News and Events

Auchan Supermarket - Atak, signs ibs Pricing with Soft Solutions.

Russia, September 26th, 2012 - Soft Solutions signs ibs Pricing with the Russian retailer, Atak, and initiates an immediate blueprint for a road map with a wide horizon and footprint. ibs Pricing has proliferated in its implementation at the world's tier 1 retailers, over the last 2 decades. ibs Pricing has accumulated maturity in interpreting the world's best practices in Pricing management, over its last multi-national and multi-cultural successful deployments.

Group Casino - Monoprix, Go Production with ibs Deals v6.

"Moving forward, the monthly closings leveraged through ibs Deals v6 are being successfully completed. To mark this project's delivery occasion, I take advantage of this opportunity to thank the business and technical project team, for their professionalism and expertise." Bruno Dreux, Chief Information Officer, Monoprix

O'Key Russia goes live with ibs Referential - Master Data Management.

Soft Solutions, Leading Solution Provider, delivers a world class Retail Solution to O'Key, and goes live with Master Data Management, as its first milestone. Soft Solutions believes that this move would be compliant with maintaining the ongoing promises, and the imminent initiatives.

Soft Solutions launches a cooperation program with AUST University, Zahle branch.

The Computer Science Department at AUST University, Zahle Branch, organized a presentation on “The prospect of jobs with international companies in the Zahle region” in collaboration with Soft Solutions Company, leader in the field of programming and information technology.

Prior to this presentation, a meeting was held between the company representatives and the department management, in which both parties agreed to launch a cooperative program that will give students the opportunity to complete a two month practical training period at the company's branch in Zahle, Lebanon.

The cooperation agreement also offers to senior students the opportunity to implement their graduation projects under the supervision and collaboration of the company's specialists on subjects selected by the company that are required by the market.

”The program was designed to give graduates at AUST University the opportunity to prepare themselves for a bright and promising career”
Dr. Charbel Boustany ( AUST, Computer Science Coordinator, Zahle Campus )

Expo Guadalajara, Mexico March 2012

Soft Solutions is proud to be a sponsor of the “UBI France Pavilion“ at the ANTAD Expo 2012 held at the Expo Guadalajara Mexico between March 13th and 15th 2012. As part of the UBI Pavilion, Soft Solutions and other leading French companies will be representing different French industries abroad in iconic sectors such as Software, Wines and Perfumes.


Canadian Tire Corporation deploys successfully the Vendor Management system from Soft Solutions

Toronto, CANADA - January 11, 2012. Canadian Tire Corporation deploys with success the Vendor Management from Soft Solutions, a leading provider of global intelligent retail systems.

ibs Referential Vendor Management, is the latest module that Canadian Tire has licensed from Soft Solutions, to accomplish the full coverage of their Master Data Management (MDM).
The main benefits of this implementation are:
Guarantee the purchasing system transparency, Optimize the daily cost management, Simplify the vendor contract management.

ibs Referential, part of the Soft Solutions' Retail Suite, was selected by Canadian Tire for its business advantages, its unique foundation for providing a single version of the truth for their information management, and for its seamless integration with their external systems. The deployment was a success and resulted in optimizing operational efficiencies.


Analytics Business Suite - The science at the service of the business

Following its strategy to provide accurate simulations, forecast and optimizations to business users in a transparent manner, Analytics Business Suite continues its efforts to be fully transparent, now exposing the complete process embedded within the ibs Suite to provide top-level accuracy results. Including i3v7 concepts, the Analytics Business Suite now provides a central access to KPI indicators for the whole business real-time, allowing anticipating business changes.


Carrefour Middle East upgrades to the latest version of ibs DEALS and ibs CATEGORY to enhance their supplier and category management

The corporate purchasing center, operating out of Dubai, uses both solutions as well as ibs REFERENTIAL to manage all their category and suppliers negotiations in the Middle Eastern countries like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Pakistan and Iran. Carrefour Middle East targets to add more than 10 hypermarkets in 2010 bringing its total to 50 for this fast growing region. They will also benefit from Soft Solutions' master data management solution, ibs REFERENTIAL, for better item and supplier management.


