The system was built progressively since 1994, hence its underlying technology is modern: Windows, TCP/IP, Intel. At the same time the functionality has evolved and expanded over the last 10 years and is extensive. RMS and SMS use a unique architecture, specifically designed and developed to work in the retail environment. The system architects worked with two key aspects of this environment in mind: It is distributed (multiple store locations which need to cooperate), and it is inherently hostile. The hostility comes from the physical factors (power failures, equipment failures, communications failures), as well as from the users (untrained, under stress, potentially attempting to defraud the system). As a result, the system was designed to handle and survive many types of interference.

We also understand well that store staff are not, and should not be expected to be computer experts. That is why we designed the store system to work without the need for technical knowledge in the stores. This is why SMS is a store system that:

• Automatically performs live back-ups in the background
• Can communicate with the head office at any time without interrupting trading
• Does not need start-of-day or end-of-day batch jobs
• Can be managed and updated directly from your office anywhere in the world
• Tracks not only various balances, but also the underlying transactions

Many systems out there do not have such resilience and audit ability - forcing retailers to continually devote human resources to keep the systems running and to compensate for the systems' shortcomings.


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Process and Information Visibility

Best retailers are successful because of their business formula, their skills, and their values. Computer system by itself cannot make a retailer successful. However, a good computer system can be of great help in running a retail enterprise. Imagine the degree of control you will have when everything important that is happening in your business suddenly becomes visible. Retail Management System (RMS) and Store Management System (SMS) can track practically all parts of your business, including: stock, its costs, sales, takings, voids, post-voids, discounts, returns, profits, employees, reconciliation discrepancies, stocktakes, stock adjustments, and more.

SalesCube can perform a wide range of sophisticated queries of the RMS data warehouse (sale, GP, units, stock information, stored in a number of cubes - by location / time / product - product group). This facility can generate in excess of 1,000 various reports / enquiries.

Practically all reports in RMS and SMS have a wide range of configuration options, giving users extensive ability to mould the output. For example, any time-related report includes trading week’s selection. Any location-related report allows for dynamic store group selection etc. Report results can be easily exported e.g. in Excel format. User SQL queries and third party tools can also be used to access the extensive relational database used by RMS to store the enterprise-wide data. The database schema uses close to 900 various tables to store the corporate information.


Integration and updates between the Stores and Head Office

Retail Directions software has been designed with the knowledge that transactions could be delayed or delivered out of sequence. In a geographically distributed retail environment this is at times unavoidable, and the system must be able to correctly handle late and out-of-sequence transactions.

This is why all data movements are handled as business transactions, which update the relevant balances upon the arrival in the destination databases. For example, stock-related transactions created by SMS (such as sale, delivery, transfer, adjustment) gets applied locally to adjust the local stock balance, and then are replicated to the Head Office (and other stores if required), where they are applied again to the centralized stock ledger (or target store’s balances). Conversely, any stock transaction generated in the Head Office that affects the stores is replicated to the stores and applied to the stock balances there.


Store Management and Back Office

In addition to the standard point of sale functions, SMS also supports extensive store management functionality, including banking, reconciliation, stock control, expenses capture, and staff attendance. There is also a wide range of enquiries and reports available.

Back office functions can be activated on any cash register with a single keystroke. If during a back office operation there is a need to switch back to customer service functions, they user can toggle back with a single keystroke again.

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