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"Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that automate and streamline financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes
in a way that helps you drive business success."
Source : Microsoft Dynamics
Business Case - JE Mondou
Retail Management System is also known as :
RMS,
Retail Management System,
Retail Management Software,
Expert Retail Strategists,
Top Retail Software,
Retail Point of Sale Software,
Retail Pos Software,
Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System,
Retail Inventory Management System,
Inventory Management System,
Retail Organization,
Integrated Retail Management System,
Retail Store Operation System,
Control Retail Inventory,
Management Information System for Retail,
Retail Management System Store Operations,
Point of Sale Management Systems,
Retail Management System Catering,
Transaction Management System.
The Situation
"We are a retailer, distributor, wholesaler, and we do a little manufacturing," says Pierre
Bazinet, Certified Management Accountant, Mondou's controller, "so we have severe
information needs, few of which were being met."
Most J.E. Mondou stores carry the same 1,000 food SKUs but store managers can order
from another 20,000 SKUs of pet accessories directly from suppliers. "We had stock we
couldn't sell and no room for stock we wanted," says Bazinet. Before the system would
start a new month, office staff had to print "thousands of pages of reports." Store
managers didn't have data to make their best decisions. A Microsoft Access database
held 40,000 customer records that were only available at corporate. Because the Unix
system enclosed inventory and financials, a report might take weeks to get from a
vendor and cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Guylaine Mayer, Mondou's food stock manager, handles day-to-day purchasing decisions
and tasks. "I used to take half a day just to assemble the raw data, then I had to add up
the inventory levels for every product from all 33 stores." Other managers endured
similar frustrations.
Even so, the J.E. Mondou business model had produced highly successful and easily
replicable stores. "But if we couldn't get certain information from our closed database
about existing stores, how could we add more?" asks Bazinet. "Retail is tough today. If
our competition has punctual information, we should, too."
Management saw that the crucial building block was an easy-to-learn point-of-sale (POS)
system with low start-up costs and high store-to-store flexibility. But more than anything,
Bazinet wanted to be certain that stores' warehouse orders would result in fully stocked shelves
tomorrow.
The barriers
"We had to upgrade IT but thought there were no adequate solutions. My consultant,
Jean-Pierre Reid, and I saw good retail systems with inadequate distribution capabilities and
distribution systems where retail was just an afterthought. Another one required ongoing
customizing."
Mondou's 220 employees include part-time and student help so training must be fast and
intuitive. Deployment to 33 stores had to be economical. The new system should allow tight
control of company-owned stores even though eventual franchise owners will demand the
freedom to run their own businesses. Someday company stores and franchises will need their
own accounting rules at corporate.
Ideally, a new system could run on existing PCs and peripherals while it economized total cost
of ownership (TCO).
The Solution
When Groupe Conseil LVMB of Montreal, a Microsoft Business Solutions partner and
independent software vendor (ISV), first suggested Microsoft Business Solutions-Great Plains,
Mondou knew it only as a headquarters/ERP solution and planned to seek a store-level
application elsewhere.
"When Jean-François Lortie at LVMB saw the scope of Mondou's vision, they contacted us,"
says Mike Steg, senior account manager at Tri-City Retail Systems. Tri-City specializes in
Microsoft Retail Management System.
Information flow
Store Operations, the Retail Management System store-level solution, would encompass retail
tasks from transactions and gather thorough customer data through inventory, purchasingreceiving,
and cash management. Its sophisticated security could give each employee precise
permissions and limits. Sensible screens would be easy to learn and could check out customers
rapidly. And each future franchise owner could automate Retail Management System as much
or as little as desired.
Demographics and items sold could enter rapidly at the POS and provide clear reports for
store decisions. Corporate could use Headquarters to see stock levels anywhere and control
pricing, buying and replenishment processes. Great Plains would import all of the collected
data from headquarters and manage the enterprise from an ERP viewpoint.
Integration
François Paré, LVMB's owner, saw that tremendous business benefits could accrue to
J.E. Mondou from integrating Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management
System. Paré invested substantial technical resources to create an interface between
the two products that is designed to deliver an end-to-end retail information solution.
"We went to Microsoft products," says Bazinet, "because they could be integrated more
easily than disparate solutions. And because we want more compatibility, not less,
through version changes and upgrades."
The Benefits
As promised, four months later, the system was delivering timely data and accurate
reports to more stores every month. "We have seen improvements in sales, margin, stock
turns, and inventory control. Now our managers have time to mingle with customers,
learn new products, and impart their knowledge to new staff," says Bazinet. "They can be
more profit-conscious and make smarter big-picture decisions."
Guylaine Mayer's reporting tasks had shrunk from days to literally seconds. "Finally, I can
see what I should buy and where to send it," she says. "And my information is only
minutes old."
Bazinet reports that previously the time and money to run a report on which employees
overused the "miscellaneous" code would have prevented a supervisor from
investigating. "Now he has the data in his hand and can make some phone calls."
Targeted marketing begins with demographics. Mondou collects pets' birthdays at the
registers, then mails a birthday card to pull owners into stores. If a customer buys canary
food at one store, when she visits another store, its clerk can tell her about a special on
her favorite brand.
"At corporate," Bazinet continues, "we are becoming spoiled. We can get nearly any
report we want and are now expert in customizing them to very exact needs. Ongoing
TCO should drop because Windows® programmers are more plentiful and economical
than for Unix. We have Windows expertise onsite and this system isn't fussy."
As controller, Bazinet sees Mondou retaining money once lost to employee shrinkage.
"We can track problem stores much faster, take extra precautions with tempting
merchandise, and see whose shifts coincide with losses."
Reducing system cost
LVMB and Tri-City worked with Mondou to keep costs down. Retail Management System
runs on generic PCs and it accommodated most existing retail peripherals. Tri-City
installed a pilot store, the Headquarters system, then trained associates, managers and IT
staff. Mondou rolled out the remaining 32 stores. Heidi Stieh, Tri-City's project leader,
reports receiving "only the occasional support call during rollout."
While Retail Management System enables integrated credit-debit authorization within
a few seconds via the Web for U.S. retailers, Canada's credit-debit interface is unique.
Tri-City will design and implement an Retail Management System solution for the
Canadian protocols that will eliminate 66 on-counter bank terminals and save Mondou
nearly $20,000 a year.
Crucial metrics
"The important thing for any retailer to know is that choosing the right products is only
40 percent of the solution. The next 40 percent is choosing a vendor team who is
dedicated and has applicable experience. The final 20 percent is getting your employees
on board, apprised of the steps,
For more information about Microsoft Business Solutions Retail Management System, visit
www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions/POS.
Tasks Take Minutes, Not Days. Management has Chain-wide Data and Time for Customers
A 33-store chain, whose outdated IT system was hobbling expansion, needed an end-toend
retail management and financial/enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. After a
two-year search, Mondou's decision makers found that only Microsoft® Business Solutions
Retail Management System and Microsoft Great Plains® Financials could economically
control marketing, operations, distribution, and financials in one integrated solution.
For executives and managers at the Montreal-centered pet food and accessory chain,
laboriously collecting and tabulating information from an outdated Unix system wasted
their time and talent. Financials were slow and difficult to centralize. Reports had to be
created offsite by expensive Unix programmers. Expansion was on hold until management
found an easy-to-use IT solution with capacity to spare. Now this all-Microsoft shop has
an ERP solution with the right blend of centralized and decentralized control, obedient
reporting, and highly definable security.