UCS Software, part of the JSE Securities Exchange-listed UCS Group Limited, has concluded the deployment of the ActiveRetail software suite in a 58 store roll-out at Excitement Stores.
The installation of UCS Software`s ActiveRetail software at the 58 stores took only one month to complete.
According to Peter Ludi, sales principal at UCS Software, Excitement Stores had been using the company`s text-based software for six years. However, due to continued expansion and an "overload of information", needed to upgrade to a Windows version.
"Excitement Stores is already seeing the benefits of the new software in terms of profitability and management information flow. Stock control has improved considerably and there has been an 80% improvement in store-to-distribution centre communications since the installation was completed."
Dianne Rodrigues, Head of Operations at Excitement Stores, said the move to the Windows-based ActiveRetail solution was driven by a need to consolidate information from head office. "We were facing an information overload situation. The text-based system just couldn`t cope with the volumes of information we needed to consolidate and analyse."
Rodriques said Excitement Stores was impressed with the resultant automated and unattended data consolidation between the branches and head office, which was made possible by ActiveRetail.
"It must also be remembered," she said, "that we have a complex store environment. We have a mixture of franchise and corporate stores, as well as partnership, or joint venture, sites. But the ActiveRetail system proved flexible enough to handle all the variations. "We also put a lot of pressure on the UCS Software team in terms of roll-out deadlines. We needed to limit disruption to our day-to-day operations as much as possible. To roll-out 58 stores in such a complex environment in just one month is an impressive achievement."
Craig Nielsen, director for sales and distribution at UCS Software, says: "The project has shown our ability to decrease the time to value in an in-store application environment."
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