12th Mar 2007 17:24
Micro Focus(R) (LSE:MCRO.L), a leader in enterprise applicationmodernization solutions, today announces that Tesco plc (LSE:TSCO),one of world's leading retailers, has selected Micro Focus to supportthe growth of its international operations, notably in the UnitedStates, by improving its supply chain operations. Tesco's currentsupply chain management system monitors and controls its entirein-store inventory. The company has enlisted the assistance of MicroFocus to modernize and extend this system, so it can be rolled out inTesco's data center in California, when it launches its first U.S.store later this year. £ Micro Focus has been selected to extend Tesco's supply chainapplication, as well as future proofing it against any changes that itmay face as its operations continue to expand globally. Not only willthe modernized application be ready for the imminent U.S. launch, butit will also be seamlessly deployed in each of Tesco's current datacenters across the globe. The move will also yield considerablesavings for Tesco, as it will be able to use its existing servers andwill be able to avoid investing in additional support for theirinternational operations. £ The decision to have Micro Focus extend the supply chain systemalso fits into the company's strategic imperative to create a commonOperating Model across its country operations. £ "Elements of our common Operating Model are already in place andbenefiting some of our businesses," said Colin Cobain, group ITdirector at Tesco. "Micro Focus' modernization expertise is not onlyhelping us maintain the momentum behind this strategic IT project, butis also playing a key role in the development of our United Statespresence. This project will help us meet our goal of opening our firststore in 2007." £ In February 2006, following extensive consumer research, Tescoannounced its plans to open stores in the US that will be modelled onthe highly successful and innovative Express concept, which currentlyoperates in five countries, with over 1000 stores serving around eightmillion customers every week. The research indicated that the USgrocery market is worth $600 billion a year and is expected to expandby 40 percent over the next five years, making it even more crucialthat its supply chain operations are ready and modernized in time totake advantage of this projected growth. £ Micro Focus will enable Tesco to modernize and extend its uniqueContinuous Replenishment (CR) application to run on the latest IBM(R)System p(TM) servers running AIX(R) UNIX(R) in addition to its IBMSystem z(TM) mainframe running z/OS(R). Micro Focus software will beused to create a port for the COBOL-based CR application to AIX. Thiswill allow Tesco to maintain a single source stream for both themainframe and UNIX versions of the application, ensuring futureenhancements to the UK-based high powered mainframe application arerolled out seamlessly to all international countries on the existingIBM System p servers in a cost-effective manner. The extension toSystem p servers and Open CR solves the problem of providingright-sized processing power to countries like Turkey, where Tesco'sdata center in Izmir currently supports eight Turkish hypermarkets. £ "Micro Focus is delighted to be assisting Tesco in meeting itscritical IT objectives as it expands operations into new and emergingmarkets," said Stephen Kelly, chief executive officer at MicroFocus. "We are proud that Tesco has selected Micro Focus to assistwith this key part of its entrance into the U.S. and are very excitedabout helping them reuse and extend their existing applicationassets." £ About Tesco £ Tesco is one of the world's leading international retailers. Sincethe company first used the trading name of Tesco, in the mid 1920s,the group has expanded into different formats, different markets anddifferent sectors. The principal activity of the group is foodretailing, with over 2,500 stores worldwide. Tesco has a long termstrategy for growth, based on four key parts: growth in the Core UKbusiness, to expand by growing internationally, to be as strong innon-food as in food and to follow customers into new retailingservices. £ About Micro Focus £ Micro Focus provides innovative software that allows companies todramatically improve the business value of their enterpriseapplications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application Modernization andManagement software enables customers' business applications torespond rapidly to market changes and embrace modern architectureswith reduced cost and risk. For additional information please visitwww.microfocus.com. £ The very latest perspectives, expertise and developments fromCustomers, Partners and Micro Focus are under one roof at Micro FocusWorld 2007. For more information, visit www.microfocusworld.com. £ Micro Focus is a registered trademark of Micro Focus. All otherproducts mentioned in this announcement are trademarks of theirrespective owners. Copyright Business Wire 2007Related Shares:
MCRO.L