Inventory Control Experts
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
-
Back Office Inventory Features for Version 7
The velocity of new features being shipped in NeXT has really accelerated during the past 3 months. Most of the work has been centered on our Food and Beverage modules, but plenty of features for Retail have shipped as well. Version 7.26.47 was released on Sunday, November 6, 2011. The full scope of Version 7 of DataWorks’ NeXT Back Office Inventory system is massive, but here is the short list of enhancements and features that I wanted to highlight.
Product Form:
- New Wrapper to separately maintain Retail, Food and Supplies Products.
- New Menu to Review Archived Products
- New Lock / Unlock of Cost and Retail Controls
- Standardization of Product Attributes to enable control for Retail, Food, Supplies or Global access.
- Taxable Purchases setup for Supplies
- Catch Weight definition for Food
- Sysco 832 EDI order guide import
- Vendor Product EDI Linking / Unlinking capacity
- Vendor Product to Manufacturer product creation.
-
Going The Extra Mile
We are in business to help retailers manage inventory, using whatever POS (Point-of-Sale) system they prefer. You’ve read a lot here about some of the great ways we help businesses manage inventory, which range from comprehensive inventory management, to sophisticated COG (Cost-of-Goods) calculations (think: multi-currency), to the new stuff we are doing in Analytics. It all starts, though, with our interface to the POS’s that our customers choose to use (and some use multiple types, which is fine with us). This is the history of one of those interfaces, and how DataWorks goes the extra mile to make those interfaces happen, and happen reliably.
RMS: Here We Go Again
The story begins with a request for us to interface with Microsoft’s RMS POS product. We had done work on an interface to POS 2009, the Microsoft product that replaced RMS, but the customer wanted to use RMS because the POS vendor (New West Technologies) has a mobile device made to run on RMS. Since the capabilities the customer needed were also in RMS, we repurposed the interface to run with RMS. Since neither RMS nor POS2009 has an API (standard way of interacting with a program) capable of supporting a POS interface (RMS has none, POS 2009 has one that, let us say, exhibits several design insufficiencies). Anyway, here we were with RMS and no API for us to use: we would have to create both sides of the interface.
-
Five New POS Interfaces in Development
Over the past 26 years we have authored numerous POS interfaces to our inventory back office software. The previous peak of our output was in 1999, when we shipped four new POS interfaces.
1999 marked the near zenith of the the dot com bubble. I recall I was regularly talking to investors, venture capitalists, and piloting a leased airplane around the country. Times were good.
Y2K issues also peaked in 1999, so we got to ride the need for software that was 2000 savvy and replaced some systems that were stuck in 1999 land.
From 2000 – 2010 we typically had one or two new POS partners join us each year; however, during the last two years (read as “during the recession”) we authored only one new interface – the two way integration to the Microsoft Dynamics RMS POS system.
During November 2010 the market moved and new partnership opportunities sprang forward. We currently have FIVE new POS interfaces in development.
-
High Tech Retail meets Low Tech Camping
Every year, our scout troop time travels back to 1830. We camp under white canvas, cook with cast iron, use candles and kerosene lanterns for illumination. We wear period appropriate clothing – includes shoes, socks and the all the rest.
On every camp-out we take away the scout’s cell phones, but on this particular camp out digital watches, clothes with zippers, butane lighters, nylon – anything pre-1830 is not allowed. The scouts are not suppose to be sending or receiving text messages. The scoutmaster is not blogging.
The idea is this: Learn history by living history.
At this particular camp-out we were encamped with other people from all over the world who are also living history too. That includes musicians, black smiths, and traders — who peddler everything from buffalo pelts to leather making tools.
One of our scouts decided he needed a leather punch, but because he did not have the $8.00 for the tool, he stole it.
-
The 3-T’s : Taxes, Tenders and Tellers
What is DataWorks process and analysis on point of sale taxation, tender definition and teller configuration?
