Management tools and communications
| US | UK |
The US division’s highly integrated and comprehensive information systems provide detailed, timely information to monitor and evaluate virtually every aspect of the business. They are designed to decrease the time sales staff spend on administrative tasks and increase time spent on sales activities. They also support merchandise testing, loss prevention and inventory control.
US Head Office, Akron, Ohio
All stores are supported by the internally developed Store Information System, which includes electronic point of sale (“EPOS”) processing, in-house credit authorisation and support, a district manager information system and constant connectivity for all retail locations for data communications including e-mail. The EPOS system updates sales, in-house credit and perpetual inventory replenishment systems throughout the day for each store. The store communications system was upgraded to broadband during 2007/08. The implementation of broadband store communication will allow further improvements to the division’s systems to be made.
UK
EPOS equipment, retail management systems, purchase order management systems and merchandise planning processes are in place to support financial management, inventory planning and control, purchasing, merchandising, replenishment and distribution and can ensure replacement within 24 hours of any merchandise sold. The fourth phase of an electronic “Business To Business” communications project, developed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of dealing with suppliers, was implemented in 2007/08.
A perpetual inventory process allows store managers to check stock by product category. These systems are designed to assist control of shrinkage, fraud prevention, financial analysis of retail operations, merchandising and inventory control.