DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH), a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, today announced the successful deployment of a comprehensive merchandise planning platform for the REDTAG Group, a Dubai-based chain of value fashion and home stores.

The platform will help REDTAG respond faster and more efficiently to the dynamic fashion retailing market by making better informed purchasing and pricing decisions based on detailed and executable merchandise plans. This will help REDTAG maximize sales, profits, and inventory productivity, while minimizing costs. By leveraging sophisticated analytical capabilities to deliver accurate forecasts linking market events and sales results, the platform will enable REDTAG to eliminate plan discrepancies, optimize inventories, reduce markdowns, and drive process consistency across its 77 value fashion and home stores.

Built using the Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning application, the platform provides a flexible merchandise financial planning solution with which REDTAG can create strategic and detailed financial business plans and manage reconciliation and approval processes. Providing both pre-season and in-season planning, the Oracle Retail application supports retailers' budgeting and open-to-buy or re-forecasting processes, and will help REDTAG achieve the ideal product mix, and match demand and supply more accurately to deliver on customer expectations.

"The merchandise planning platform forms an important part of our efforts to adopt industry-leading solutions, technologies, and best practices that support and extend our business vision and strategy," said Ernest. J. Hosking, CEO of the REDTAG Group. "We selected Cognizant for its consulting-led and innovative solutions approach, deep expertise of the global retail industry, and extensive analytics, program management, and product implementation capabilities. As we expand our geographical footprint, this platform will foster rapid decision-making aligned closely with our aggressive growth targets, enhance operational agility in a highly competitive and fast-moving market, optimize capital and operational costs, and scale easily to effectively meet customer needs."

"We are pleased to have successfully deployed an advanced planning platform for REDTAG to create informed estimates of future business opportunities, infuse inventory movement decisions with customer insight, and realize optimal returns on inventory investment," said R. Chandrasekaran, President and Managing Director for Global Delivery at Cognizant. "We have combined our deep experience of developing business-aligned retail solutions for the world's top retailers, and our extensive knowledge of Oracle solution frameworks to deliver a platform that will support REDTAG's business strategies, enable competitive advantage, and help the company offer a more enjoyable shopping experience and an even stronger value proposition to its customers."

Cognizant is a Platinum level member in Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).

About REDTAG Group
REDTAG is a refreshing concept in today's retail scenario. It is a chain of value fashion and home stores that offer a world of choice and an enjoyable shopping experience at unbeatable value. With 365 days of value, REDTAG stores launched in 2006 are now a big hit with families that look forward to the latest in fashion and style along with a truly enjoyable shopping experience. The pricing of the products, the stringent quality assurance, the availability of customer favorites, wide variety and choice, personal preferences in sizes, shapes and colors...everything makes REDTAG the first choice for value-conscious customers across the GCC. The REDTAG Group is part of BMA International, which has achieved important milestones in retail, fashion, and lifestyle over the last three decades. BMA is also the holding company for Retail Arabia which operates hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores, and malls.

The REDTAG Group, currently with 77 fashion and lifestyle stores across the GCC, has been growing at a rate in excess of 20 per cent annually. The REDTAG Group has two main areas of operation—the newly launched REDTAG value fashion and home stores, which is poised for a quantum leap in the retail world, and Discount Fashion and Home Stores, which is a collection of well-known regional brands. The growth of the REDTAG Group is concentrated around the REDTAG brand. The discount fashion and home stores currently under various brand names will be upgraded into the REDTAG brand within the next eighteen months. This, coupled with an ambitious plan to open at least 17 new REDTAG stores per year in malls as well as high streets, will see the REDTAG brand become a leader in the value fashion and lifestyle market. For more information please visit: http://www.redtag.ae.

About Cognizant's Retail Practice
Cognizant's Retail practice, which works with 12 of the top 30 global retailers, leverages its deep domain, consulting, and enterprise architecture expertise to deliver competitive advantage to supermarkets, department stores, specialty premium retailers, and large mass-merchandise discounters across the grocery, general merchandise, apparel, home and office, and consumer electronics segments. The practice provides comprehensive business solutions in the areas of supply chain, merchandising, stores, e-commerce, and retail analytics to enable retailers to transform their businesses, drive innovation, and cater to the rapidly changing shopping needs, preferences, and methods of retail customers. The practice is enabling retailers to embrace the future of shopping with innovative platforms such as IntelliPeak™, which helps manage peak/holiday season sales, and IntelliStore™, which leverages technologies around mobility, cloud, social media, and analytics to deliver a superior in-store customer experience.

About Cognizant
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, dedicated to helping the world's leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work. With over 50 delivery centers worldwide and 130,000 employees as of September 30, 2011, Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world. Visit us online at www.cognizant.com or follow us on Twitter: Cognizant.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes statements which may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include general economic conditions and the factors discussed in our most recent Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cognizant undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

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SOURCE Cognizant