Reiss will implement a new performance management system that will provide a single reporting system across its business to aid expansion.

The fashion retailer is implementing BOARD, an integrated reporting, analysis, budgeting, merchandise planning and forecasting system, provided by Retail Assist to replace its old system, Business Objects. The new system will produce the first reports at the end of July.

Reiss head of IT Hugh Raeburn said: “Reiss wanted to pull all our data together into a single system, giving staff access to a consistent view across the company. Licensing is cheaper, as a myriad of systems exists at the moment. We can also manage the addition of new data sources quickly and easily.”

Staff from different areas of the business will see the same data. Consistency in view will support the retailer’s plans to grow from around 90 to 250 stores.

“As we expand, we will be using more systems and reporting over social media, for example, and BOARD will be a single repository for reporting information,” Raeburn added.

The system will also give Reiss more flexibility. “Traditional reporting systems extract data and you can pull out figures to create reports. The system allows forecasting to become more contained by allowing users to input data back into the system to create them, rather than creating an extra data column,” he added.

The simplicity of the new system also means that less training is necessary as staff will be using the same system for different business processes, like merchandising and budgeting.