The Officers Club improves dialogue
The Officers Club is deploying Retail Manager, a browser-based store communication and control application suite from solutions provider Triangle.
The system will improve operational efficiency, information targeting, feedback and visibility, as well as providing more control over the distribution of company documentation - in turn improving compliance across the business. The product will also help to reduce the cost of store communications.
Neil Wilson, financial director at The Officers Club, explains one of the key drivers behind the project: "Absolutely everything in the business was driven by fax: payroll, timesheets, markdown lists, Christmas performance manuals, health & safety - and that is an awful lot of work across 180 stores. There was also the inherent problem of fax quality where the information couldn't be read by stores."
Phase one of the project involved installing Neoware Capio thin client terminals, running on Windows XP Embedded, in each of the menswear retailer's 180 outlets. These all communicate with the application's two load balanced IBM xSeries servers - managed by Triangle at its data centre in Milton Keynes - over an ADSL network.
The second phase entails developing and implementing feedback forms on the system as the firm moves away from a paper-based environment. Wilson explains the one of these, "an electronic timesheet that interfaces with the payroll system", was rolled out recently.
May 2005
