Boden is planning to replace the systems within its UK warehouse, following the successful adoption of the technology in its US operation.


This project is currently at the planning stage, and the system should go live at Boden’s warehouse in the next six to nine months.


It is the latest phase of a larger initiative the mail order retailer has embarked on in the past year to upgrade its systems and infrastructure to position the company for further growth.


Boden’s sales for 2007 rose 19.5 per cent to£153.6 million, and were up a further 9 per cent in the first half of 2008.


Boden head of IT Mathew Dalton explained that retailer has invested in IBM blade servers working with Qcubed, which has allowed it to pack more computing power into its server room. He said: “Until recently we felt that we could continue to grow by putting more servers in the machine room. But now a significant number of servers are starting to drop out of warranty, and we didn’t want to replace like with like.”


Boden developed a new website system in-house, and took the opportunity to move the site to the more scalable infrastructure, and provide better protection against issues such as hardware failures. The new web platform launched in the US in September last year, and in the UK at the beginning of 2009.


Another new application for the business is a stock allocation system. It was also designed in-house, and shows real-time stock availability, as well as connecting to the company’s customer relationship management system so that it can reserve stock for specific orders.


Dalton said: “It is really important that we manage stock tightly and efficiently – and this allows us to do that.”

Topics