The broad concept that we work under is that “Taxes, Tenders and Tellers” are not created and managed by our Retail Back Office System; instead, we map to the 3-T data that is defined at the individual POS system.
Defining Taxation at an abstract layer – Taxable, Non-Taxable, Luxury Apparel, Food, etc; and communicating that to the POS rather than a specific 6.0%, 7.5% or X.X%, has given DataWorks users the agility to deal with tax holidays like Back-To-School.
Managing the complexities of local taxing authorities is a task we have defined inside our R&D track. Of all the Point of Sale systems we interface to, the Microsoft POS 2009 has a structure that closely mimics our centralized design concepts for Multiple Federal, State, County and City taxes.
Based on market demand for POS 2009, we may implement a global integration and distribution for this in a later version of our Smart-Spoke Interface.
-
Talking Points for a Point of Sale Interface to DataWorks
We have been publishing point of sale interface standards for many years. Many POS companies offer a DataWorks interface solution and the initial discussion typically centers around technical details. How will data move around? What hand-shaking mechanism will be used? Most of those technical details are covered here and here.
But what about features that the POS system should have to benefit from DataWorks functionality? That is a question that is a bit prickly because many of our partners are serving the hospitality (restaurant, resort, casino) market, and retail functionality is not what they think, design or dream about.
So beyond the bit and byte facts that DataWorks defines and exports inventory and the POS partner captures and exports sales, here is the list of features that a POS system needs to have to be effective in the mixed venue retail market, where one POS system is used in both the F&B and Retail outlets.
The Bare-Minimum List:
———————
1. Allow for the input of numeric value via a barcode scanner, as an alternative to a touchscreen input or keypad entry.The Basic List:
———————
1. Allow multiple barcodes to be defined for an Item. Typically only two are needed to accommodate the SKU and an optional UPC. In some cases a SKU will have many UPC codes. We have some items that can have more than 50 barcodes – postcards are a great example of this.
2. Allow the same Item to be defined and sold in different outlets.
3. Allow a different Retail Price for the same Item in a different outlet. This needs to handle the geographic borders of currency. DataWorks jumps though the currency hoops. This is important in enterprise systems where one system may be configured to handle multiple outlets.
4. Have a description field that is at least 32 characters long. Allow the description to be individually handled for a preferred language. DataWorks supplies the translated data for the outlet.
5. Provide for a means to define tax rate for each individual item.The Competitive List:
————————
1. Allow a single temporary retail price to be defined separately from the normal retail price with both a start and stop date for the temporary price
2. Allow many temporary retail prices to be defined for a single item. This allows promotions like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and After-Christmas to be predefined, rather than waiting for each promotion to finish before the retail manager can define another.
3. Provide a link to a tax look up table per item
4. Provide a quantity discount for an item.
5. Provide a preset discount for a classification of items.
6. Provide a discount for a type of customer.
7. Provide a means to look-up, add, edit and export a customer and attach a customer ID to a sales transaction.
8. Size the POS database to contain an average of 20,000 Items per Outlet, but test for 100,000 active items and 120,000 active barcodes.The Uber Advantage :
————————
Provide the POS system with either: 1) the ability to handle LOTS of data inserts and updates during the course of the operational day or; 2) give the POS the means to share outlet data.Even though we go to great lengths in our above list to define that every outlet needs to be autonomous and capable of individual prices and language, there is the real world need that requires information be available without it being replicated into each outlet. The idea is that similar outlets can share the same information. This is very common in Resort, Casino and Amusement Parks. This is VERY important if you want to be able to accept returned merchandise at any outlet, even though it may not be stocked there.
DataWorks has the ability to replicate data into the individual outlets, but it comes with a burden of having additional processing crunch on the POS application. So this is one of those features that really needs to be designed from the ground up – because it is a data structure issue.
If you already have a POS in the field your best bet is to spend some R&D budget on your inventory import feature – because it needs to be able to process new inventory items very quickly. Don’t think in terms of a total F&B menu of only 1000 items, think in terms of 100-2000 NEW Retail items every day. And then imagine adding those 2000 items during the lunch hour. If your POS system can do that, now you got an Uber-Advantage.
