Grantfort gives retail solution the dynamic edge Background Grantfort Computer Systems (GCS), a UK based software and solutions provider has been servicing the retail, merchandising and warehousing industries for the past 14 years. 20 staff provide custom development, retail application solutions and outsourcing services to the European market. One of their solutions is ‘merret’, a robust, scalable, integrated retail software application used by many retailers including Burberry of London. As part of their company strategy, GCS decided to give ‘merret’ the front-end friendliness of a PC-based application, incorporating graphics and the modern User Interface (UI) it needed to complement its market-leading functionality. After trying a batch-based approach, GCS discovered looksoftware’s dynamic alternative. Barbara Illingworth, Finance Director comments, “We needed a product that was easy to use and feasible for us to work with. We learnt about newlook from reading a review and hearing about it during an IBM seminar. newlook suited us best due to its dynamic front-end and ease of use.” Solution looksoftware's dynamic environment includes newlook for UI management and centric for application integration, allowing rapid modernisation of existing applications without requiring batch analysis or conversion of the existing source code. "Using newlook’s rules-based dynamic recognition, we defined 27 rules and refaced around 1200 screens. All work was completed in 2 days - no time at all from our point of view. We then invested additional time defining the graphical identity that underpins our corporate branding. Overall we were very impressed with the implementation times and the assistance provided by looksoftware.” Benefits The dynamic environment helps automate the modernisation process, aiming to reduce the complexity commonly found in today’s software tools. Barbara said, “We were impressed by how little training was required to get newlook started and how simple it was to use! A lot of effort has been put in by looksoftware to make their tools easy to use.” Many of GCS’s customers require tailored solutions, which the dynamic environment supports easily and quickly. Customer demonstrations are more effective because the UI and application behaviour can be rapidly modified to suit each customer’s business requirements. Barbara commented, “A powerful feature of newlook is its ability to make changes quickly, without disrupting our end-users.” The looksoftware dynamic approach has become an integral part of the way GCS now markets the ‘merret’ product. Barbara summarized, “Using newlook has given us a modern image for our application that our customers have said looks great, but most of all, using newlook has given us a competitive edge.”

Critical issue Needed to modernize and GUI enable retail application to stay competitive   Solution Advanced application modernisation Easy to learn and use   Results Modern, new user interface which is easy to use and has given GCS a competitive edge. All without changing the underlying code.   Download PDF Version   "Using newlook has given us a competitive edge."