Advanced Retail Technologies

Tate Galleries upgrades hardware to the IBM Any Place Kiosk

2012-02-15T08:35:00.001-08:00

Hi All

We are really pleased to let you know that our longstanding customer Tate Galleries has installed new EPoS equipment in all their shops. They chose the IBM Any Place Kiosk (APK) to replace their old IBM equipment. Tate were looking for reliability, style and ease of use.

The IBM APK has under gone rigorous testing to ensure that is able to cope with the harsh environment in a retail store over the long term and able to provide reliable and robust service for the next 5 to 10 years. Tate’s stores are very busy and demanding places especially when there is a really popular exhibition like the up and coming Picasso and Modern British Art so the EPoS system has to be able to handle it each and every day.

The IBM APK incorporates advanced infrared touch screen technologies which means no keyboard (one less piece of clutter on the counter!) The processor is very fast but uses less power which helps its green credentials.

Another feature of the IBM APK is that it can be used as a self-service till where the customer can scan in their items themselves. This feature can also be applied to buying tickets and bill paying.

If you would like information about the IBM APK then please contact us on 01666 511469

See you soon
Retail Girl

Long time no blog!

2012-01-24T08:18:00.000-08:00

Hi All
Wow I had not realised it has been so long since our last blog. So much has happened firstly, we got back in one piece from Autumn Fair. Secondly it is winter now wet, dark and not as cold as last year. Thirdly Christmas and New Year holidays have come and gone, hope you had a good one.

This time last week we were at Giving and Living at Westpoint, Exeter. It is a smaller show but attracts retailers from all over the South West a lot of whom don't make it to Spring Fair and Autumn Fair. It has a nice atmosphere amongst the exhibitors and the visitors. The catering is quite good too with everything being sourced locally.

We are now in touch with a company who can repair broken retail equipment. We found them when a repair quote from one of our suppliers for some ring scanners came pretty near to the retail price for new ones. This company's quote was a third of the price and everything was repaired and returned within a week. Obviously this service is for out of warrenty items. Items under warranty will be repaired through our suppliers as usual. These days when margins are being squeezed so much it may well be cost effective to repair scanners etc. which were previously thrown out.

I hope that you are still on track with your new year's resolutions. Mine was to look after my hands, which is really an excuse to buy some really nice handcream (I chose Burt's Bees). If you are trying to give up smoking, lose weight or are in training to run a marathon then I wish you well.

Until next time,

EPoS Girl.

A postcard from Autumn Fair

2011-09-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone

Just a short blog about Autumn Fair. We have been very busy talking to Retailers, potential Retailers and Wholesalers. Again we are overwhelmed by the numbers of people who are involved in Retail especially when the media and the government are so gloomy. There are the most tempting stands with giftware, toys and accessories, I am thinking that I would love to have a shop somewhere and pile it high with all the lovely things that are displayed here.

The media have been telling us the High Street is dying but I have been speaking to lots of people over the last few days who are starting a retail business or who are growing their business and I really admire their ambition and spirit. It so difficult to be running a small business these days. There are so many overheads, regulations and costs. The government say they are helping, but are they really? What do you think? How can the Government really help retailers?

Queue Busting

2011-08-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

Hi
My what a busy couple of weeks it has been. Autumn Fair has been taking up quite a lot of my time. I think I am looking forward to it with some trepidation having been to Spring Fair this year I know it is going to be hard work but fun too. My next blog will be about the offers we have specially for Autumn Fair.

I think that it was last week I read that a report had discovered that what shoppers hate most about shopping is….queuing! No surprise there then. It is not much fun standing in a queue waiting to pay for things. Supermarkets seem to have got the idea with extra checkouts and people trained to use them although even they have trouble at Christmas! I have been known to take a book to read in the ‘Day before Christmas Eve’ grocery queue.

The surprising thing is that more retailers don’t use queue busting strategies like handheld computers. When I went to the ScanSource Partner Day recently I had my invitation scanned at the door and there waiting for me when I got to the desk, was a label already printed with my name on it, no fuss or waiting. Quite simply they were prepared for the sudden rush at the start of the event it seems strange that retailers who have these peaks quite regularly don’t seem to have a real strategy to deal with them.

Handheld computers such as the Datalogic Memor and the Motorola ES400 can really help to stop queues from forming and they show customers that the retailer really values their custom and doesn’t want them to leave their shop disgruntled and vowing never to darken their door again.

Also the IBM Any Place Kiosk (APK) can also be configured for customers to use as a self service check out using the new version of TraxsEPoS.

Why not contact us at .... to discuss any of the ideas above

EPoS Girl

www.autumnfair.co.uk

A R T is going to Autumn Fair

2011-07-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hi There!

