Product • 11.09.2007

G.O.L.D. Store

Execution and Integrating Your Supply Chain

Today's retail environment is competitively aggressive with ever-increasing demands for enhanced customer satisfaction and service-ensuring in-store product availability via effective replenishment based on demand, delivering pricing which meets consumer expectations and business margins and enriching the customer experience via store technology which serves back-office, front-office and mobile shopfloor operations. The challenge is to have a store execution environment which is integrated fully in-store and which is also integrated with central head-office operations.
The advantages of having an integrated central-in-store environment are significant not only in terms of I.T. with reductions in in-store technology and associated costs but also in terms of business process optimisation with central planning and co-ordination of the in-store retail channel process. In short, delivering the store execution environment and integrating the supply chain from product sourcing to consumer sales.
G.O.L.D. is a complete software application, dedicated to the retail supply chain, and provides central, store back-office, front-office and mobile shopfloor operations as well as the full backbone of supporting logistics and demand-led replenishment processes. With G.O.L.D., store execution and the integrated supply chain becomes a reality.

THE RETAIL CHALLENGES
In today's "winner takes all" environment, the complexity and management of store operations is one of the real challenges for retailers in order to remain competitive, retain and increase customer throughput and thus ensure growth. The efficient control and management of the sales process, from headquarters through back store, front store and mobile shopfloor, is business-critical in providing success.
The functionality of store systems must be assured throughout the retail organisation and interlink stores and head office effectively. Key success factors are the availability of a full scope of sales functions at the point of sale and store data integrity through seamless integration between store and central operations.
In order to meet these requirements, Aldata has committed to a long-term solution called G.O.L.D. Store Execution whose main goal is the provision and continuous development of a flexible, integrated and efficient solution for the store execution environment. The Aldata G.O.L.D. Store Execution solution ensures store data integrity through the seamless linking between store and central operations. It provides functions at the store level, such as in-store cash management, promotions engine, payment etc. at the front office, real-time mobile shopfloor functions such as receiving, returns, ordering, price checking and inventory management, back-office functions such as goods receiving, stock management and store ordering and head-office functions such as merchandising, purchasing and replenishment. This full range of retail operations integrated within one economical system facilitates effective business operations and enhances customer service.

ALDATA G.O.L.D. STORE EXECUTION - A PURPOSE-BUILT RETAIL SOLUTION FOR ALL RETAILING SECTORS
The Aldata G.O.L.D. Store Execution solution integrates the features and benefits of G.O.L.D. Central / Shop, G.O.L.D. Mobile and G.O.L.D. POS and provides :

• seamless linking between store and central processes
• integrated and homogenised functionalities
• coherent and consistent store data
• full, effective and co-ordinated management of promotions between the front-office and the back-office to deliver successful customer service
• in-store mobility for shopfloor execution of receiving returns, ordering, price checking and inventory management with real-time access, control and co-ordination of centralised data
• system and data integrity between the front-office, mobile shop floor and the full scope of back-office operations
• flexibility to match retail business models and sales channels
• scalability to cope with retail volumes

The benefits include:

•  no database in the stores

benefit:
- cost savings in licences and systems management

• one technology platform for all centralised business functions

benefit:
- cost savings in technology, training, maintenance, upgrade...

•  full integration of business functions in planning and executing (central - POS)

examples:
- Mix & Match functionality is the same in planning and executing
- customer service integrated to stock availability
- product hierarchy and stock only maintained in one place

benefit:
- better central control of store operations with less effort

•  fully centralised front-office system

benefits:
- cost savings in personnel, I.T. processes can be centralised
- personnel can focus on customer service

• execution on the shopfloor with mobility

benefits:
- real-time operations with centralised data
- personnel can focus on customer service

• multiple business formats and sales channels covered by one unique and scalable system

example:
- restaurant and shop using the same system

benefit:
- cost savings in technology, training, maintenance, upgrade...

• one organisation offers total solution for the retail value chain

benefits:
- cost savings in development, projects…
- better control of business processes

ALKO FINLAND: G.O.L.D. STORE EXECUTION AND THE INTEGRATED SUPPLY CHAIN
ALKO is an independent company fully owned by the Finnish State and has more than 300 shops and more than 140 order points. The company's basic function is the retail sale of alcoholic beverages under a monopoly granted under the Alcohol Act in Finland. In 2004, ALKO contracted for G.O.L.D. Central / Shop and for G.O.L.D. POS for their stores which have a POS estate of some 1000 systems. Aldata Payment Platform, EMV-compatible software for debit/credit card payment, was also contracted.

ALDATA G.O.L.D. STORE EXECUTION:
A PURPOSE-BUILT RETAIL SOLUTION FOR ALL RETAILING SECTORS
The Aldata G.O.L.D. Store Execution solution integrates the features and benefits of G.O.L.D. Central/Shop and G.O.L.D. POS.

G.O.L.D. Central/Shop:
G.O.L.D. Central includes master data management, purchasing, replenishment, sales, logistic and promotion flow management, fresh goods management, invoice control, open-to-buy, exceptional conditions, centralised stock management in quantity and value...
G.O.L.D. Central and G.O.L.D. Shop are integrated for sales outlet management and thus provide, within one unique system, complete visibility and control in real-time of all commercial activities.
G.O.L.D. Shop enables store operations such as stock management, replenishment (manual / automatic), suppliers orders, returns, stock transfer, stock take, assisted sales and store control.
G.O.L.D. is fully web-enabled (Java, HTML, XML, ….). It runs under Oracle in the Unix environment.

G.O.L.D. Mobile:
G.O.L.D. is also available in a mobile environment with the G.O.L.D. Mobile solution which provides enhanced operational flexibility for in-store execution.

G.O.L.D. POS:

Back-Office (viewable anywhere)

• POS parameterisation
• cash control
• store monitoring (hardware, network and process status);
• electronic journal
• operational data warehouse for POS activity statistics
• customer maintenance and credit handling (discount contracts and loyalty cards)
• automated data communication with stores (data distribution and collection)
• automated store backup

Front-Office POS

• Mix & Match
• customer and credit sales (customer/group level pricing)
• customer ordering and stock reservation
• receipt parking
• real time stock balance enquiry
• multi currency support
• training mode and reduced learning time
• full off-line support
• multi-language support
• touch Screen support
• configurable user interface
• EMV (Chip'n'Pin) processing with integration to Aldata

Payment Platform
G.O.L.D. POS is currently operational in more than 4500 stores including hypermarkets, supermarkets, department stores, discount stores, convenience stores, kiosks, fuel stations... with an emphasis in the daily and speciality retail sectors.