – SkillNet’s process based and templated store integration solution enables Perry Ellis to dramatically reduce the time and cost of implementing a new POS system while also providing the infrastructure for a superior customer experience.

In order to compete in the new world of retail, retailers are re-thinking overall business strategies to be wholly customer-centric. This focus is driving the adoption of new generation systems at the store level to provide superior transaction support and enable an optimal customer experience through the seamless execution of processes between physical stores and other channels as well as between stores and the corporate office. New POS systems are one piece of the puzzle. Equally important is how this new POS integrates with the rest of the retail enterprise.

StoreHub – SkillNet’s Store Integration Framework uses pre-fabricated integration process templates, application connectors for industry leading applications and data transformation logic that makes the integration between store systems and other applications in the retail enterprise as easy as plug and play. It uses business standards such as NRF IXRetail and technology standards such as BPEL and XML Webservices to provide the technology foundation for such a solution ensuring the integration approach provides better flexibility and faster response to changes demanded by the market. Given the technology foundation, StoreHub also provides a tangible starting point for retailers to evolve to a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

Perry Ellis International is a leading apparel company, which successfully competes in the marketplace through a multi-brand, multi-channel and multi-product category strategy. With a family of 27 brands, Perry Ellis International provides high quality apparel to different consumers and lifestyles, across multiple categories – from sportswear to fragrances and from swim to outerwear; and across all distribution channels – from luxury, department and specialty stores to regional chains and mass retailers.

As Perry Ellis International is further expanding its retail channel, it needed to bring in industry leading systems at the store level that can support its projected growth, and ensure that it can continue to provide a superior experience through a tight integration between its stores and corporate office.

“Along with its consulting services, SkillNet’s StoreHub technology ensures we can go from project start to pilot in a dramatically reduced time and at a significantly lower implementation cost” said Luis Paez, chief information officer at Perry Ellis International. “As we expand we want to ensure our systems will enable a consistently high level of customer experience at our stores. SkillNet’s expertise and integration technology enables us to do just that by providing a best practices driven implementation plan for the new generation POS system delivering a simple, elegant and cost effective solution for integrating this system with others.”

“Remaining profitable and competitive are a constant with any business” said Rajib Das, vice president of Sales and Marketing for SkillNet. “However the challenging and changing landscape of retail is forcing retailers to adopt new technology to ensure they can support new business strategies designed for them to survive and flourish. SkillNet’s solutions and services help retailers such as Perry Ellis respond innovatively to such challenges.”

About Perry Ellis International
Perry Ellis International, Inc. is a leading designer, distributor and licensor of a broad line of high quality men’s and women’s apparel, accessories, and fragrances. The company’s collection of dress and casual shirts, golf sportswear, sweaters, dress and casual pants and shorts, jeans wear, active wear and men’s and women’s swimwear is available through all major levels of retail distribution. The company, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, owns a portfolio of nationally and internationally recognized brands including Perry Ellis(R), Jantzen(R), Cubavera(R), Munsingwear(R), Savane(R), Original Penguin(R), Grand Slam(R), Natural Issue(R), Pro Player(R), the Havanera Co.(R), Axis(R), Tricots St. Raphael(R), Gotcha(R), Girl Star(R) and MCD(R). The company enhances its roster of brands by licensing trademarks from third parties including Dockers(R) for outerwear, Nike(R) and JAG(R) for swimwear, and PING(R) and PGA TOUR(R) for golf apparel. Additional information on the company is available at http://www.pery.com.

About SkillNet
SkillNet, Inc. is a leading provider of consulting and technology services to the retail industry. StoreHub™, the company’s flagship solution promotes customer-centricity through a store integration framework by enabling retailers to automate processes and seamlessly integrate essential store systems to provide visibility and business agility at the store operational level. Having worked with more than 50 retailers worldwide, SkillNet’s technology solutions and frameworks encompass best practices in application implementation and integration, through an industry proven methodology, delivering superior business value in the domains of eCommerce, Store Operations, CRM, Business Intelligence, Integration, Merchandising and Supply Chain Management. For more information about SkillNet, please visit www.skillnetinc.com or call +1-408-725-3600.

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