Carpetright will roll out a store communications system to its 550 shops and concessions in the UK and Ireland.

The Retail Manager system from Triangle is in development and will be piloted before a full roll-out later this year.

The system has been deployed to retailers including Matalan, Body Shop and Mothercare already. One of the reasons why the carpet and floorings specialist decided to implement the system was that it has been introduced elsewhere successfully.

Carpetright’s group IT director Ian Woosey told Retail Week that the system will build on investments the retailer has made in its store systems infrastructure. He said: “We put Microsoft Dynamics Navision out there on brand new kit and provided quite extensive training. Putting in Retail Manager will reinforce the change.”

He added that the system will make life easier for store staff, while allowing both stores and management to monitor progress of tasks. Carpetright is particularly keen to improve communications in areas such as human resources and retail operations, while increasing efficiency and reducing costs. The system is browser-based and will be used by both staff in shops and its central store operation to work together.

Carpetright will implement all core modules of the system including a stores details database, shop planner, survey tool, content management and security. In addition, it has chosen further modules for labour management and time sheets, as well as accident and incident reporting.

Woosey added that the system will replace “a lot of postage and faxing”. Body Shop, which also uses Retail Manager, has reduced hard-copy communications to the extent that some weeks it sends no post to any of its branches and it has removed faxes from its stores.