Converting to a New POS System

Transcription

1 WELCOME TO OUTDOOR UNIVERSITY The Webinar will begin at 200 2:00 p.m. (Mountain Time)

2 WELCOME TO OUTDOOR UNIVERSITY

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4 Presenter Lisa Hollenbeck Co-Owner & Vice President Alpine Shop St Louis, Missouri

5 Will Cover Evaluating POS Options Preparing Your Database for Conversion Managing g the transition

6 Introduction Alpine Shop has been in business in St Louis, Missouri, since Three brick-and-mortar stores: 19,000 sq ft store in Kirkwood (St Louis) 4,500 sq ft store in Chesterfield (St Louis) 4,500 sq ft store in Columbia (near U of Missouri) Selling on line, starting Spring 2010, at alpineshop.com. We offer every category shown at Outdoor Retailer, plus skis, snowboards and bicycles, plus rentals. Converted to Celerant POS on 7/13/09, from POSIM.

7 Evaluating POS Options: Gather Info Invite key people to list the requirements of the POS as it relates to their jobs. Sales Marketing Buying Receiving i and Warehouse Accounting IT Start with stream-of-consciousness if that works for you. Then put the info in an organized format.

8 Evaluating POS Options: Organize Start like this. Then refine. We put our list on our bbs. Review before submitting.

9 Evaluating POS Options What do you need in a POS system? Hardware requirements? Able to invest in change? Should you buy or lease a system? Selling: Brick-and-mortar only or online too? Accounting? Human Resources (HR) (time clock)? Website design and maintenance? Social media integration? Event promotion and management?

10 Evaluating POS Options: Selling What do you need for Selling (and Buying)? Brick-and-mortar? Online? Event management? (Registration and ticketing) Exporting For consultants (like RMSA and Black s) For reporting (like Leisure Trends & Sports OneSource)

11 Evaluating POS Options: Selling Needs for brick-and-mortar sales? Multiple locations now? Plan to add locations? How soon? Gift cards? (aka stored value cards ) Rentals? Consignment? Temporary (e.g., swaps) or permanent (e.g., trade-ins) Off-site sales at events?

12 Evaluating POS Options: Selling Needs for online sales? Are you selling online now? Gift cards, brick-and-mortar and electronic. Registration for events? Reserving rentals? Search engine optimization planning?

13 Evaluating POS Options: Accounting What requirements do you have for Accounting? What do you use now for your accounting software? Is your present accounting software integrated or at least compatible with your present POS? Is your present accounting software compatible with your prospective POS? What steps if it s not?

14 Evaluating POS Options: HR What requirements do you have for Human Resources? Do you presently use your POS to track employee time records? Is that important for you? Consider the labor management opportunities of tracking productivity via the POS. If phasing over from a time clock, consider running a dual system for awhile.

15 Evaluating POS Options: Website Do you need a new website design too? Do you have a website now? Are you happy with how it works? What would you change? Who maintains it? How easy does it need to be? Do you sell online now? Is your online selling integrated with your web site? Consider whether the POS provider should do the web site design or work with a different professional.

16 Evaluating POS Options: Website Do you integrate social media? Do you have use blogs, Facebook and Twitter now? Are your social media efforts integrated into your web presence? Is everything done to maximize search engine optimization? Do you know what that means?

17 Evaluating POS Options: Events Do you integrate events marketing? Do you sponsor events that require registration? Do your events appear on your website? Do you have an events calendar on your website? Do you incorporate reservations, including payment, for events?

18 Evaluating POS Options: Events Events are a critical part of our marketing. Our sponsored athletes are friendly. We want them hanging out with our customers, in person and on line.

19 Evaluating POS Options: Events Beginners are important to us. Beginners can be easily intimidated. Registration must be quick and easy.

20 Evaluating POS Options: Events Class C (beginner) start at our Off-Road Racing League Dirt Crit, first of the season. Some of these folks can barely balance on their bikes, they re so nervous.

21 Evaluating POS Options: Events We want kids to come out. Their parents are busy and many prefer to register for events online. We need that to happen, but we re not there yet.

22 Preparing Your Database for Conversion We had predictable challenges as we went from a SKU-based system to a style-based one. Time was a huge factor. --Beverly McBrian, Alpine Shop ecommerce Mgr & Database Conversion Lead

23 Preparing Your Database for Conversion Multiple-phase process Begin well before the conversion date. Plan to do several iterations of clean-up and review. 1. Review present data, in the old POS system. Back up the present data, still in the old POS. 2. Clean up the present data, still in the old POS. Back up the cleaned-up data, still in the old POS. Repeat steps 1 and 2 as needed. Only then go to: 3. Prepare the cleaned-up data for the conversion.

