OREANDA-NEWS. On August 06, 2007 IBS, the leader in the Russian IT and consulting market, announced spin-off of Expertek IBS, an IBS subsidiary that will focus on the IBS practice of solutions and services for retail businesses, reported the press-centre of IBS.

The key competence of Expertek IBS is development and promotion of roll-out solutions for retail businesses and gas station chains and providing integrated services in the field of retail hardware and software.

IBS has been serving retail businesses almost since it was founded in 1992. Previously IBS Projects Center, a division within IBS, had since 1999 been specializing in services and specialized software products (including those developed in-house) for retail businesses. IBS Projects Center customers include Bosco di Ciliegi, Spar Middle Volga, Business Bouquet, Green Line, Mir Uvlecheny (Hobbies World), PO Mamonovskoe, Port Alliance, Ruchka Ru retail chains, British Petroleum, Shell, Exponeft, Yukos gas station chains etc., totaling over 300 retail and gas station chains and businesses.

Given the unrivalled project implementation experience gained and vibrant growth in this business segment, a decision was made to spin it off as a stand-alone practice in a subsidiary company and reinforce it by streamlining the product portfolio and consolidating the resources in the subsidiary. As the result, IBS Projects Center was re-organized into Expertek IBS. Alexey Klopotovsky, who previously headed IBS Projects Center, was appointed General Director of Expertek IBS.

Eхpertek IBS specializes in development and promotion of roll-out solutions drawing upon IBS experience of carrying out large-scale projects and the unrivalled IBS expertise accumulated over many years in the gas station and retail business automation market. The core competitive advantages of Eхpertek IBS are thoroughly worked through solutions that are promptly implemented and, most importantly, allow for a decrease in the customer’s implementation costs due to availability of a ready-made proven roll-out solution.

“IBS Projects Center, the former name established since as early as 1999, did not quite match the nature of our business and thus gave rise to customer perception problems, especially in the context of such a large and diversified company as IBS”, Alexey Klopotovsky, General Director of Expertek IBS, explains, “The spin-off of this practice and creation of the Expertek IBS sub-brand better fit the IBS brand architecture and are in line with the on-going move towards consistently stronger industrial specializations of the company”.

The key product of IBS Expertek is IBS GAS, a complex integrated automation solution for stand-alone and chain gas stations, gas station chains and sales divisions of oil companies. IBS Expertek also offers retail businesses such systems as

IBS TradeHouse, an integrated automated goods flow management system, and IBS Retail Analytics, an analytical system for retail businesses.

Along with implementation of solutions developed in-house, Expertek IBS supplies, supports and maintains retail hardware and software solutions of other vendors. In addition to the head office in Moscow, the company currently runs a branch in St. Petersburg and is represented regionally by partners and an extensive network of 60 service centers. The company plans pro-active expansion into regional markets in a number of ways including providing retail system support services and further partner network growth.

A number of efforts are currently under way to promote Expertek IBS: the company logo and corporate identity have been designed, marketing efforts are being made to present the company and its services to the market, and the company website is being built.

Sergey Matsotsky, General Director, IBS noted, “Retail business in Russia is experiencing turbulent growth with the numbers of retail outlets rising and retail chains rapidly expanding through assets consolidation. Our practice in this field is also growing fast. In this context, spinning off the roll-out retail solutions business into a separate business entity within IBS is a move in line with those trends. It brings consolidation of resources that will help the company better coordinate customer service and offer top-level ready-made solutions”.