NRF's 94th Annual Convention & Expo

January 16-19, 2005 the NRF will be hosting its 94th Annual Convention and Expo in New York, NY at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Island Pacific will be hosting a booth at space #844, and ARM will have a representative there as well. If you would like free passes please email marketing@armsys.com, but please hurry quantities are limited!

The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet and independent stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 20 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2003 sales of $3.8 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations.

For more information please visit NRF.

Online Support Services @ www.armsys.com

New Features Added to Gold Support Service

We are pleased to announce, effective December 1, 2004, all Gold Support customers will have additional features added to their current plan at no additional charge. We strive to give the best possible service, have listened to customer suggestions and have responded with a group of changes to enhance the Gold Support Service.

We have added 3 new features to the Gold Support Service:

Emergency Technical Support (ETS): Gold Support now includes ETS at no additional charge. ETS is available during the week after hours and on weekends and holidays. The hours for ETS during the week are: 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The hours for ETS on weekends and holidays are 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (Mountain Day Time). ETS is offered for emergency support. Examples of ETS are customers who have data corruption, when a system is down, or when you cannot make a sale at POS.

Courtesy Calls: Gold Support Service now includes courtesy calls. In the past short training questions and questions on your hardware were considered Client Services. Courtesy calls are now included with Gold Support Service at no additional charge. A courtesy call is typically 15 minutes or less and could be a training question or any type of general assistance on your Retail Pro system. Keep in mind formal, scheduled training is still tracked as Client Services.

Updates within a Series: Gold Support now includes support services to do updates within the same Series of Retail Pro (example 8.3 to 8.5). Periodically new features and hot fixes are released for Retail Pro within the current Series of software. The services to update your system are now provided as part of the Gold Support Service. Changes in a Series of software (e.g. Version 7 to Version 8) are still considered updates and do require Client Services.

Just a reminder of the key features of Gold Support:
Toll free 800 number to call for support
Unlimited support incidents for 12 months
Available during regular business hours 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time
Includes Emergency Technical Support (ETS) at no additional charge
Includes Courtesy Calls for training questions and general assistance.
Includes support services to update within the same series of Retail Pro, e.g., V8.3 to V8.5
Priority response time - calls are typically responded to within 1 hour
Includes unlimited access to ARMS' Online Support Services:
       Log a call online
       Search AnswerBook
       Review open calls online
       Newsgroups
       Downloads

If you are interested in signing up for Gold Support Service please contact Marta Witt at 303 738 1800 ext 323 or email her at marta.witt@armsys.com

Retail Pro Free Training Seminars

Advanced Retail Management Systems will be conducting Free Retail Pro Training Seminars in the upcoming months. As a current Retail Pro user you will not want to miss this opportunity. Our first seminar will be held in Denver, CO on February 23, 2005 at the Holiday Inn Downtown Denver, 1450 Glenarm Place. Future seminars are planned for March 2005 in Chicago and St. Louis. These seminars will cover specific topics on the use of Retail Pro and we will also present new industry products. Look for information coming soon - times and details will be announced in future Retail Edge Publications. If you would like to see a Seminar in your city, please contact us at marketing@armsys.com.

Tech Tips

Would you like to set up a workstation to launch a specific document or chapter of a document when you select the E-manuals button?

By default the E-manuals button launches the e-manuals home page. You can configure your system to directly display a specific document or chapter from within the User's Guide when the button is selected.

For example, at a POS workstation you might want the button to display the Recording Sales and Returns chapter instead of the E-manuals home page. At a receiving station you could display the Receiving chapter and so on.

1. Access Workstation Preferences > System > E-Manuals URL at the workstation

2. Select the Browse button and navigate to the folder containing the E-manuals documents (by default this is the \Emanuals\Docs folder on the same hard drive as the program files).

3. Locate and select the V8_10_Record_Sales.pdf file in the Select File dialog. Select Open to return this file to the E-manuals URL preference field.

4. Select Save on the side toolbar.

5. Return to the main retail pro menu and select the E-manuals button. The Recording Sales and Returns chapter will be displayed.

6. Repeat for other workstations, selecting the appropriate PDF file to display for each.
 

Physical Inventory

It's that time of year again and our Techs want you to know:

Don't do Retail Pro Clean House until after your Physical Inventory!    Many people think it is wise to do before hand and they end up needing the item.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare.  Make sure all of your tags are legible and inventory is all marked correctly.

By following these simple steps your Physical Inventory will go smoother.

The Retail Spotlight

Walking through the doors of Suits Unlimited in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a pleasant and unique experience in today's world full of impersonal retail chains.
Being a family-run business for 32 years, the Garcia family has assisted in fulfilling men's apparel needs for many generations.
A good number of the clientele are known by their first names states Steve Garcia, President of Suits Unlimited. He takes pride in the fact that many of the customers are also known as "friends" not just "customers". The store's atmosphere is conducive to
accommodating anyone interested in receiving specialized and courteous personal attention.
The store is known for their specialty for "Custom Apparel" and also offers many brand name suits, sport coats, shirts, ties, formal wear and accessories.
When Steve was given the reigns to run the store from his father, the point of sale system already in place included software he felt was not adequate. Steve wanted a system that could give accurate detailed reports, could easily keep track of the customer's purchases, birthdays, anniversaries, sizes, and favorite brands and have the ability to retrieve all this information while the customers were in the store as well as to help when sending out target mailings. He is very happy to have found Retail Pro for Suits Unlimited's point of sale and inventory control system. The store continues to prosper with the efficiency of using the many useful features provided by Retail Pro.
Ten years later, since implementing the system in 1994, Steve feels Retail Pro has continued to "work beautifully". Steve mentioned they have been through many upgrades in ten years and all installed with ease.
While visiting Albuquerque stop in and say hello to Steve, along with his father, Larry Garcia, founder of Suits Unlimited, as well as his mother, Theresa, his sister, Terri along with his uncle, Manny.

Would you like to be featured in the next issue of The Retail Edge? Contact Bob Evans at 1-800-305-0461, Ext 303 or email us at marketing@armsys.com.

Meet Our Staff

Shawn plays an active role at ARMS with a myriad of vital responsibilities as Manager of Project Services and Manager of Research and Development. Shawn is always ready to help clients and their technical staff with support issues and is constantly working on ways to improve implementations. In addition, he works with ARMS' programming team to design and develop software customizations for many of our clients. If you need help with an upgrade or are having a training issue, Mr. Shawn Wong, "the man of many hats" will make it happen. An employee of ARMS since February 2001, Shawn has been a valuable team player for the company. Shawn's background includes 15 years of retail experience and a degree in architecture. Shawn enjoys programming in his spare time, music, books and nice long hikes. He enjoys the challenges with ARMS, which is a good thing, as the list of his tasks, not mentioned in this summary, are longer than Santa's wish list!
 

Inventory Reduction Sale!

Advanced Retail Management Systems is reducing the price on specially marked inventory items. Only while supplies last, quantities are limited! Click here to view the list.