"Tochka" set to make the breakthrough with NTSwincash

One-stop Shop for Mobile Phone Contracts, Travel Bookings and Bank Services: NTS Wins Major Contract in Russia

Linz/Moscow – The days when you had to receive bank services at a bank, buy plane tickets at a travel agent, concert tickets at a booking agent and mobile phone contracts at a mobile phone shop will soon become a thing of the past. A completely new type of trade outlet started up in Russia at the end of last year, which offers its customers a diverse range of apparently non-combinable services direct from the store as a one-stop shopping solution.

The chain of stores in question, known as "Tochka", is a joint venture by TS Retail between the Russian cell phone operator MTS, the broadband Internet provider JSC Comstar, the Moscow Bank for Reconstruction and Development (MBBR), the cable and mobile TV specialists Sistema Mass Media (SM-M) and the travel company Intourist. All of these companies are leading operators on the Russian market.

This revolutionary venture is to be realised with help from Austria: the European market-leader for point-of-sale solutions for the telecommunications sector, NTS New Technology Systems (NTS), has been asked to equip the Tochka chain with sales transaction, customer service, inventory management and logistics control solutions. "We are extremely pleased to be making our first foray into Russia with a project of such enormous magnitude and having the privilege of contributing to equipping this next-generation chain of stores. As a supplier of advanced point-of-sale software und retail management systems, NTS already has over a decade of experience in this area and is perfectly placed to bring in the necessary knowledge for a project of this scale as a result", explains Günther Schrammel, CEO at NTS.

The plan is to equip 2,800 Tochka shops with the point-of-sale solution NTSwincash Sales by 2010. NTSwincash Central Backoffice and NTSwincash Central Logistics are to be deployed for central administration purposes and to support logistics processes at the head office in Moscow and at a further 9 regional centres. The NTS Retail Management System will be integrated into the existing IT and system landscape at TS Retail over a standardised integration platform and interfaces.
"As tendering took place for automating our branch network six months ago, several suppliers made bids. We decided in favour of NTSwincash, because in our opinion it provides the best utility for the customers we serve in our Tochka and MTS shops: shorter operation times and queues, competent and integrated advice, effective customer loyalty-building via integrated CRM… All-in-all NTSwincash corresponds best to our concept, offers us new and interesting functions and provides new access to the goods and services we provide", states Sergey Fomenkov, General Manager of TS Retail.

The initial pilot phase of the project is already due to be completed by this coming December. The rollout will begin all over Russia afterwards.