November 2008

Itim hands The Entertainer new time saving solution

Successful family owned business, The Entertainer, is certainly no stranger to using clever technology. But stock related checks and marking up product pricing in over 50 shops packed with toys, was an area of the business that hadn’t yet benefited from new technology. Having previously delivered many other successful initiatives as their POS provider, The Entertainer turned to Itim for a solution.

The project was delivered via The Retail Suite - Mobile, which runs on any handheld device with Windows CE. In this case the Casio IT600 was chosen for its water and dust resistance, durability, ‘drop-ability’ and high-speed laser scanner. Whilst being a fully integrated module of The Retail Suite, the design goals of it’s technical architecture also enabled full compatibility with the third party merchandising system in use at The Entertainer.

Placing stickers on individual products was an inefficient, time-consuming approach at The Entertainer, and certainly posed problems when it came to delivering competitive initiatives such as price changes and promotions. Instead, hanging-tag labels are now produced and staff can easily perform the required central merchandising system checks that go alongside maintaining pricing display accuracy.

Stock visibility has been overhauled too. Elimination of manual activities such as working from printed lists and rekeying information into back-office computers have been fulfilled. Staff can now check stock positions on the shop floor or in the stock room, in nearby stores or in the warehouse. By simply scanning any product, the latest price and availability information is now instantly presented on the Casio device. Whether for the purpose of restocking, pricing or dealing with customer product availability queries, The Retail Suite - Mobile has delivered a far easier, faster and reliable solution than was available before.

Staff time has been enormously freed up and customer facing time and service has risen in line. All told, the Itim/Casio solution has enabled the goals of better service, and the time and money savings required to ensure store administration costs now fall within budget.

A second phase is planned in the New Year where Goods Receiving will be implemented, so removing the further paper stream associated with stock transfers and deliveries.

Ian Pulsford, IT Manager at The Entertainer is delighted with the results. "This is long term project to help store staff obtain valuable information about stock and products and reduce administration. We are seeing great benefits from this first stage and now have the right technology platform from which to deliver future initiatives "

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