It has been really busy in the office this week so I have only just caught up with the blog. We have been out and about to see some of our customers. On Monday we went to Tate Britain and on Wednesday we went to Trowbridge Garden Centre. It is good to get out and about especially as I get to do a bit of retail therapy too!

There is a picture of our stand at Spring Fair on my first blog. We started planning and working on the stand in October 2010. It seemed to be a huge undertaking especially planning all the hardware, the design and how to get everything there. We had not taken a stand at an exhibition for quite some time but this was going to be better because we had a budget and a design company to help. Spring Fair was an amazing experience. We came home dazed and shattered and not really thinking of doing it again for a while.

So I was quite surprised be asked to find out about trade shows and exhibitions. So I “Binged” trade shows for retailers and found a few which we looked at and Autumn Fair came up. The next thing I know we have booked a stand and now we need to get everything organised because it starts on Sunday the 4^th of September 2011! Autumn Fair is not as big but has still has the same quality visitors that go to Spring Fair. We have also booked a stand at Giving and Living which is January at Westpoint near Exeter.

I will keep you up to date with how things are going and what we will be focusing on at Autumn Fair. We are hoping to have one of our hardware partners on the stand with us more of that on another blog. Need to get back to the grindstone now!

Have a lovely weekend

EPoS Girl

Why not consider IBM?

2011-07-12T03:00:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

I am back now from my hols a bit browner and a little rested! Before I went away Alan wrote a review of the IBM APK which we are adding to our hardware list for our customers to consider.

The IBM APK (Anyplace Kiosk) is much more than a kiosk. Just mount it on its flexible stand or a standard space pole and you have a fully featured EPOS incorporating Infra Red Touch Screen, hard disk and AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 1.8 GHz Dual-Core processor which takes up minimal or zero counter space.

The APK gives all of the benefits of any other EPOS unit plus IBM’s legendary quality, impeccable green credentials and of course that certain cachet in terms of what the IBM badge says about you and your company.

Many retailers don’t even consider IBM because they assume it will be too expensive but although the APK machine is slightly more expensive than an equivalent unit from another EPOS manufacturer they don’t provide the benefits of an Infra red Touch screen (always accurate and never needs calibrating), bulletproof construction and the longevity of IBM which makes the APK cheaper in the medium term and long term.

If you would like to consider IBM the next time you look at upgrading your hardware why not ask Alan for a quotation? You could be pleasantly surprised…

Have a great week!

EPoS Girl

PS. There are many other IBM units available depending on your needs so if you would like further information just call or e-mail Alan on alan@art-mail.net.

4POS Expander, faster than a speeding Mondeo?

2011-06-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone
Hope you are enjoying the hot weather? Alan has very kindly reviewed the 4POS Expander for the blog. Hope you don't mind the the car imagery also I hope you like the photo which I took last spring in the garden, it is really hard to make computery things look interesting!

The 4POS Expander EPOS system is a bit like a Ford Mondeo. Not it that has 4 wheels and Sat Nav but it's like the Mondeo in that it does the job it's designed to do, brilliantly and is really good value but lets face it, nobody will ever get excited about it.

The paragraph above may seem a back handed way of saying the 4POS is a great EPOS unit, but the fact is, if you want a car to get you reliably, quickly and comfortably to all your destinations day in, day out without paying silly money, you probably couldn’t choose a better car than a Ford Mondeo and the same is true of the Expander, if you want a good looking, reliable, low cost EPOS unit which delivers day in day out, the Expander is the pick of the bunch.

The Expander looks good, has a very small footprint, uses very little power, has all the connections you need for printers, customer displays, scanners, pin pads etc. etc., they very rarely go wrong and have a price which is so low it belies its quality appearance and performance.

We install these machines at all sorts of customers and they so easy to install and maintain that our customers just use them, our engineers rarely see them and our developers think they are boring because they never cause them any trouble.

Of course if you would like further info on the 4POS Expander please get in touch. I have managed to get Alan to do a review of some IBM EPOS equipment we saw at the ScanSource Partner Tour.

Have a great week,

EPoS Girl

Scan Source Partner Tour

2011-06-22T03:00:00.000-07:00

Hi there

I know I said that my next blog would be a review of the 4PoS EPoS unit but as it still has not arrived on my desk I thought I would tell you about our visit to London for the Scan Source Partner Tour. Scan Source are a major distributor for IBM, Datalogic, Motorola and Epson products.

The venue was Vinopolis “London’s wine tasting destination”. It is very near Tate Modern and Borough Market. The building, built under the arches of a Victorian viaduct (you can still hear the rumble of the trains!) this gives the atmosphere of a wine cellar.