Company Overview of Soft Solutions SAS

Soft Solutions SAS provides retail merchandise management and decision support software solutions for retailers of food and fast-moving consumer goods to support pricing, promotions, deal, and category management. The company offers a Web-based enterprise software suite for retail merchandising and marketing execution that contains retail master data management, merchandise and marketing processes management, retailer-supplier collaboration and communication, operations management, analytics, and execution modules. Its software is used in hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience store chains, hard discount stores, and specialty stores in Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia. The company serves multi-divisional and multi-format retailers and manufacturers. Soft Solutions SAS was founded in 1989 and is based in Villeneuve d'Ascq, France. It has additional offices in Boston, Massachusetts; San Bruno, California; Toronto, Canada; London, United Kingdom; Madrid, Spain; Limassol, Cyprus; Moscow, Russian Federation; and Beirut, Lebanon.

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

Castorama Russia goes into production with Soft Solutions' supplier management solutions

Soft Solutions' ibs DEALS, used successfully since 2004 by Castorama France and Poland as well as B&Q UK to manage their entire supplier master data, purchasing, negotiation and invoicing process, Castorama Russia follows the other Kingfisher Group operating companies to increase supplier rebates and collection by invoicing and tracking all the negotiated conditions in a more systematic manner in a country where compliance is a rarity. Other operating companies of the Kingfisher Group like Brico Depot, will be next on the agenda for deployment.


Monoprix France selects Soft Solutions' to manage its Category Management and Supplier Negotiations

The latest version of ibs DEALS enables the Monoprix to leverage negotiations, item-level conditions and generate higher return on investments on margins and productivity while bringing visibility to the entire supplier negotiation management process. This will ensure Monoprix to have superior supplier deals and be compliant to the French retail regulations.


Soft Solutions, worldwide leading retail technology, has appointed Dr. Fady Garabet as a General Manager of its North American Operation

Boston September 22, 2010 - Soft Solutions, the worldwide leading retail technology provider, has appointed Dr. Fady Garabet as a General Manager of its North American Operation. This move affirms its commitment to the North American Market.


This is a great accomplishment. With MDM (item / store / supplier) now operational, we are now well on our way to having a world class master data management system at CVS!!
quoted Ray Augers, CVS Vice President of Retail Systems.

CVS recently completed the last phase of its Master Data Management (MDM) transformation with the production of its items, vendors, hierarchy & location masters using Soft Solutions' ibs REFERENTIAL and ibs DATA SYNC. The CVS MDM will be the foundation of their pricing and promotions optimization projects scheduled for completion the next few months.


Soft Solutions designated as top 5 assortment solutions in AMR Research Feb 2010 'Retail Assortment Management Leaders and Contenders -Evaluation Insights Revealed' report by Kevin Sternecket
CVS to implement Soft Solutions' ibs Central for its Promotions Allocation

CVS launched the Promotions Allocations project this year after running live successfully on Soft Solutions' ibs REFERENTIAL for PIM, Vendor and Store master data management and ibs PRICING for the Pricing department. The allocation project will leverage all the master data currently in place as well as Soft Solutions' analytics engine to power the allocation forecast.


Galeries Lafayette deploys the latest version of ibs DEALS for supplier management for use by its subsidiary BHV

BHV will be better equipped to manage their suppliers' negotiations and deals conditions like Galeries Lafayette, current users since 2005. The enhanced version of ibs DEALS enables both operating companies to leverage group negotiations, item-level conditions and generate higher return on investments on margins and productivity while bringing visibility to the entire supplier negotiation management process. This will ensure Galeries Lafayette to have superior supplier deals and be compliant to the French retail regulations


O'Key Implements Soft Solutions Suite for their Master Data, Analytics, Buying, Merchandising and Supply Chain Operations in Russia

O'Key, Russia's fastest growing retailer, implements the complete Soft Solutions Suite. The scope covers Soft Solutions Retail Operations Suite for allocation, ordering, inventory, supply chain and store operations, Retail Business Suite for negotiation, pricing, promotions, assortment and merchandise management, Retail Analytics Suite for demand forecasting and optimization, Retail Collaboration Suite for retailer-supplier collaboration on top of Soft Solutions' proven and powerful Master Data Management Suite (MDM).


AMR - Retail IT Leaders Forum on Master Data Management Feedback

33 executives from 13 member companies participated in the Retail Peer Forum Teleconference: "Master Data Management" held on December 11, 2008. Members shared perspectives on how today's retailers drive successful master data management (MDM) initiatives within their organizations. The teleconference guest retail co-lead, the Director of Merchandising and Marketing Systems for a chain drug retailer, described the evolution and lessons learned from its current MDM initiative. The call was co-led by Mike Griswold, VP Retail, AMR Research.


