Raymark and Christofle – A Decade of Success
“We are very happy with the software, and are constantly evolving with it.”
— Luc Degryse, Director of IT, Christofle
The Start of a True Success Story
In 1998, Christofle needed to replace their obsolete retail solution that was not
conducive to opening new stores in Europe. Two major criteria were considered absolute
necessities in a new retail software solution – it had to be multi-lingual and it
needed to be centralized. Regardless of the country they were operating from, Christofle’s
employees needed to be able to use the software in their local language. As well,
the IT department, which consists of less than ten people, required a reliable,
robust, and user-friendly solution.
Founded in 1830, Christofle diversified its offering throughout the years and today
is recognized globally for its fine china and jewelry creations. Across its three
subsidiaries, the retailer distributes its luxury items in France, the Unites States
and China. Serving as retailers in addition to manufacturers and distributors, Christofle
employs close to 600 people internationally and currently boats close to 70 retail
stores or kiosks, all of which are equipped with Raymark’s retail software suite,
Xpert-Series.
When finalizing their decision of which retail software vendor would best suit their
needs, the factor that was imperative in Christofle selecting Raymark was their
ability to respond quickly to a specific demand for key functionality – the management
of wedding gift registries throughout the world that would allow friends and family
to purchase items wherever they were located. Obtaining the ability from Raymark
to provide this innovative service over a decade ago was a real turning point for
Christofle, and the rapid response time and availability of the Raymark team is
what made it all happen for them.
Raymark’s Xpert-Series is deployed throughout all of Christofle’s points-of-sale
in France and across the globe. International users are connected via servers housed
in Paris, whereby the software suite facilitates the transmission of key information
at headquarters and to each point-of- sale.
“The software suite is user-friendly, and does not require much training.”
— Luc Degryse, Director of IT, Christofle
Christofle deployed multiple Raymark modules to facilitate the administration of
its global network, enabling centralized management of all its operations, including
the management of sales, inventory, replenishment, invoice matching, mobile retailing,
and reporting. Each store opening is managed from Paris, with Raymark’s team handling
the configuration centrally. Even with the recent opening of several new stores
in China, configuration has been executed in a maximum of three days.
“We are very happy with the software, and are constantly evolving with it. Today,
we use a centralized database server, and hope that by the end of the year we can
adopt a centralized database that will allow us to avoid replication.”
— Luc Degryse, Director of IT, Christofle
Today, the software suite the way it is deployed at Christofle possesses two distinct
databases – one in Chinese and another for the rest of the languages. Currently,
replication is necessary, and it is this step that Luc Degryse hopes to eliminate,
saving time, increasing reliability and reinforcing data consistency. A project
to accomplish this is set to begin before the end of the year.
Along with the quality of the retail software solutions, it is the human element
that has played such a crucial role in the long-lasting relationship between Christofle
and Raymark.
“The technical support we have received from Raymark has been indispensible to us,”
adds Luc Degryse. “We always receive rapid, effective responses to our inquiries,
and this type of privileged relationship was created because Raymark’s people are
there to listen and act.”