The use of anti-virus software has become necessary over the past few years and when you are running a large network over the internet, it becomes compulsory rather than optional. Although it is extremely important to have this in place, you need to make sure that your anti-virus software is compatible with the Aralco POS and Inventory Control Software so that it does not conflict and hinder its SQL database operation. Also, it is important to know how to setup the anti-virus software as if not correctly optimized for your retail application, it can significantly affect the performance of your system and slow down or completely halt the SQL database operation when trying to access the database, run reports or simply record and save data. For further information, please contact the Aralco Support Department at support@aralco.com

In my recent visits with some of our clients, I was asked about certain features and their availability as well as mention of certain requirements to run reports at preset times or having them emailed etc.

I was very happy to inform our clients that all those features plus a lot more useful business tools had recently been completed and included in our recent version 8.400. They were all pleased to hear the good news but asked how come they don't know about those great new products??

Well here is when I got disappointed. We have been using our "Mass email" system to let everyone know about all of the recent developments at Aralco and invited them to view the list of new features on our websites as well as notifying them of the upcoming "Product Webinars". We have even emailed them after the webinars to let them know where to go to watch the "Recorded" webinars in case they missed the live sessions.

It's surprising to find out how many people actually read their emails and the information they receive from us. I guess a lot of us, including myself, are guilty of pressing "Delete" on some of these emails.

With the "bombardment" of mass of emails we all receive every day, you can g out of business trying to keep up with other people's business! But then I thought, Aralco is not just emailing their clients to "promote" the sale of any new features. We are mostly letting them know how to make use of "What they have already paid for" and it's a great disservice to their business if they don't take advantage of this free service. After all, a business such as Aralco, is running some "mission critical" processes in the clients businesses and the more aware they all are about its strengths and capabilities the more efficiently they can run their businesses while reducing their operating costs.

In conclusion, I would like to plead with any of you who have thoughts about improving the system, its existing processes and methods, to watch the webinars, view the "New Feature List" or call us to share their ideas or their individual needs. The questions I have asked people recently to get the answers I want is "tell us what keeps you up at night" and we WILL address those right away!

Aralco President

Over the years we have witness retailers work diligently to figure out what to buy, when, how many, from who and for which store. It's quite a task for any buyer. Some businesses involve many staff to run various reports, analyze what was sold, where, by which store them see the current on hands and put the two figures together and come up with a calculated guess as to what to do next.

This of course is what companies do who have resources dedicated to this task. I dread to think what the others with limited time and staff do.

Years ago, we worked with a very knowledgeable buyer who had worked most of his professional life in a large and well known North American based department store. He had semi-retired and started to helped his wife run a six store retail chain. He wanted to apply the decades of experience he had gathered and work with Aralco to develop a very easy to use and yet sophisticated and extremely powerful "Inventory Replenishment System".

We worked through all his complex formulas and methodologies and eventually we came up with the first draft back in 1996. Since that date we have installed the system in a handful of places who frankly have told me "they cannot run their business without it"!

Of course it's not our mandate to "push" technology on to our clients and unfortunately whenever we did try, the retailers invariably told me different reasons why they wouldn't want to use such as tool, some would say "I don't want the computer to write cheques out to my suppliers" or "How do I know if the computer is accurate"?

Eventually we perfected this tool to a point where it actually let you see the exact reasons why it would suggest the order quantities so it ensured the user that it is working accurately. We also placed many "User Definable Controls" to "Tweak" the system to their individual needs. The system would prepare Purchase Order ONLY when the retailer with approve of its recommendations and give it the "go ahead".

In November 2009, we finally convinced a client of 11 year who has a complex, "Matrix" product line with up to 4 inventory dimensions to give the system a try. After a very short time, their full-time buyer managed to do purchase orders (automatically generated) and what used to take 35 hours per week ended up taking 2 hours. The management was astonished to see this new revelation. "The cost saving, speed and accuracy was simply amazing"!

In recent talks with some clients, it became apparent that through the use of some of these effective tools, Aralco can certainly provide much more than the "basic necessities" of a POS System. In this example, it can help you "Optimize" your inventory levels and increase your "bottom line".

