Midlands Co-op signs 5-year maintenance deal with Vista

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Midlands Co-op signs 5-year maintenance deal with Vista.

Midlands Co-op, the largest regional Co-operative society in the UK, has appointed Vista Retail Support to provide maintenance of its EPoS systems in its 174 stores as well as its Back Office technology.

Vista, a leading independent EPOS maintenance services company, is supporting Midlands Co-ops existing POS technology and will maintain the retailers new IBM estate which will be installed from September 2009. Vista is also supporting all of the retailers printers across the group.

We needed to work with a company that understands the demands of the business. Vista has impressed us with the way it conditions repairs and cleans the equipment as opposed to previous suppliers we have worked with, said Mark Woodyatt, IT Infrastructure Manager at Midlands Co-op.

Two weeks after the contract began, we ran a poll across ten stores to assess the implementation and received a 100 per cent satisfaction rate. We will continue to carry out regular polls across the business, added Woodyatt.

Midlands Co-op has also selected to use VistaView, Vistas web based call log in and management system This allows us to track calls placed with Vista, said Woodyatt. This gives us the quality of service our business requires on a day-to-day basis.

This is an important win for the business. With Midlands Co-op introducing new POS technology next year, the company wanted best of breed support in place, said Brian Norman, managing director for Vista Retail Support. The average maintenance contract is normally for three years, so to secure a five-year deal indicates the level of trust Midlands Co-op have in our ability to provide a high level of service to them.

About Vista Retail Support

Vista Retail Support is a leading, independent EPoS maintenance services company supporting customers in the UK, Europe, America and expanding across the Globe. At its core Vista offers a range of EPOS and support services including cabling and installation, hardware maintenance, and contact centre management which provides cover for its clients 365 days a year, 7 days a week. Clients include, Midlands Co-op, Lloydspharmacy, Londis, Dunelm and Spar. www.vistasupport.com

About Midland Co-op

Midlands Co-op - is the largest regional Co-operative Society in UK.  A modern, forward-looking organisation, it employs some 7, 600 staff and has gross sales in excess of 720 million.  Its principal areas of activity are Retail (food and non-foods), Travel, Funeral Services and Transport.  It has over 400 trading outlets principally located in the Greater Midlands, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, and Northamptonshire but also trades in Herefordshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. 

Midlands Co-op prides itself on supporting the communities in which it trades and puts 1% of its trading profit into a Community Dividend scheme on an annual basis.