RSM McGladrey

The Stages of Being Different

Tech Tips

The Retail Spotlight

Meet Our Staff

Sign Up for the New and Enhanced Gold Support Service

Referral Program

Inventory Reduction Sale

Retail Pro Training - Special July Pricing

Sign up and attend Retail Pro training prior to September 15th and receive a 20% discount on any scheduled training*. Choose from one of the training classes below or request a training topic tailored to your specific needs. This is a great opportunity for you to learn more about the features of Retail Pro that will help you reduce costs and increase efficiency in your business. Trainers and time slots are limited so give us a call to reserve your training.

To schedule a training class, contact Rosie Grant at 303-738-1800, ext 320 or e-mail her at rosie.grant@armsys.com

Available Training Classes:

Auto Min/Max and Auto Purchasing Orders
Retail Pro Analysis
Document and Tag Designer
Planning a Sale using the Price/Cost Manager
The Dynamics of Polling
Using Kits and Packages
Customer Relationship Management
Driving Business with Sales Orders

Click here for more information or to request a custom training topic designed for your business..

*This offer is only valid for current Retail Pro customers that are purchasing additional training.  This offer is not valid for training time purchased for updates.  Requires a 2 Hour minimum purchase paid in advance.  Training sessions must be conducted prior to September 15th, 2005, training sessions conducted after this date are not qualified for this discount.

Advanced Retail Management is pleased to announce its alliance with RSM McGladrey.  RSM McGladrey focuses on Microsoft Business Solutions - Great Plains to deliver the highest quality accounting and financial management systems and support. Great Plains is Microsoft's flagship product for back office accounting. With its ability to integrate with both Retail Pro and RMS, Great Plains is also a great solution for retailers.

"Our alliance with Advanced Retail Management Systems is a natural fit allowing us to provide clients with a complete solution from point-of-sale through headquarters' financial statements.", said Matt Kenney, Director, RSM McGladrey-Denver. RSM McGladrey assists clients with accounting software evaluation, implementation, data conversion from legacy systems, custom development and report writing, classroom and onsite training, and ongoing support.

As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, RSM McGladrey has achieved the highest level of recognition as a Microsoft Partner. They have worked with the Great Plains products for over 10 years and have implemented systems for over 1,100 clients nationwide. In the process, they have been awarded the Great Plains President's Club and Inner Circle designations every year since 1995.

RSM McGladrey has offices in Denver, Rapid City, Kansas City, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Chicago. If you are interested in learning more about how RSM McGladrey can assist in increasing your business success, please call 800-435-3467, e-mail them at Matt.Kenney@rsmi.com or visit the website at http://www.rsmmcgladrey.com/microsoft.

I just completed a book proposal about how businesses and people differentiate themselves in an overcrowded marketplace. I want to share one concept from the book because I believe it is so important and powerful to every business person. (It's one of those ideas that you can't wait to share!)

The issue is that what might be different to one person is not necessarily different to another. We think we are different, but our customers say "so what".

So how do you know what's right? Truthfully we will never really know but there are some tools that might be helpful. Knowing the life span of a differentiator and understanding what stage a differentiator is in is an important clue to better understanding the effectiveness of that differentiator.

This is my interpretation of the stages:

• Weird - Most great ideas start off with people rejecting them. We hear, "It's too weird." We almost always reject something the first time we hear it. It took the zipper 23 years to get popular!

• WOW - This is the stage that the trend setters jump on. It has made it through weird and it has reached the level of acceptably different.

• Wonderful - This is when the differentiator has been abandoned by the hip and trend setters as passé. The Wonderful Stage is when the differentiator becomes the popular trend of the majority

• Waning - This is the very end of the cycle. It really isn't a differentiator anymore; it's just a memory of the past. Remembered as once hip and happening, it is the ball player at the end of a career. Every differentiator must get to this stage in order to go into hibernation and prepare for its reincarnation years later. Saddle shoes are still in hibernation.

For rest of article click here.

Tech Tips

1. If your computer is attached to a fax machine, you can create a PO in Retail Pro, choose the Fax machine when you are prompted to choose a printer and Retail Pro will fax the PO to the vendor complete with a cover letter.

2. DID YOU BACKUP YOUR SOFTWARE TODAY?  We have several backup solutions:

    • Removable hard drives that the client trades out every day or so. Uses batch files that run from RPro scheduler (or some other scheduler) to simply copy files from RPro / BW to the removable hard drive into folder named for the day of the week. This method provides 2 weeks of backups and the ability to easily replace single files or whole folders in Windows Explorer. It is usually scheduled to occur at night, but not during polling or any other RPro functions.

    • Tape backups are more troublesome. We have set them up in the past, but have shied away from this option for about a year now. Backup program is usually Veritas or as provided by the tape drive manufacturer.

    • External backup drives are usually USB, and require PNP OS's and hardware. This is becoming the backup of choice, and works very similar to the removable hard drive backup system.

    • RPro provides the safeguard backup system, which simply zips up key data files into the RPro folder. Okay to have in a pinch, but not an adequate primary backup system.

    • The magical backup fairy which is the backup that clients look for when their hard drive on the main master has exploded, and they haven't done a backup in over 2 years (when they were on V6). Apparently only ARMS has access to this type of backup system, which is why clients call tech support for their backup.

3. Reconstruct at least once a month and more during busier periods.

4. Rent your Percons early for your yearly PI. Everyone does them at the same time.

5. A customer greeted with a friendly smile and a "HI" is more likely to buy and less likely to shop-lift.

6. Scheduling reports to run overnight in Version 8 prevents your having to run the same reports every morning, every Monday or every first of the month.

7. Remember, never edit or delete inventory, always use Clean House.

8. Keep it Clean - clean your hardware every so often. It can really make a difference whether you look clean and professional or dirty and messy

The Retail Spotlight
 

Meet Our Staff

Mike Logan, Hardware Technician

Mike joined ARMS in November 2003.  His wide list of responsibilities include, hardware support and trouble shooting, telephone and bench setup of Retail pro Systems as well as a back up to the Support Coordinator.  Prior to coming to ARMS, Mike was with the Ross Stores here in Colorado.

When not at work, Mike leads a very active social life, combining his love of sports with music.  He is an avid fan and competitor of both soccer and football.  The rest of Mike's free time is dominated with his music, where he works in both production and performance.  If you are lucky you can catch one of his performances at a local venue.

Sign Up For the New and Enhanced Gold Support Service

If you are interested in signing up for Gold Support Service please contact Stacey Ryan at 303 738 1800 ext 321 or email her at stacey.ryan@armsys.com
 

Referral Program

Receive $500 credit on account or 4 Client Service hours every time you refer a new customer that purchases Retail Pro.
Retail Pro has grown to be the premier Inventory Control / POS software for small to mid-tier retailers. Whether you know a single store or a 100 store chain, Retail Pro provides the technology for retailers to excel.
Call your sales person today at 800-305-0461 or click here to complete the form on our web site to refer another retailer and start earning valuable rewards!

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.