A similar system is available for retail chains where the system would help with "Stock Balancing" across your stores to make sure each have got the right number of units on hand to meet their forecasted/ targeted sales.

A great new feature now available in Aralco Back Office system is the option to apply a "Scheduler" to any report available in Aralco. This will let you setup the time to run the report when you like (set your own Day of the Week, Time to run) and have it emailed to one or more recipients.

Once this is set up, the system will automatically load the report and run it at the preset day & time and forward the HTML report to your email address. This is a great time saver as well very useful when you need to run a certain report at a certain time (e.g. Month/ Year End), especially if that date happens to fall on a weekend/ holiday.

I heard prior to this feature, customers used to pay overtime to have their staff come in after hours to run reports and have them ready for management for first thing in the morning!

Retailers can plow through uncertain economic times by effectively using their POS and Inventory Management Systems. Getting the most out of your retail system will save you time, increase your profits letting you rise above your competition.

Sales reports identify your best and worst selling items. Especially in times like these you need to focus on your strengths and let go of your weaknesses. Once you identify your best selling items, work diligently at promoting these items and becoming the go-to place to find these items. You'll find that an intelligent stock replenishment system can be adjusted to the current economic climate.

You want to cater to your best customers and there are several ways you can use your customer relationship management system to entice them into the store.

This is the time to make the best use of your electronic traffic counter to monitor your store traffic. With this device you can identify your high traffic areas and times and staff accordingly, saving you money on staffing while improving customer service.

Outside of the store you need to take care of your online presence. Shoppers browse online to save time and money. Customers also save on the cost of fuel spent driving from store to store, while retailers benefit from higher sales with less staff. Your ecommerce store is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at comparatively little cost.

You can greatly benefit by taking advantage of these simple tips. Economic storms always pass, and when this one does you'll be miles above your competition.

There are several ways you can maximize your return on investment on a POS system by simply following loss prevention techniques and strategies.

Reducing inventory shrinkage can dramatically increase a store's profit. A customizable inventory management and reporting system can identify high risk transactions, missing inventory and training problems which can be associated with inventory shrinkage.

For example high risk transactions can differ depending on the type of operation. A $200 transaction could be labeled high risk at a discount store but be common practice at a furniture store. Other high risk transactions could include over-rides and large discounts and exceptions. With this information on hand managers can identify problem situations. Customizable reports can list all transactions from select cashiers to identify problems with training.

An easy way to prevent theft is to print barcoded receipts. Printing barcodes on receipts is an extremely effective way of boosting loss prevention on returns. Barcodes are extremely difficult to forge. If you print barcodes on receipts, each receipt will bear a unique identifier which links it to a specific transaction.

When customers return an item and present the barcoded receipts, sales clerks simply scan the receipt barcode to bring up the transaction. All details of the transaction are brought up on the point of sale system. Staff can use this information to ensure that the correct amount is refunded; the method of payment is pre-selected. Barcoded receipts also prevent duplicate returns because once an item is returned it is removed from the list of returnable items.

To learn more about loss prevention check out the Retail Loss Prevention Conference on September 18 in Toronto hosted by The Retail Council of Canada.

Fully integrating your ecommerce website to your inventory management system will save you a great deal of time and frustration and keep your customers happy.

With full integration, customer orders are automatically sent to the inventory management system and ready to be processed. Customers are happy to see their orders filled and shipped quickly. Staff can also be assured that inventory levels are always accurate.

Real time communication between the ecommerce site and the inventory management system ensures customers always view the latest inventory levels, product pictures, descriptions and retail prices.

Launching an ecommerce website is like opening another store that is accessible to anyone in the world 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Opening such a store costs a fraction of what it costs to open a brick and motor store.

You'll experience greater sales and increased revenue, with little overhead. Fewer employees are involved in fulfilling an internet sale, making them less costly and more efficient. And widening your target market means you'll attract more customers to your brick and motor store.

An ecommerce store can also fuel traffic to your brick and motor stores. Customers often shop around online for the best prices before stepping into a store.