Soft Solutions launched its new embedded V6 ibs Analytics Forecasting Engine, supporting the fast growing Retail Demands. ibs ANALYTICS supports retailers full Pricing, Promotions, Markdown, Assortment and Store Replenishment optimization process.

“Soft Solutions' unique analytics engine safeguards the accuracy of its business application, as it is an embedded module inside ibs RETAIL BUSINESS SUITE , declares Gilles Goldenberg, Global Vice Chairman for Consumer Business Industries at Deloitte.“


For the 10th consecutive year, Soft Solutions is participating in the NRF 101th annual convention & Expo on January 15-18, 2012 New York, NY.

You are invited to join Soft Solutions at booth #2860 and #1951 to test drive our Application Suite and experiment our state-of-art software that top retailers worldwide such as CVS, Carrefour, Auchan, Okey are currently using. Please join us and meet our executive, technical and field team members for hands on demonstration and product presentation of any area of the suite. Our staff will be available to answer your questions and share with you the unique experience of driving our applications.

Don't take our word for it, please visit us at #2860 and #1951 (ARTS/Soft Solutions) and discover what Soft Solutions CAN DELIVER for you. See you in New York.
November 8th, 2012: Monoprix - Group Casino, goes live with ibs Deals v6.

France, November 8th, 2012 - Soft Solutions, leading provider of merchandising solutions, accentuates its European operations, and goes live on its ibs Deals, v6 release, at Monoprix.
"Moving forward, the monthly closings leveraged through ibs Deals v6 are being successfully completed.
To mark this project's delivery occasion, I take advantage of this opportunity to thank the business and technical project team, for their professionalism and expertise." Bruno Dreux, Chief Information Officer, Monoprix

ibs Deals has been injected in Monoprix's decisions and operations, to tackle the following avenues.

Operations & Budgeting, Limited historical information for Budgeting and Negotiations, Complex Brand Management, Lack of unified measuring methods, Missing base line to compare different suppliers (vendor scoring), Missing base line across yearly budgets.

ibs Deals v6 has brought the following value to Monoprix's operations.

Introduce additional revenue streams, Conditional rebates, Increase vendor cooperation and contribution, Bank on vendor efficiencies, Contract management, Negotiation (Quantitative data & Time Line), Monitoring & enforcing, Generate Invoice & Interface with accounting, Follow-up on buying budget , International buying currencies & commodities' fluctuation, Diffuse experience across all suppliers, Preserve and improve successful processes, Standardize and Institute transparent and operational processes, Monitor Contracts & Goal execution, Leverage scaled levels negotiations, Streamline Purchasing Operation, Manage rebates in contracts, Manage Payable by vendors (issue automated invoicing and Payments to vendors), Incorporate Billing with Corporate AP/AR system (Interface with accounting systems), Coordinate Promotional Activities with vendor, Improving Supplier’s efficiencies, Automate information flow, Sharing of Appropriate information, Co-exist with current platforms, Institute internal security, archiving, and monitoring, Manage prepayment, Manage terms and payment schedules, Measuring success in dealing with vendors, Optimize vendors by zones, and Competition between suppliers by Geo Zone.

Thriving over ibs Deals for the last decade, Monoprix, European progressive retailer, has invested in leveraging its operation and budgeting.

Soft Solutions maintains its commitment to deliver decision-support solutions to the European tier 1 industries.
Monoprix S.A. is a major French retail chain with its headquarters in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, in Greater Paris. The company's stores combine food retailing with hardware, clothing, household items and gifts. It is a joint subsidiary of the Casino Group and Groupe Galeries Lafayette, with both partners holding 50% of the company each since 2000. The Monoprix group had more than 300 stores and employed around 20,000 people in France at the end of 2008. It is considered an up-scale chain and its business model was the inspiration for Waitrose in the early 2000s. Monoprix is present in approximately 85% of all French cities with a population of more than 50,000 residents. In 2005. The closest comparison to Monoprix for American and British customers might be the old-style Woolco /Woolworths stores in both countries, which combined Woolworth non-food range with a supermarket offering. In 1997 Monoprix purchased their main rival, the Prisunic chain.

September 26th, 2012: Atak Russia, a subdivision of Groupe Auchan, signs ibs Pricing with Soft Solutions.

