Clarks shoes inks multimillion IT outsourcing deal

PinkRoccade has won a multimillion-pound renewal of its IT outsourcing deal with shoe shop chain Clarks.

The previous six-year deal has been extended for a further five years after Clarks put the contract out to competition.

PinkRoccade will maintain and support Clarks' Windows NT domain, an upgrade to the electronic point of sale (EPoS) system and 1,500 PCs and peripherals across 670 UK and Republic of Ireland stores.

The EPoS system upgrade between now and July will Chip and PIN-enable Clarks' transactions ahead of the 2005 deadline. The services provider will also remotely manage Clark's central server architecture.

Alistair Smith, retail services manager at Clarks, said the firm had gone to competition to test the market but had chosen to stay with PinkRoccade because of the depth of the partnership.

"After making the strategic decision to outsource certain IT activities to PinkRoccade in 1997, it made sense to go out to market and ensure we had the best partner to work with," he said in a statement.