More articles:

OKA turned to PlanIT Retail’s in-season planning solutions as part of recent efforts to return to profitability after a challenging few years.

So far these efforts are delivering results, with sales up 29% in Q3 2025, helped in part by the greater visibility and inventory control PlanIT Retail’s solutions offer.

“There was a real need to drive efficiency, gain control of stock and enable the business to go after opportunities with confidence while managing risks,” says OKA CEO Mark Saunders. “I approached PlanIT because I trusted that they could deliver a solution that meets these objectives.”

‍
This was the first implementation of our WSSI and Line Card solutions in the furniture and homewares sector.

“Working with OKA on this implementation has been a true partnership,” says Rob Gamblin, Application Design Manager at PlanIT Retail. “We adapted the tools to align more closely with OKA’s business, which necessitated a more intensive testing process.”

This extended testing phase has been mutually beneficial for both parties. “OKA have solutions that meet all their needs, and PlanIT gained valuable insight into how users interact with our tools and what additional features they’d benefit from,” says Rob. “This has directly informed our feature roadmap, and we were able to implement a lot of OKA’s feature wish-list in time for the initial go-live.”

‍
The project has delivered benefits that go beyond the bottom line.

“The implementation process itself has driven huge improvements in data accuracy and business processes. We have greater confidence in our data than ever before, and this has enhanced our decision-making immeasurably” says Mark.

Any successful software implementation requires buy-in from the people actually using the tools, and OKA’s merchandising team were heavily involved in this project. “The team can already see the benefits these tools bring,” says Lucy Peace, Head of Merchandising at OKA. “Before, everything was completed manually in Excel. It was really time-consuming just to update the WSSI and we still only had visibility at division-level by month. These apps give us a lot more detail and help us make the right decisions quicker.”