Russia, September 26th, 2012 - Soft Solutions signs ibs Pricing with the Russian retailer, Atak, and initiates an immediate blueprint for a road map with a wide horizon and footprint. ibs Pricing has proliferated in its implementation at the world's tier 1 retailers, over the last 2 decades. ibs Pricing has accumulated maturity in interpreting the world's best practices in Pricing management, over its last multi-national and multi-cultural successful deployments. Soft Solutions aims to leverage the following streamlines at Atak's.


  • Increase processing Capacity, Competitive Shopping, Customized Processes, Forecasting & Analytics, Elasticity Calculations, Price Optimization, New Price Diffusion, Industrialize Pricing validation cycle.

World's tier 1 retailers have managed to reap ibs Pricing's crop, and induce it in their Pricing philosophies and strategies, to develop the following values.

  • Increase the processing capacity of the system
    • Advanced relational database functions (partitioning, parallel processing, read ahead), non-relational database models when needed (embedded Flat file/ data pumps), Batch Queuing and marshalling processes.
  • Competitive Shopping
    • Linking SKUs to comparable competitive items, Expand the scope of Competitor prices to include flavors, weight, brand types, bundles, Capture Competitor promotional and TPR’s pricing, Introduction of automated mechanisms to incorporate competitor information, Diffusion of information to shoppers (workflows & exports), Increase frequency of data polling and verification, and Interface with Providers of Shoppers information.
  • Operational Processes
    • Business Rule Library
      • Over 200 business rules to create pricing strategies, Capacity to create new rules using different methods (amount, percentages, cost, vendor, availability, minimum or maximum changes, lifts achieved, last prior change...).
    • Workbenches
      • Selection Scope (Store List, Categories, SKUS, Price Range, Vendor, Flavors….), Identification Process, Price Leader & Assortment Anchors, SKUs relationship for cannibalization and halo effects, Apply Business Rules (rounding, cost calculation, competitive correlation), Apply Exception by store, sku, competitive items, Apply Operational limitations (relabeling, stock levels).
    • Simulation Execution
      • Selection: SKU Selection, Alignment: Choice of rules to be applied, Controls: psychological rounding, frequency, store Limitation (labels, frequency of changes), AD Hoc Simulation: Real-time selection and immediate results, Batch simulations by categories, zones, by user selection, Standard night processing (weekly, monthly & yearly), High impact & deferred daily batches.
    • Customized operational processes
      • Multi-level drill down, Customized approval process, Keep Interface Intuitive while using powerful tools (Sim Grid), Immediate system response, Exception Handling & Processing, User roles, security, audit trails, (simulation & changes at field levels), Visibility by Manager and Supervisors, Custom Reports & Views for different data cross-section.
  • Forecasting (AMS Inside)
    • Multi-level drill down, Customized approval process, Keep Interface Intuitive while using powerful tools (Sim Grid), Immediate system response, Exception Handling & Processing, User roles, security, audit trails, (simulation & changes at field levels), Visibility by Manager and Supervisors, Custom Reports & Views for different data cross-section.
  • Elasticity Calculations
    • Use forecast engine to create elasticity, Load previous years of transaction logs, Use smaller increment of price change, New Items, Model Item: Automated process to discover sister items (short distance), Inheritance (by store list, sub categories, or categories), Monitoring of accuracy levels of elasticity used at different price levels.
  • Price Optimization
    • Compare different simulations, Compare different goals, Generate confidence level of execution, Consider risk assessment, Automatic resolution of price conflicts, Use system proposed prices or Manual approval of proposed prices, Automated approval cycle for price validation, Secure authorization process for price diffusion, Stage price diffusion priorities.
  • New Price Diffusion
    • Update MDM, Automated notification for different stakeholders, Acknowledgment of diffusion completion, Extensive audit trail generation, Distribution of output data flow (labels, Jobs , work orders, signage…).
  • Pricing Validation Cycle
    • Weekly review of applied pricing, Overwrite queued price changes, Re-run price optimization, Correct elasticity & Lifts, Refine targets, Save lesson learned for future cycle, Propose amendments to assortment (success or failure), Propose new item links (leaders, anchors, planogram changes).

With more than 100,000 active users worldwide, Soft Solutions is a leading provider of web-based retail merchandise management and decision support solutions. Our customers are multi-divisional, multi-format Tier 1 retailers. Soft Solutions' Suite conforms to the latest industry and technology standards. With consistent delivery of measurable top and bottom line business results. Soft Solutions is uniquely positioned to provide global best practices and industry-leading solutions for the fast paced, competitive environment of retailers worldwide.

