Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 14 | Page 9

NEWS IBM signs US$540m services agreement with Nordic’s Nordea Bank organisations in the Nordics and provide a solid path to bringing new efficiencies in its Digital Transformation.” As part of the agreement, a group of Nordea employees will transfer to IBM. The employees who are transferring to IBM will have an opportunity to be part of a leading technology company. I BM Services has announced that it has signed a managed services agreement with Nordea, under which Nordea Bank will outsource its IBM Z operations to IBM. The US$540m multi-year agreement continues to build on the success of the Nordea-IBM relationship that began in 2003. By outsourcing its majority of IBM Z infrastructure services in five countries, Nordea will have continued access to the latest technology advancements, including cognitive services, while at the same time maintaining a sustainable IBM Z organisation. “As we continue to grow our long-standing relationship with Nordea, we are looking forward to working with it to drive its digital progress with IBM Services,” said Martin Jetter, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Technology Services. “Our latest agreement will help Nordea accelerate its leadership as one of the largest financial services The Managed Service contract signed between Nordea and IBM relies on an active relationship between the two companies. It differs from previous mainframe contract, having had the unique opportunity to write up a Service Level Agreement based on first-hand experience of running the Nordea mainframe. The contract negotiations with IBM have resulted in an agreement with the best possible outcome in relation to helping to ensure a sustainable and protected IBM Z set-up, based on Nordea’s current and future needs. ///////////////// Global footwear retailer, CCC Group, taps Oracle to boost profitability P olish footwear retailer, CCC Group, is propelling its Digital Transformation with retail technology from Oracle. CCC Group is one of the fastest growing omnichannel footwear retailers in Europe, selling over 50 million pairs of shoes annually in 1,200 stores and across 23 countries online. With a business that is quickly scaling, CCC recognised the need to optimise margins www.intelligentcio.com and minimise unnecessary markdowns on an inventory spanning 45,000 products. Using Oracle Retail Merchandising and Planning and Optimisation solutions, the company is able to maximise profitability that will fuel expansion. merchandising. Combined with Oracle Retail Clearance Optimisation, CCC Group can now reconcile the impact of discounts on inventory and automatically gain approval on pricing with Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning. Using Oracle Retail Clearance Optimization, CCC Group quickly experienced a 4.2% increase in gross margin and a 7.1% increase in inventory sell-through. The technology provides CCC Group with a new business process that gives its analysts fact- driven markdown recommendations and exception reporting based on inventory style, colour and location. “Oracle Retail Clearance Optimisation provides us with the flexibility to adjust to our business needs and markets while providing a stable, intelligent and scalable platform. We have shifted from a 100% manual process to a solution that runs millions of combinations to come up with the best recommendations for our experts,” said Piotr Pawłowski, Chief Information Officer, The CCC Group. “Pronos has provided great local, in-language implementation experience with global expertise. We look forward to continuing our Digital Transformation with the completion of our Oracle Retail Merchandise Operations Management implementation.” With the support of Oracle PartnerNetwork Gold Level Partner Pronos, CCC Group began implementing additional solutions including Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning and Assortment Planning followed by allocation, replenishment and INTELLIGENTCIO 9