Case Studies

Small Retail Solution

Published: Wednesday 22nd May, 2013

Client:

Terry Anderson Hi-Fi
2/30 Metro Court
Gateshead NSW 2290
(02) 4943 0400

Industry:

Retail Hi-Fi, Home Entertainment, Home Theatre

Company Profile:

Terry Anderson Hi-Fi (aka Newcastle Hi-Fi) is a small, well established retail showroom for Hi-Fi sales and installations. Terry Anderson Hi-Fi is a two person operation servicing 1000 active clients.

Scenario:

Established Hi-Fi retailer needed a POS business management overhaul without becoming an IT expert.

Terry Anderson Hi-Fi was using an outdated and unsupported application that was originally designed to record sales in the food and beverage industry. Terry knew he needed to find a new business management solution. However, neither Terry nor his employee have extensive computer skills and they couldn't take time away from daily operations to learn how to update their systems.

Terry Anderson's priorities for a business management upgrade were:

• Maintaining historical data
• Maintaining existing business practices
• Assistance with installation and configuration
• Ease of use
• Ongoing support
• Seamless changeover
• No disruption to operations

Additionally Terry Anderson was also looking into establishing a basic Web presence.

Solution:

Seamless upgrade to hosted reliability

Quids Technology studied Terry Anderson's outdated system, business practices and requirements, hardware configurations and priorities. We were able to quickly assess that QuidsDB would address each of Terry's priorities. We demonstrated how daily tasks could be performed on QuidsDb and we were able to demonstrate that each of Terry's priorities would be met.

Our solution was implemented over a 6 month period while we worked closely with Terry Anderson to configure features and interfaces that satisfied all their requirements. An overview of the Terry Anderson QuidsDb installation includes:

• Acquired, configured, tested, and installed a new POS computer and operating system
• Developed a new POS interface to suit the user skill level and business practices
• Generated backups of current and historical data
• Migrated existing data into QuidsDb
• Authored feature specific user manuals and help files
• Setup training and practice version of QuidsDb
• Provided onsite one-on-one training
• Reconfigured features to suit user habits
• Performed seamless, problem-free launch
• Commence work on QuidsDb-driven Web shopfront.

Benefits:

Fully hosted, custom configuration of a proven POS and eCommerce solution

Terry Anderson Hi-Fi can be confident that his business management software is upgraded, backed-up, and can be developed or reconfigured to meet the future challenges of a successful retail business. The benefits to the QuidsDb solution are:

1. Hosted solution: Terry Anderson's QuidsDb is fully hosted by Quids Technology. This provides Terry with a hassle-free system, that he never has to maintain. We handle all of the technical aspects of running servers, maintaining data integrity, ensuring the security of proprietary data, managing customer privacy, installing and configuring upgrades, and running on and off-site backups.
2. Ease of use: QuidsDb was developed and configured to meet the users' needs. We configured QuidsDb to support Terry Anderson's existing user methods and habits.
3. Training and ongoing support: We make sure you get the most out of QuidsDb by providing customised training and help, ongoing development, and personalised support.
4. Seamless, uneventful launch: Uninterrupted operations allowed Terry to maintain customer confidence and daily operations.
5. Accurate inventory management: QuidsDb gives Terry real time stock levels, including allocation, pick, pack, requisitioned and despatched statuses. This is a huge improvement over Terry's old system which was designed to record drink and sandwich sales.
6. Customer information: Terry can easily view clients' purchase histories. This is a big advantage when customers want to upgrade or add on to their existing systems.
7. State-of-the-art eCommerce: Terry knew that he might need a Web presence, but didn't realise he could actually have a fully transactional Web shop front driven by QuidsDb, and designed, developed, hosted and maintained by Quids Technology. Terry Anderson will now be in a position to compete with larger retailers, without having to worry about intergrating systems, or learning about Web functionality. In effect Terry Anderson will gain a second shop with a world wide customer base.

UPDATE: June 2007

Visit the Terry Anderson Web site   http://www.terryandersonhifi.com.au/