Technology upgrades offer merchants new capabilities

By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, June 4, 2006

High Point — The market here in April was not just for selling and buying furniture. It also was for showing off new software and hardware systems to help manage the business.

As usual, the 12th floor Retail Resource Center in the International Home Furnishings Center's Main wing was full of suppliers of software and hardware that help merchants do everything from ordering inventory to delivering it to their customers' doors.

Among the exhibitors were CDS Solutions Group, Custom Design Software, EasyChair Software, FurnServe, Furniture Wizard, GERS Retail Systems, Genesis, MicroD, Myriad, ProfitSystems, Routeview Technologies and Storis Management Systems.

Several of the companies featured product introductions or enhancements. Among the highlights:

Custom Design Software

Custom Design Software, which provides Windows-based software systems for furniture stores, said that its program now has the capability of interfacing directly with QuickBooks.

"Now, furniture dealers who want to upgrade to a sophisticated inventory management, point-of-sale and management reporting software package, but are comfortable with QuickBooks, can use their existing QuickBooks software for accounting purposes," said Jerry Katz, president.

He added that users can still utilize the built-in accounting features, consisting of payroll, accounts payable, banking and general ledger, even if QuickBooks is not used.

CDS Solutions Group

CDS Solutions Group recently added an all-in-one, order-building kiosk to its Retail 6 management system.

The company said the all-in-one CPU and touch-screen unit eliminates the bulky hard drive and cumbersome mouse traditionally used in retail management systems. The flat LCD monitor helps save valuable space and, because the unit is wireless, it can be installed or placed anywhere in the retail environment — on a wall, pillar or piece of furniture.

"It's a very streamlined unit," said CDS President Ren Baker. "It's sleek, compact and unobtrusive, and that's what we wanted to achieve. Our customers don't want some bulky computer equipment right in the middle of a showroom amid all of the beautiful furnishings. These units are functional, yet low profile."

When designing the Retail 6 system, Baker said, a primary design goal was to use touch-screen technology to promote ease of use, increase speed of transactions and minimize errors. He added that the touch-screen, order-builder kiosks complement the technology of CDS' Retail 6 system, which includes wireless bar coding for processing inventory in fewer steps, encrypted SmartCards for secure system access and customized, on-demand reporting delivered in real time via e-mail, PDA or PDF.

FurnishNet

FurnishNet's Label Express is a Web-based label generator that links to the company's Advance Ship Notice program. With a few simple mouse clicks, FurnishNet said vendors can generate pre-formatted, retailer-specific labels with exact carton shipment quantities through any Windows-compliant printer. This system simplifies label production for vendors, and it also facilitates retail handling of products at the point of receiving by eliminating the need for additional shipping-receiving label generation.

Furniture Wizard

The star of the April market for Furniture Wizard was its improved Bluetooth hand-held scanner. The wireless scanner, with its proprietary software, has a range of 800 feet, and additional range can be obtained by adding more access points. The company said the easy-to-use tool can assist in every store activity, including point-of sale, inventory control, invoicing and purchase orders, plus receiving and tagging sales floor items.

The company said one unique capability of the advanced scanner is the ability to read dual bar codes, those created by the Furniture Wizard system and the equivalent UPC code from the supplier. The scanner can be taught to tie the two bar codes, one to the other, so that either code can be used for processing inventory.

The scanner instantly processes information when it reads data but doesn't store it. The device talks directly to the store's computer, where the data is processed into any of the tasks performed by Furniture Wizard. The scanner has the ability to show the list of items scanned in a list view, displaying several records at the same time.

In addition, the scanner keeps a running total of all items purchased on the sales floor. It has the ability to display the real-time stock status, a benefit for salespeople seeking to determine if an item is available without leaving the customer's side. When purchases are complete, the scanner tells the system to prepare the invoice, which is instantly available.

Genesis Software Systems

Genesis said its new Advantage Version 5.0 software features a number of enhancements in the form of expanded item numbers, item descriptions and customer name fields. It also adds details like an extra field for recording the customer's cell phone number, and an automatic system-wide update of a customer's name, address and phone number from a single screen.

