Orca Bay Sports & Entertainment
Vancouver Canucks score with new retail system based on Dynamics RMS
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Company Overview
For many Canadians, the word “sports” is synonymous with hockey. Each winter millions of hockey fans sit back in front of their televisions, head to the nearest sports bar or drive the local arena to indulge in a national passion.
Business Challenge
Among Canada’s six National Hockey League teams is the Vancouver Canucks, which is owned and operated by Orca Bay Sports & Entertainment. Classified as a small market club under the current NHL economic environment, the Vancouver Canucks must rely on more than just ticket sales and league broadcast rights to generate revenue. This is why Orca Bay is also a retailer. The company operates several stores at the General Motors Place arena where the team plays, and in downtown Vancouver, offering fans an array of Canucks-branded paraphernalia such as jerseys, banners and posters.
But unlike most retailers, Orca Bay has to drive the vast majority of its sales during a very narrow window of time and mainly during games. This means transaction times need to be as short as possible. “The vast majority of our retail sales happen at the arena during the course of a game. Although games last hours, there are only two 17-minute intermissions during which fans are out of their seats and looking to buy something. Our bumper sales occur during those two time periods. Combined with pre and post-game activity, our total sales time block is about one hour,” says Kristy Pennock, senior manager, retail, Orca Bay.
Orca Bay’s merchandising system includes a computer point-of-sale (POS) and inventory control system, and direct debit merchandising, all of which ties back to retail software that forms the system’s backbone. But the old, legacy merchandising software frustrated staff and slowed customer transactions. The average debit and credit card transaction was taking two minutes, a far cry from the throughput Orca Bay needed. Orca Bay also needs regular and accurate inventory reports to help assess its retail operations. But the aging POS system made the process of inventory tracking a difficult one.
“We would run a report on one day and get a total inventory dollar figure. But if we ran the exact same query the next day, the numbers would be different. This meant we never had reliable financial information, which hampered our ability to make forecast and make effective business decisions,” says William Cheng, technical support manager, Orca Bay.
The system was also straining Orca Bay’s in-house IT resources. The technology was nearly 15–years old and proprietary, acquired when Orca Bay was a much smaller company. Although the software was re-written five years ago, finding adequate support was becoming increasingly difficult and growing maintenance costs were becoming a concern.
“We regularly engaged our techology provider, and looked at several different solutions. Despite this, however, we could never fully resolve the issues we faced,” Cheng adds.
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Solution
Orca Bay realized that to get the retail performance it needed, it would have to completely revamp its technology. Cheng put together a business case for the management team, outlining new transaction targets that, if met, would help ensure that right software solution could quickly pay for itself.
The company reviewed its options and, with the help of Microsoft® Gold Certified technology partner The RSC Group, Orca Bay chose the Microsoft Dynamics™ Retail Management System (RMS). Designed for small to midsize retailers, and running on Windows® Server 2003 operating system Dynamics RMS helps businesses automate a range of crucial point of sale operations, including inventory control and tracking, pricing and sales promotions, and the creation of customized sales reports – all accessible via an intuitive interface on a Windows® XP Professional-based desktop or point of sale terminal.
“We did quite a bit of research before going with the RSC Group. We surveyed other hockey clubs and RSC's name came up a lot. We were also impressed by how RSC understood our business needs and found ways to address them. They also showed us the advantages of working with the Microsoft platform, including ease of use for our staff and ease of integration,” says Pennock.
Orca Bay’s Microsoft-based environment was also a factor behind the RMS decision. The company already uses SQL Server™ 2000 data analysis software, Active Directory® directory service, and the Windows Server® 2003 operating system. By implementing Dynamics RMS, Orca Bay was able to take advantage of quick and seamless integration with its current platform. It also helped reduce the time and costs associated with training its retail staff.
“We have 100 employees using our POS terminals on game nights, and the Microsoft environment was easy for them to pick up because it's something they already use on a regular basis. The user interface is essentially the same across the board. This was a big timesaver for us,” adds Cheng.
As part of the project, RSC converted all of the arena’s POS units – a collection of manual cash drawers and receipt printers - to a fleet of modern, Windows-based IBM Point of Sale terminals – each running RSC’s RMS-TD Bridge payment processing software - designed to help speed transaction times even further.
Business Benefits
Taking advantage of the new Microsoft-based retail management system, staff can process orders in half the time they used take, and easily engage in up selling along the way. The costs of maintaining the retail system have been greatly reduced. And Orca Bay managers now enjoy accurate, reliable visibility into sales and inventory data.
Greater sales revenue
With the new Microsoft-based system in place, the company is able to serve more customers in less time – average transaction times have been nearly cut in half from the previous two minutes. Front-line retail staff can also market or “up sell” other products at point of sale, as they can now see the latest promotions directly on their Windows-based IBM SurePOS 500 terminals. Also, by using the modern, familiar interface of Dynamics RMS on a reliable platform in the retail stores, lines of customers now move faster than ever, and debit and credit card transactions are processed more swiftly and securely.
“Sales on game night have jumped 20 per cent on average since we implemented Dynamics RMS. This is because we're putting through more transactions,” says Pennock.
Reduced operating costs
Upgrading to the new system has also led to a significant reduction in retail operating costs. The maintenance fees required to support the aging, proprietary retail system have been greatly reduced since implementing the Dynamics RMS solution, freeing up funds for more strategic initiatives. The time and cost required to generate inventory reviews has also been shortened. The new system now generates precise monthly, quarterly and yearly reports and also allows Orca Bay to make that data available throughout the organization.
“With Dynamics RMS, we were able to reduce our annual system maintenance costs significantly. We also spend far less time tweaking the system – RMS does it all for us without any delays,” says Pennock.
Because RMS integrates well with Orca Bay’s existing Microsoft Office System applications, training costs were minimal. As well, the new POS screens allow employees to process complex transactions more efficiently. For example, cashiers can reprint receipts or recall previous transactions from any register.
“We've have 100 employees who work at our POS terminals on game nights. The new Microsoft system made it easy for them to pick it up really fast, because it's the same as everything else they use on a regular basis,” says Cheng.
Improved business insight
Orca Bay undertook a scheduled inventory count two months after implementing the RMS system. Where previously IT staff would have to configure the retail software several different ways in order to get a complete inventory picture, the results of which were rarely accurate, using RMS, the process has become much more efficient and reliable. Simply by accessing RMS, entering inventory criteria and clicking a mouse, accurate inventory counts can be generated through the system and sent to the appropriate manager. The entire process now takes about eight hours, a dramatic reduction from the two days previously required.
“Our first Dynamics RMS inventory count was the cleanest we’ve ever done. We now use six staff to help us with our inventory, compared to the 15 we needed previously. Our staff was really happy about this, and it helped us free up more of their time to focus on our stores,” says Pennock.
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems that your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes, and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.
For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about The RSC Group products and services, call (888) 290 - 3267 or visit the Web site at: www.rsc.com
For more information about Orca Bay Sports & Entertainment products and services, call (604) 899-7400 or visit the Web site at: www.canucks.com
