E-Business

Executive Summary

I work as a Manager for a Winners store with annual sales of about 15 million. In 1982, we opened our first Winners store in Toronto, Ontario. What immediately set us apart from other retailers was our revolutionary approach to selling merchandise. For the first time in Canada, consumers were offered the winning combination of the latest and greatest brand name and designer women and children's fashions at an unheard of 20 to 60% savings compared to department and specialty store prices every day.

1990 was a breakthrough year for Winners as TJX, the world's leading off-price retailer of home and apparel fashions, acquired us. Winners instantly became a key member in a growing family of stores, TJX's international sourcing and buying power, expanded network of contacts, financial backing and a clear vision for growth, enabled Winners stores to open across Canada and to offer a wider variety of merchandise, including mens' wear, home fashions, women's shoes and accessories. At the moment we are growing more rapidly thaen ever before, now we have more thaen 200 stores in operation. In winners there isare a lot of opportunities to enhance store operations and customer service by using effectively the tools of e-business. .

E- business involves the ability to use information across internal and external systems for business purposes. In order to use information across internal systems and to integrate with systems deployed by trading partners, information needs to be in a format that is recognizable and usable by both parties. There is no inventory tracking system at our stores. Inventory is managed at the cCorporate level so individual stores have no information of what merchandise they will be receiving or they currently have in the stores. I believe after having the inventory tracking system in our stores we can gain economically