In addition, Version 5.0 allows the expansion of purchase orders to 300 lines per order and the user-defined fields on Item Masters for color, cover and finish, and it provides the option to let Genesis automatically select a sales tax rate at point-of-sale based on the customer's ZIP code.

GERS

GERS said its Enterprise 1 for Big Ticket Version 11.1.2 answers the payment card industry's need for credit card security within the application. Credit card security increases the retailers' comfort in using the product and also the customers' comfort in knowing their credit card data is protected.

Also new, the latest release of GERS Warehouse Management Module (WMM) for Enterprise 1 uses RF (radio frequency) technology to lower the costs for software, maintenance and training. Integration into a single database also protects inventory discrepancies, reduces shrink, lowers the cost of inventory research and speeds implementation for a faster return on investment.

The Store Operations and Point of Service solution helps traditional big-ticket home furnishings retailers, hybrid retailers who sell both general retail merchandise and furniture, and "manutailers," manufacturers that sell their products directly to the consumer.

GERS said the software improves service, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty, by providing real-time price and inventory lookup on multiple devices. Included in the new release, the Store Group Functionality feature gives retailers the ability to view all stores and/or store groups in inventory lookup.

Citifinancial also is now available as a third-party provider. The software adheres to payment card industry standards, masking all credit card numbers in windows. The credit card is encrypted in the database, where it is stored on an exception basis, and bar-coded receipts allow the order number to be printed in scanable bar codes to ease order revival.

ProfitSystems

ProfitSystems has released its Profit-professional Version 11 software, which includes a wireless bar-coding solution that enables retailers to easily receive, transfer, pick for delivery and perform physical inventory with a handheld unit that is in communication with the central database at all times.

The company said this allows for a more robust interaction between warehouse and delivery personnel, making them more productive and less resistant to using an automatic data collection system.

The new bar code system also allows for quick and easy merchandise availability inquiries for use on the sales floor. Also, the new wireless shopping cart can be used to capture product with the handheld that the consumer is interested in while walking the floor with sales staff. This electronic shopping cart can then be easily imported into a Profitprofessional sales order.

Also available with Version 11 is the new Customer Care Center (CCC). This suite of applications is a sales force tool for the front end of a retailer's business.

It includes support for door counter integration, capturing every sales opportunity that comes through the door to ensure proper handling and customer follow-up.

The system also provides sales floor management tools, such as a calendar of tasks and appointments, an "up" system to assist with sales floor rotation, a suite of metrics-driven reports for key performance indicators, a bulletin board, and a single screen "customer central" for repeat consumer contacts.

RouteView Technologies

RouteView announced that is planning a summer release for a new product called RouteView On-Board that will become part of the RouteView Delivery Management System.

Using the newest technology available from Intermec, the CN2A handheld Windows Mobile computer, a retail store's drivers will be able to capture signatures in the field electronically.

The company said that not only will drivers be able to collect signatures but that the handheld unit also will include a barcode scanner that enables stores to track their products over "the last mile."

The data collected by the handheld will be transmitted to the store's server via a Blue Tooth-enabled On-Board Computer/GPS receiver that is mounted permanently in the vehicle.

The RouteView On-Board supports the largest and most popular wireless network providers, including Cingular, Verizon, T-Mobile and Nextel.

Storis

Storis' new Executive Dashboard provides immediate, corporate-wide visibility on daily and month-to-date written and completed sales performance within a graphical front-end application. The various on-screen performance indicators exhibit summarized information classified into location, category, brand or companywide views.

This enhancement to the Vision R8 system includes eight separate screen elements that display comprehensive performance information.

The Mobile Vision R8 helps improve the productivity of retail sales staffs and improves customer service. Using Microsoft Pocket PC technology, which supports RF connectivity and bar code scanning capability, stores' sales force effectiveness will improve as salespeople are provided with instant access to product descriptions, pricing and real time inventory availability, according to Storis.

The Mobile Vision enables users to place all store-gathered information (items) in a shopping cart. Customers can view previously created online shopping carts while in the store via the Mobile Vision. Additionally, an eStoris user can view information stored in their shopping cart at home.