Microsoft out, Intranet Dashboard in at Kathmandu

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 02 July 2009 10:10

IT Industry - Deals

Australian outdoor clothing retailer Kathmandu has ousted Microsoft’s SharePoint platform and deployed an alternative, home-grown software solution from Intranet Dashboard, citing the higher cost of the Microsoft solution as the primary reason for the switch.

Kathmandu general manager of information systems, Bryan Moore said the company had selected the Intranet Dashboard iD communications platform over SharePoint, after discovering it offered most of the features it needed “straight out of the box, for a fraction of the price.”

“We discovered iD on the internet and lined it up against SharePoint to find it offered significantly more value for money.  It was also much less complex making our decision a no-brainer.”

Moore said the new platform had been deployed across 80 Kathmandu stores in Australia, New Zealand and the UK to “improve internal communications through more timely and efficient information sharing.”

According to Moore, following Kathmandu’s sale three years ago, internal communications was identified as a key issue for the business, with the company primarily using phone and fax to communicate with its remote staff, which was “proving difficult and at times ineffective,” and he added, the company wanted to be able to deliver “simple, consistent management communications to its retailers.”

“The intranet lets us channel information to our stores through the one gateway and governs the style and timing of our communications. It provides a huge opportunity for us to engage with the sales force.  Ultimately, we wanted to make sure that everyone is on the same page and aware of promotions, events and related activities.  iD gives us one version of the truth.”

Moore says the new intranet is also operating as a business intelligence tool by enabling the company to gather more feedback and data from its 80 stores.
CONTINUED page 2