24 Preparing Your Database for Conversion How clean is your data? Look at the data from different perspectives. Is the information consistently-presented across all SKUs? Is the information accurate and up-to-date? Are there e duplications? Be sure to involve the primary users of the data. Sales managers and marketing review customer info. Buyers review item and vendor information. Now is the time to consider changes, such as taxonomy.

25 Preparing Your Database for Conversion Prepare the data for conversion. The POS provider will tell you the steps for your particular conversion. Really understand the conversion process, and develop a realistic timetable for task completion. Understand the ramifications if something doesn t work, and contemplate the possibility of a need to drop back. Involve the users in decisions about how data appears. Remember this can be a multi-month process.

26 Preparing Your Database for Conversion Every one of our 100,000 SKUs had to be edited for how it would be entered into Celerant. --Beverly McBrian, Alpine Shop ecommerce Mgr & Database Conversion Lead

27 Managing the Transition It takes a village. Expect stress, and plan to manage it well. Every department of your operation will have its own set of travails as you manage the transition. Try to anticipate what they might be. Work with your POS provider to learn to troubleshoot. Develop pyour own system to track problems and issues, including reports to the provider and any follow-up.

28 Managing the Transition Work with your POS provider to learn to troubleshoot. Do this in advance of Go Live so you re ready. Remember the burden is on you to accurately report problems. Ask what steps to take before calling or ing for help. Keep good notes, with screenshots when appropriate.

29 Managing the Transition Find out from your POS provider: How do you decide whether to call or ? Should you call different people for different issues? For every issue, be curious about these possibilities: Do we not know how to use the system? OR Do we not have it set up correctly? OR Does this thing just not work right (a bug in the system)? NEWS FLASH! Yes, you are expected to help identify bugs! And there WILL be bugs.

30 Managing the Transition Be clear about expectations What do they need from you? What is their standard turnaround time? Does it vary by type of problem? By how much? What should you do if the issue is not resolved in that time? What is their practice of escalation? What is the chain of command? Does it cross silos? How and when should you request that an incident be escalated?

31 Managing the Transition Develop your own system to track problems and issues, including reports to the provider and any follow-up. Do this in advance of Go Live so you re ready. Make the log available to all users, so they can check there before spending a lot more time on their own. Be diligent about follow-up auditing and notation in the log.

32 Managing the Transition Some options for logging troubleshooting: Buy a special program to track incident reports. Create a blog or bbs thread specific to POS troubleshooting. Create a single log, on an Excel spreadsheet, to be used by all departments, to track all problems or incidents in one big list. Create one Excel workbook with multiple tabs, to be used by all departments, with each tab representing a type of issue. Create a separate Excel workbook for each department, with multiple tabs, with each tab representing a type of issue.

33 Managing the Transition We made a separate workbook for ecommerce issues. This eample example shows the Mura Fix tab of that log.

34 Managing the Transition Several of us went to San Antonio for the Celerant Users Conference, looking for solutions. Networking was the word of the week.

35 Managing the Transition Find out who is in charge of your destiny. Know their names. The guys in the red shirts control ours, for now.

36 Managing the Transition The Store Managers learned to run the system both in the stores and at off-site events like our Outdoor Adventure Festival.

37 Managing the Transition The Receiving and Warehouse Manager learned the receiving i and transfer functions and renewed his commitment to stress relief by racing his bicycles.

38 Managing the Transition The IT Director has been working round the clock, escaping here and there to relax by taking pictures of birds and bike racers.

39 Managing the Transition The Controller and head of HR started her own new hobby of bird watching and photography.

40 Managing the Transition The Marketing Dept may have poured a little more wine, especially when we had a computer meltdown during our biggest sale event of the year.

41 Managing the Transition The Special Orders, Warranty and Repair guy kept right on taking orders through our first holiday season. Somehow he made everyone happy.

42 Managing the Transition The Service Manager learned to run both rental and service functions and started making more time to ride his bike and go to the gym.

43 Managing the Transition The Buyers feel like they ve spent several months stuffed into a hot taxi cab driven by a pleasant guy who speaks little English. They re still working on refining the reports they need.

44 Review Evaluating POS Options Preparing Your Database for Conversion Managing the Transition

45 Questions? Lisa Hollenbeck,

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47 Join us for the next Outdoor University Webinar The Evolving Role of the Independent Rep Presented by: Brad Werntz, Pemba Serves Wednesday, August 18 2:00-3:00 p.m. (Mountain Time)

48 Thank You