The Shop Direct Group, which includes the online and home shopping brands of Littlewoods, Kays, Very and isme, has extended a software asset management deal with Business Continuity Services (BCS).
Shop Direct will continue to use BCS Software Organiser, a software licence management tool supplied and supported by BCS. It has also now engaged BCS to provide an ongoing SAM (software asset management) managed service delivery programme plus ad-hoc consultancy services.
Through the deal, which covers 8,000 devices across the business, BCS is providing Shop Direct with a "per device, fixed fee, fully managed compliance service".
BCS will manage Shop Direct's SAM compliance programme, helping the organisation to maintain compliance, prepare for audits, plan software upgrade paths and control software maintenance costs.
"This enables the Shop Direct IT team to focus on their core responsibilities in the knowledge that these essential tasks are in experienced professional hands," said Shop Direct.
In 2010, Shop Direct closed three call centres in Sunderland, Burnley and Newtown in Powys as online sales outstripped orders placed over the phone. The move led to around 1,500 job losses. In 2005 10 percent of Shop Direct's business was from online sales. Shop Direct says 85 percent of its xmas business last year came from online transactions.