Groupe Auchan SA is a French international retail group and multinational corporation headquartered in Croix, France. It is one of the world's principal distribution groups with a presence in 12 countries and 269,000 employees. The company began when Gérard Mulliez opened his first self-service shop in Roubaix in the district of Hauts-Champs. Auchan has branches in France, and internationally in Italy, India, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Russia, China, Taiwan, Romania and Ukraine. As of 2011, Auchan had 639 hypermarkets and 2,412 supermarkets around the world.

November 14th, 2012: O'Key Russia goes live with ibs Referential - Master Data Management.

Soft Solutions, Leading Solution Provider, delivers a world class Retail Solution to O'Key, and goes live with Master Data Management, as its first milestone.
Soft Solutions believes that this move would be compliant with maintaining the ongoing promises, and the imminent initiatives.

"Today I can proudly say that MDM - Referential module is in operation!
I would like to say thank you for the work you have done to make this complicated solution alive.
Thank you to my team for the hard job on the project coordination and requirements' collection.
Thank you to the whole Soft Solutions team who spent months in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and passed all steps together with OKEY team.
MDM - Referential is only the first basic step on the way of other modules' implementation!"

Soft Solutions plans to remedy the following points, through its MDM implementation.



  • Soft Solutions plans to remedy the following points, through its MDM implementation.

Through its multiple worldwide MDM implementations, Soft Solutions has accumulated the art of injecting the following values, in the retailers' culture and operations.

  • Maintain multiple existing Merchandising & Organizational Hierarchies, Absorb Impact of Company growth, Anticipate Shifts in Future IT demand, Document existing Data Schemas, Validate exiting Business Processes, Assimilate Acquired Companies Processes, Assimilate Acquired Companies Data, Data Consolidation, Obsolete System Migration, Acquisition and Data Migration, Normalization of multiple data sets, Coexistence with “to be obsolete” Data centers, and Data Parking for non ibs Applications, Insure High Data Scalability & Integrity, Upstream Data Communication, Persistent Mainframes, “To be Obsolete” Data Centers, Downstream Information Flow (non ibs Applications), Corporate Level, DC Level, Store Level, Preserve Continuity of operation during implementation, Coexistence with “to be obsolete” Data centers, Stability of application during high data growth in size and complexity, Provide an extensive Security & Audit Trail.
  • mplementation values have been tailored through the Dynamic Retailers' Organization Hierarchies, Inter Merchandise Hierarchy Links and Inheritance, Supply Chain Logistics, Product Information Management, Vendor Management, Dynamic Characteristics, Dynamic status management for all objects, Validation cycle by Status, Kernel Data, Auditing & Logs, Massive savings by shutting down Data Centers, Create a Consolidated “Single Version of Truth” eliminating redundancies, confusion and multiple ownerships, Set Road Map for other ibs Applications, Consolidate internal and acquired data, Implement Unique Security & Audit on Data Movement, Implement a state-of-the-art Foundation for Hierarchies and business framework.

  • MDM key achievements
    • ibs MDM to be the “Foundation” of future implementations.
    • Massive savings by shutting down Data Centers, Create a Consolidated “Single Version of the Truth” eliminating redundancies, confusion and multiple ownerships, Set Road Map for other ibs Applications, Consolidate internal and acquired data, Implement Unique Security & Audit on Data Movement, Implement a state-of-the-art foundation for Hierarchies and Business framework.

Soft Solutions compiled its latest efforts, to convey a new dimension of solutions to the Russian market; ROI-aware solutions, branching out retail best practices, into a thorougher footprint, extrapolating mature product-centric solutions, of over 25 years of lessons learned, and evolving towards a customer centric paradigm, harnessing the power of digital information, towards responding to the multi-channel shopping experience transformation.

O’KEY GROUP, together with its subsidiaries, operates a retail chain in the Russian Federation. It operates hypermarkets under the O‘KEY brand name and supermarkets under the O’KEY-Express brand name. The company offers food products, which include its own fresh produce and baked goods; and non-food products, such as clothes, shoes, household goods and appliances, toys, and other children goods. As of December 31, 2011, it operated 71 stores, including 42 hypermarkets and 29 supermarkets in 17 cities. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Luxembourg.


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