Charming Shoppes broadens partnership with Wipro

BANGALORE, India Wipro announced that it has entered into a five-year strategic agreement to provide Charming Shoppes with end-to-end information technology services that include application management, remote infrastructure management and mainframe hosting. This partnership will be an integral component of Charming Shoppes’ transformation journey to optimize IT spend and improve business agility.

Under the agreement, Wipro will be responsible for application management of the entire suite of applications encompassing stores, supply chain, merchandising, marketing and analytics, business intelligence and corporate systems. Wipro will provide hosting services from its state-of-the-art U.S.-based data centers and manage infrastructure using a robust ITIL-based service management framework including data center operations, network and security operations and performance management. These services will be delivered across stores, distribution centers and the corporate brand offices of Charming Shoppes.

During the term of the agreement, Wipro will work with Charming Shoppes to affect year-over-year improvements in performance and efficiency thereby providing stable, flexible and scalable IT platforms to help the retailer achieve business objectives, focus on core brands and increase cash flow. Charming Shoppes will maintain a viable ongoing IT operation in Bensalem and retain key retail business and technical expertise.

"As the leading provider of women’s specialty plus apparel, our focus is on strengthening our brands and providing a superior customer experience," said Denis Gingue, SVP and CIO of Charming Shoppes. "We rely on IT as a critical enabler for our businesses – and strategic partnerships are critical to our future success. We selected Wipro because of their retail and fashion experience, technical competency in infrastructure and applications and their process discipline in IT operations."