Ecommerce websites are also powerful customer relationship management tools. Through the website customers are obliged to provide personal information such as address, email and phone numbers. You can send them company newsletters and other marketing material.

Doing business online has become more affordable and is extremely secure. Aralco offers a turnkey solution with a fully integrated website that utilizes the most secure online payment protocols.

Aralco POS Blog introduces our new guest blogger Don Fornes, the founder of Software Advice.

His company helps businesses find the right software solution to fit their needs. Prior to founding Software Advice, Don worked as a software company executive in Silicon Valley and as an equity research analyst on Wall Street. Don earned a degree in economics from Princeton University.

To keep up to date with our latest blog posts please subscribe to this blog by entering your email address in the subscribe box on the right hand side of this page. You can also subscribe to the feed by clicking on the RSS FEED button, found below the subscribe box.

By POS Software expert Don Fornes

Retailers have started to suffer as consumers tighten their purse strings in this rough economy. While some businesses will fail, those that survive can exit the downturn a much stronger business.

One of the key things to focus on during an economic downturn is getting to know your customers better. Through effective customer relationship management (CRM), you can not only maximize your near-term sales, but also build loyalty in the long-run.

With those goals in mind, here are my five steps to best practices CRM using a POS system like Aralco.

1. Plan your marketing strategies. Before you even start using new CRM features or collecting data, plan what types of marketing will work best for you. Do you want to cross-sell at the point of sale? Reward loyal customers with discounts? Promote your sales events? Plan what you will do with the software or data before you begin.

2. Build customer profiles. Once your marketing strategy is planned, now you need to put in place the software and processes needed to collect and manage the right customer data. POS systems can manage a wide range of valuable customer data like contact info, purchase histories and preferences. Determine which data is critical to your CRM strategy and start ensuring that your employees capture that data in the system (membership cards can make data capture easier).

3. Train your team. With more and more data in your customer profiles, you will be able to personalize your interactions when customers return to your store. However, you will need to train your employees to review the customer data during the point of sale and use that information to sell more and improve the customer experience. Working on the team's script, what they actually say to customers, will be critical.

4. Interact beyond your four walls. CRM is not just for managing interactions when the customer visits the store. It can me most effective if used to bring the customer back into the store or guide them to your e-commerce website. Develop an email marketing campaign strategy that personalizes each customer's email or newsletter with special offers and mentions of past purchases.

5. Analyze the results and adapt. Implement a detailed and repeatable process for analyzing your CRM efforts. As you conclude each campaign, measure how effective it was in generating sales. This requiring learning to use the right reporting tools and determine how you will track the campaign to match sales to campaigns. Of course, these five steps merit far more that one blog post. However, the most critical step is to start thinking about your CRM strategy. Chances are that your POS system has capabilities you've not even begun to explore.

This latest post comes from Don Fornes, one of the POS Software experts at Software Advice.

Are you looking for ways to stay connected with your client base? HTML newsletters are an excellent way to entice your clients to visit your stores.

You can begin by gathering email addresses of frequent shoppers and entering them in customer files at the POS. Place a link on your website so that customers can sign up for newsletters. Another way to entice customers to share their email address is to offer a draw prize.

HTML newsletters, if done effectively, can build customer relationships. You can use them as a tool for sending news about your company, product tips, decorating ideas, technical tips for electronic equipment, recipes etc.

The point is to get them interested; give them reason to keep reading. Your customers will find value in your newsletter and consider you an authority on the subject.

Of course, sending coupons and advertising promotions is the number one reason why retailers turn to HTML newsletters.

Customers follow the links from your newsletter to your website to check out the products available online.

Spend time designing your newsletter. Make it attractive, sleek, and professional. It represents your company so make sure it says what you want to say and speaks your language. HTML newsletters can act like flyers, advertising the latest promotions and seasonal sales, but they can also be personalized. Using Aralco you can send HTML newsletters and personalize them to each individual customer. It's as simple as running a customer report with the name, email address and any additional information you need.

Don't send newsletters too often, you don't want them to end up in your customers' junk mail folder, but do send them on a regular basis; if you do it right customers will look forward to your messages.