Microsoft Retail Management Implementation

De Bradelei Stores

Project Brief

De Bradelei Stores Ltd required a new Electronic Point of Sale system (EPOS) to replace the existing MS-DOS based system they were currently running. The new system should be fully Windows based and provide the following essential functions:

Offer support for multiple stores
Use standard off the shelf hardware
Provide an easy to use intuitive interface to ease implementation and staff adoption
Allow for internet based communications between stores
Deal with stock, reordering, stock control, inter-store transfers in a single application
Offer an intuitive and flexible reporting and analysis options
Allow for the product to be extended to support 3rd concessionary sales
Be provided by a manufacturer who will be around in years to come
Ideally, the product should have an active marketplace for additional components and complementary solutions from multiple vendors.

Solution Implemented

After an extensive search, we chose Microsoft Retail Management System (RMS). Once the decision was made and the system purchased, training courses were booked, attended and we then set about planning the initial implementation. The roll out consisted of the following:

ADSL and VPN connections between stores and head office
Data migration of approximately 60,000 products from the existing system
Design of department and category hierarchy
End user training on Head Office functions
End user training on Store Manager functions
Train the trainer training on the point of Sale functions
Creation of the 1st store (De Bradelei Belper)
Creation of the initial Head Office database
Rollout to other stores
Hardware and software build/setup

Over a two and a half week period, we worked side by side with senior staff from De Bradelei to roll out the solution to all four stores connecting each one back to head office before moving on.

In November 2006 a new store (Lutterworth) was added into the solution bringing the number to five locations and some 28 registers/lanes.

Since the initial implementation, we have developed several modules to provide additional MIS and reporting information both at the initial point of sale and at headquarters using Microsoft Reporting Services.