-
DataWorks wins Horizon Council’s 2010 Information Technology Award
On Friday September 17, 2010 DataWorks, Inc was honored by the Horizon Council. Being the co-founder of DataWorks I had the huge honor of accepting the award for the company.
Not until the event got underway did I realized that close to 1000 business leaders would be introduced to our company by watching a 3 minute clip about our firm. I would have been more much more nervous during the interview if I had know…
In my humble opinion the production is fantastic, plus you get a glimpse into our offices here in Bonita Springs, plus some insight into our future direction.
Enjoy.
-
SmartSpoke™ Point of Sale Interface
DataWorks has always had interfaces to Point of Sale (POS) systems. Even when we sold our own POS back in the late 1980s and 1990s we had to create a two-way interface to talk to ourselves.
We designed and wrote the mechanics for keeping track of what data changes (deltas) needed to be sent where, we also wrote the communication layer between the back office (HQ) and the POS that delivered the deltas where they needed to be and also engineered the processing of the remote changes into the local data base.
So after 20+ years of writing two-way POS interfaces you would think we would have everything worked out.
Next week (08/09/2010) we ship SmartSpoke™, our fourth-generation point-of-sale interface.
SmartSpoke builds on our tradition of hub and spoke design, but turns the tables on the communication layer. SmartSpoke sits by itself on the POS computer or server. It uses FTPS protocol to pull inventory down from the hub and push sales and customers up to the hub.
Our HQ software — NeXT® — prepares batches of encrypted inventory and price changes that sit behind a secured FTPS server waiting to be picked up by SmartSpoke. NeXT also prowls around its local system seeing if any SmartSpoke system has pushed new sales or customer information up from the field.
By switching the POS communication activity to be active rather than passive we have eliminated the need for any communication listener on the POS side. With PCI compliance issues on many folks’ minds, having an open FTP port on your POS system was a security risk that the CTO or IT director had to allow — which is not good for your mental or physical health when you worry if your POS system is going to be hacked today. The SmartSpoke is fully PCI compliant and removes any security worries.
We are shipping SmartSpoke integrated to the Microsoft Dynamics RMS Point of Sale system first.
We plan to follow the Microsoft work with full integration to the MICROS 9700. After that, who knows where the market will take us…
-
RMS POS System and Customer Tracking
Ask anyone in the POS industry what “RMS” is and they will tell you that “RMS” is Microsoft’s POS and Inventory Control system. But back in 1988, when DataWorks started creating inventory control software for the fashion retail industry, we marketed and shipped our own software called “RMS”.
RMS stood for Retail Management Solutions. One year the “S” was changed to mean “Software”, and for a month or two the “S” stood for System. As I recall the change may have not even been deliberate. A typesetter or a proof-reader may have made the switch without anyone knowing.
When I get a chance I will insert the DataWorks RMS logo here. It was the last logo I created for the company.
Twenty-three years later (2010) we have integrated NeXT®, our enterprise back office inventory software, to Microsoft Dynamics RMS POS software.
-
Cloud Computing, Data Centers, and the Meat Locker Matrix
Today is Tuesday, May 18th, 2010. During the last two days (Sunday and Monday), two of our employees spent 40+ man hours in our data center.
We use Paetec’s data center (also known as a Co-Lo site ) in Fort Myers, Florida to house our internal business applications, our R&D infrastructure, our phone system and our Hosted ASP software application. Paetec provides the bunker, the security, the bandwidth, the power, and the cooling. DataWorks provides the servers and software.
If you are looking for cloud computing this is where it exists.
Cloud computing is not some vaporous thing that floats magically on the internet. It is racks and racks of noisy, hot, glowing servers, stacked one on top of the other in an enclosed silo of steel and cables. Our Co-Lo site is cold — meat locker cold. You wear a warm coat when you are in the cloud.