We were able to wander around the exhibitors’ stand and chat to people from all the hardware manufacturers. On the Motorola stand, Alan was interested in a new scanner and a new small handheld computer which was the size of a Blackberry which might be more appealing to sales people it was certainly more “pocket” sized than other handheld computers. It is the Motorola ES400 and I think Alan will probably do a review on the blog very soon.

We were very taken with an EPoS unit which had a built in Epson Receipt printer. The printer has been placed under the screen and is fully accessible for changing the till roll. If there is ever a problem with the printer it can easily be removed and replaced without any tools being required, even the hard drive was removable by twisting one knob. There was also an optional scanner which could be attached to the side. It was all very neat with just one mains plug needed for the whole unit. We feel this unit could be well worth considering when counter space is tight. This unit is new to the UK but has been available in USA for quite some time. Again, a separate blog will review this unit when we have had the chance to fully test and use this machine in anger.

In the afternoon the speaker was Jo Salter the very first female jet fighter pilot. Jo was very entertaining, certainly an inspiration (and diplomatic) about her experiences in the RAF. We were then treated to a wine tasting session with some New World wines.

In the evening there was a lovely meal hosted by the celebrity chef Aldo Zilli with opportunities to chat with the exhibitors, other partners and Scan Source people.

Until next time

EPoS Girl

Trowbridge Garden Centre

2011-06-07T03:04:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last blog I would tell you about another new ART customer who was interested in finding a local company to work with. Mark Francis of Trowbridge Garden Centre needed to upgrade his elderly cash register EPOS system to cope with the growth of the business, Mark was keen to find a local company who would be able to provide what he was looking for and a quick search on Google came up with ART (Advanced Retail Technologies)! We were able to provide all the hardware and software required including our own Traxsepos software.

The garden centre especially needed to improve through-put of customers through the till area as well as improve the control of stock. We were also able to help Mark to improve the labelling of all stock whether sited indoors or outside. We found a label manufacturing company to provide suitable labels for shelf edge, small products and large products and able to customise and print barcodes and prices on plastic and paper labels using Intermec PF8 printers and the Traxsepos software.

When I visited them a couple of weeks ago they were very happy with the system. Mark told me the system had “great efficiency and ease of use at point of sale with all the back office functions we require.”
Another link with these two new customers is that they both use a 4PoS integrated computer/ touch screen which looks good and does not take up too much room on the counter. My next blog will be a review of this EPoS hardware.

Have a good week.

EPOS Girl

Advanced Retail Technologies bring together the Cloud and Apple at Charlotte Quest a new retail venture in Marlborough.

2011-05-31T05:49:00.000-07:00

Hi There!
I hope that you all had a great weekend! I was able to enjoy some of my favourite past-times, I hope you were too, but now it is back to work today. Here is the next part of our Spring Fair adventure where we were launching our new Cloud SaaS EPOS system called TraxsNimbus. Ian Booth and Charlotte Saker who were launching their new venture Charlotte Quest in Marlborough Wiltshire, came to see us on the stand and signed up for a demonstration.

Well to cut a not very long story short , TraxsNimbus has been installed at Charlotte Quest . The great advantage of the Cloud SaaS (Software as a Service) model is that there is no upfront cost just a modest monthly charge which covers till hardware, all software and support so Ian and Charlotte were able to keep the start up costs to a minimum which is really important for a new venture.
They had been looking for a system that was able to keep track of sales and stock so they could look back at trends in customer buying.” TraxsNimbus Sales Analysis enables them to find out what customers have bought, check the stock and order more. Customers who choose TraxNimbus get all the features of our TraxsEPoS software.
Another exciting “must have” was that that it needed to be Apple compatible as they wanted to use an Apple laptop and iPad to access the back office. This was not a problem as another great feature of TraxsNimbus along with the rest of the ART Traxs range of EPoS is that it is compatible with Apple computers.
Charlotte Quest specialise in art, furniture and gifts produced by local artists Charlotte Saker told me “Advanced Retail Technologies fitted in with this buying policy” Another recent ART customer also had buying local on their mind when they contacted us about a new EPoS system. I will tell you about them next time.
See you soon,
EPoS Girl

ART's first blog.

2011-05-27T06:05:00.000-07:00

Hi There
What an exciting day! ART's first blog. Watch this space for news from ART.
First a little about our first visit to Spring Fair. It was amazing, the whole of the NEC full of businesses connected to retail in some way. Suppliers, wholesalers, manufacturers from all over the world. I was dazzled by all the things which were available to retailers for their shops, catalogues and websites.

We had lots of interest in our new SaaS (Software as a Service) system TraxsNimbus. Visitors Ian Booth and Charlotte Saker were especially interested as they were looking for an EPoS system for their new shop Charlotte Quest which they were about to open in Marlborough, Wilts. Please come back and see ART's next blog for more about Charlotte Quest.