Head Office Functionality – How Can It Help My Growing Business?
Head Office functionality – how can it help my growing business? Here at Retail Solutions, we are pleased to be able to offer tailored EPOS solutions to meet the needs of any sized business, from a small single till site with limited space, to a large multinational chain of stores, in any location.
For the business owner or manager who is looking to grow their business, or may already have more than one site to oversee, Retail Solutions has developed Head Office functionality to support the smooth and efficient running of day to day operations, incorporating the additional demands of multi-site businesses.
Is it for me?
The Head Office software is for retailers with multiple stores wanting to control them from a single location and report on the stores on either an individual, group, or overall basis.
Why would I use a Head Office?
The biggest advantages to having a Head Office system are control and labour saving. These are achieved, for example, when a new product must be set up for multiple branches it only needs to be created once on the Head Office system and can then be automatically sent to all stores. There is an inherent control here in that the item information is consistent across all branches.
While there is a clear advantage for the creation of a single item, this becomes multiplied many hundreds of times over when a wholesaler price file has to be processed. These price files can contain new products, delists, suggested price changes, or promotions, and the ability to process these for multiple stores at one time is not only a huge labour saving but massively reduces the number of people that need to be proficient in this process.
My shops have different profiles?
This is not an issue as the Head Office system can allow different stores to have different pricing structures. This can be done using completely separate price levels or using price matrixing. When promotions are set up at the Head Office, the user can determine whether the promotion should run in individual branches or all branches.
What is Price Matrixing?
This is the ability to have stores at different prices for different categories. It allows for very quick changing of prices in-store by simply changing the matrix on the Head Office. This feature can be used to react to local competition or to take advantage of occasional social or sporting events.
What about cashier setup and other general data?
All information can be set up or amended from the Head Office, such as cashiers, receipt header and footer messages etc.
What if some stores start and end their promos on different days?
This is not a problem, stores can be given the autonomy to change the start and end of promotions to best suit their individual needs, e.g. when they have staff availability, or on a particular national day or holiday.
How are prices implemented at the store level?
Changes are stacked in batches for new products, increases, decreases, and promotions on and off. These are then printed and released by the local store user. If ESEL’s are in operation in a given store, this can be fully automated.
How long does it take for data to synchronise?
Synchronisation takes place on an ongoing basis. This means that in normal operation changes are pulled down and sales sent to the Head Office every minute, however, after processing a large price file (1000 changes) a delay of 15 minutes might occur while full synchronisation takes place.
What information is available to view at the Head Office?
All product and department sales along with current stock levels are available via the Head Office system, or at the individual store level. The manager or administrator at Head Office has a complete overview of branch information.
Can I limit what users see?
Individual user profiles can be created on the Head Office system to limit the extent of viewable reporting, or even to block certain users completely as required.
What if I want them to see everything, but only for certain shops?
Shops can be set in groups and then users can be restricted to viewing only the reports for the group to which they have access. This is very useful in larger store groups where Area Managers operate with complete oversight in their own area, but are blind to the rest of the business. The owners always have a complete view.
I’ve set reports every week, what’s the easiest way to get these?
All reports can be set on a schedule to run and be emailed automatically in Excel or PDF format.
What’s the maximum number of stores in a single Head Office?
There is effectively no limit to the number of stories on a Head Office, although there is a limit of 999 tills.
Who are we?
Retail Solutions is a market-leading EPOS provider with over 25 years of business experience. Our leading sectors are convenience stores, supermarkets, forecourts, and pharmacies.
We are dedicated to providing your store with the most up-to-date and reliable point of sale hardware, along with software management tools to help you manage your business effectively.
To find out more about what we do, get in touch to chat with one of our knowledgeable consultants:
Contact us!
About the author:
Susan McGuire looks after Maintenance and Marketing at Retail Solutions. You can follow her on LinkedIn!
