Unique POS software meets complex needs of direct marketing & selling

National direct marketing and sales organisations serving consumers predominantly living in rural areas face unique problems in keeping track of thousands of sales orders every month, as well as debtors, credit terms, clearances and conditions, deliveries and correct allocation of payments received, among others.

Point-of-sale (POS) software developer isoPOS of Johannesburg has implemented its isoPOS/Order Entry solution for Capri Linen, founded in 1966 and today one of the largest direct sales organisations in South Africa, selling a wide range of quality imported household products, including cookware, dinnerware and kitchenware.

The isoPOS solution integrates with the ACCPAC Advantage Series 5.2 financial package. Although Capri Linen uses Microsoft Windows desktops, all servers use the Linux operating system. Both isoPOS and ACCPAC support various database management systems, including Pervasive.SQL. Using Pervasive.SQL allowed both the isoPOS and ACCPAC solutions to leverage off a Linux-based database management system without the need for modification of the software or databases. Pervasive.SQL is also supported on Microsoft and Novell Netware platforms allowing Capri Linen the freedom to change server platforms without the need for costly database conversion.

Capri Linen general manager Pierre Oosthuizen said isoPOS modified the point-of-sale and order entry software taking into account the specific needs of the organisation and its direct selling methods and systems.

"They have since developed it further with our input and it works for us, doing exactly what we need it to do. What we appreciate about the software solution they have provided is its inherent flexibility and capacity to accommodate change.

"The majority of our sales are conducted on credit. What we offer the market is unique and our terms of doing business are also unique. We present our customers with a wide range of purchase options within a methodology that has proved very successful, as demonstrated by the high number of customers that have been buying from us for 20 years or more. The solution had to cater for all of these elements and options."

A new development now being implemented into the Capri Linen isoPOS package is the ability to automatically execute credit bureau checks with ITC and achieve a fast report-back on a single or batch request.

Converting to ACCPAC was a good move for Capri Linen and Oosthuizen said it had helped to improve business operations and systems. "But it was a major learning curve for us and since then the introduction of isoPOS has made the overall system much more user-friendly. The order entry system was designed by isoPOS to work with our existing order forms. The data from the order forms is processed in isoPOS and seamlessly integrated into ACCPAC.

"This limits the margins for errors. At the moment isoPOS is developing a single customer view that will enable us to deal with any query that a customer might have - a form of customer relationship management to handle debtors` enquiries and assist with debt collection. There is also an automatic correspondence feature that is triggered by flags on debtors` arrears days," said Oosthuizen.

Stock monitoring is critical for Capri Linen. One of the major benefits of the isoPOS system is its ability to accurately monitor daily sales and detect early warnings from a set of key indicators, allowing management to make informed stock purchasing decisions.

"We now have information, readily available, on who sold what to whom, where and when and the Windows function allows us to draw information from whatever field we want," said Oosthuizen. "The system has only been operational three months and the more we use it, the more strategic information of immense value to the business we get. For example, we can analyse area order or purchase trends based on past experience as well as monitor market movements."

Capri Linen financial manager John Topp said the biggest advantage the company derives from isoPOS is the ability to simplify and speed up the inputs for the debtors department. "The isoPOS package enables us to capture the very large number of daily transactions quickly and easily and with far greater security. Fewer people are involved and the access to ACCPAC is therefore greatly reduced. The security level that has been achieved is already saving us money."

The streamlining of order processing has also resulted in improved efficiencies in the sorting, packing and door-to-door delivery of purchased goods countrywide. The isoPOS, package is suitable for centralised and decentralised environments and effectively integrates all POS requirements from both front and back office into ACCPAC`s Advantage series accounting software.