Columbus IT wins strategically important contract with leading department store

Press release				
Ballerup, Wednesday 12 May 2010

Columbus IT wins strategically important contract with leading department store
in Baltic countries 

A major new contract with Estonia-based department store Tallinna Kaubamaja
marks an important step in Microsoft and Columbus IT's joint strategy to move
into the retail sector. The new solution gives the department store a number of
important competitive advantages and makes it much easier to give customers the
service they demand. 

The contract with the Estonian department store is the first result of a
strategic initiative aimed at the retail market that was launched by Columbus
IT in the autumn of 2009 in collaboration with the world's biggest software
company, Microsoft, which has bought the rights to Columbus IT's industry
solution for the retail sector. 

“The retail sector was hit hard by the economic crisis and only very few retail
businesses had the systems and the functionality needed to handle such drastic
changes in the market and in customers' buying habits. We now see a massive
need for end-to-end systems in the retail sector that cover the entire
business, from cash registers to customer systems and storage management.
Consequently, we have developed a strategy in collaboration with Microsoft, and
Estonia's leading department store, Tallinna Kaubamaja, is the first customer
in the Baltic countries to acquire the entire strategy,” says Columbus IT Group
Managing Director Claus E. Hansen. 

Faster and better
With the new IT solution, Tallinna Kaubamaja now has optimal opportunities to
plan its product purchasing, speed up the purchasing processes and improve its
storage management, as well as being able to gather all information into one
simple system. This means that Tallinna Kaubamaja is now able to bring together
and standardise all customer related work processes, thereby enhancing customer
satisfaction. 

“We tested quite a few software solutions, because we knew that the new
solution would be vital to our business operations. In the end we opted for a
complete Microsoft solution, quite simply because it is the only solution that
fully meets our requirements,” says Tallinna Kaubamaja IT Manager Andreas
Leznevski. 

In addition to the department store in Estonia, Columbus IT is experiencing
tremendous interest from other large and medium sized retail companies around
the world. The close collaboration with Microsoft to offer the type of industry
solution that Columbus IT can provide raises optimism about the course and
strategy adopted by Columbus IT. 

“We have developed the technology that Microsoft is now rolling out and
marketing together with us. This collaboration gives us a distinct advantage,
and backed by an effective sales process it offers us significant potential for
increased sales. In 2009, Columbus IT was named Microsoft Global Retail Partner
of the Year, and our contract with Tallinna Kaubamaja serves to underline our
market position,” says Columbus IT Group Managing Director Claus E. Hansen 

From Kroon to Euro
As well as being able to draw on Columbus IT's industry consultants and retail
sector expertise, Tallinna Kaubamaja also has access to Columbus IT's process
and specialist know-how. This helps ensure that the solution meets Tallinna
Kaubamaja's stringent requirements in full and complies with its desire for a
standard Microsoft Dynamics AX Retail solution. 

“Columbus IT has carried out many comprehensive local and global solutions,
which means not only are we assured that the people working on our solutions
know our business and business model, but also that they have the expertise to
come up with the most expedient solution for us. In addition, this contract
will ease the transition to the Euro, which we want to achieve quickly and
smoothly,” says Tallinna Kaubamaja IT Manager Andreas Leznevski. 

The solution, based on Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail, has been specially
developed to facilitate cooperative processes across companies and
subdivisions, which gives competitive advantages. The system will be
implemented over the coming months and, according to the outline plan,
noticeably faster than similar solutions from other software suppliers. 

“By replacing its earlier Microsoft XAL solution with the latest generation of
Microsoft Dynamics AX Retail, Tallinna Kaubamaja is helping to enhance the
value of Microsoft's future development of retail software. We see tremendous
interest and a massive market for these types of solutions globally, and our
strategy ensures that we gather all business-critical, retail-specific
processes and business procedures into one system - based on one and the same
Microsoft platform,” says Columbus IT VP of Sales Henrik Salicath. 

He adds: “This assignment is just the first of a number of new customers that
Columbus IT expects to present and we reckon on supplying Microsoft Dynamics AX
to the retail sector for many years to come. The goal for Columbus IT is clear:
We aim to be Microsoft's most successful and globally preferred Dynamics AX
retail partner.” 
    

For further information, please contact:
Group Managing Director Claus E. Hansen, Columbus IT
E-mail:      ceh@dk.columbusit.com 
Mobil:        +45 29 69 06 66

VP of Sales Henrik Salicath, Columbus IT A/S
E-mail:	hps@dk.columbusit.com 
Mobile:	+45 29 69 06 67

About the solution
The solution is based on LS Retail AX, intended for use by retail businesses,
and Atlas 4.0, which facilitates data analysis. The solution also includes
Payroll and Human Resources, which have been developed by Columbus IT partner
Esti. The solution is on target to be implemented by Tallinna Kaubamaja in
January 2011. 

About Columbus IT
Columbus IT operates as a software and service company in the market for
integrated business solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics - primarily for
international, small and medium sized companies. Columbus IT is one of the
leading Microsoft Dynamics software companies with more than 1,000 staff in 27
countries and has a total customer database comprising more than 5,000 small
and medium sized companies and units in large companies. Read more at
www.columbusit.com 

About Tallinna Kaubamaja 
The companies of the Tallinna Kaubamaja Group registered in the Republic of
Estonia are Tallinna Kaubamaja A/S, Tartu Kaubamaja A/S, A-Selver A/S, Tallinna
Kaubamaja Kinnisvara A/S, Tartu Kaubamaja Kinnisvara OÜ, Kia Auto A/S, OÜ
Ülemiste Autokeskus, OptiGroup Invest OÜ, OÜ TKM Beauty, OÜ TKM Beauty Eesti,
OÜ Suurtüki NK, AS ABC King and Rävala Parkla AS. Tallinna Kaubamaja AS has
been listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange since 1996.