Vancouver Canucks score with new retail management system
Published: December 5, 2006
Summary: How the Vancouver Canucks made its arena retail operations more efficient with the use of Dynamics and Windows software.
Orca Bay Sports & Entertainment is a Vancouver-based entertainment company. The firm owns and operates the Vancouver Canucks professional hockey franchise, along with the team's home arena, General Motors Place.
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Business challenge
Attending a Vancouver Canucks hockey game at GM Place is an exciting sports experience. Games take an average of three hours to complete – this includes three 20-minute periods and two 17-minute intermissions. But as a small market hockey team within the National Hockey League, generating additional revenue through retail sales during games is vital.
“Our retail sales actually happen during those time periods, in the intermissions and after the game, so we need to drive a lot of business in those 30 minutes. But our ability to do this was being hampered. The biggest problem was that with our old POS terminals, transaction times were ridiculously long,” says William Cheng, IT Manager, Orca Bay.
Merchandising facilities within GM Place include a retail store, a computer point-of-sale (POS) and inventory control system, and direct debit merchandising. In order to serve the largest number of customers in the shortest amount of time, transaction times need to be quick. But the old, legacy merchandising system was frustrating staff and keeping customers waiting, says Cheng. The average debit and credit card transaction was taking an average of two minutes, a far cry from throughput Orca Bay needed.
Orca Bay was spending large amounts of money to support the aging retail system, money it felt could be more effectively invested. The company also had no means to effectively analyze its sales or inventory data. Orca Bay was also dissatisfied with the level of customer service its provider offered when it tried to address these concerns.
Cheng and his team convinced management to upgrade the retail system, demonstrating how the old system was restricting Orca Bay’s ability to grow.
“We were paying a pretty large chunk for maintenance, but we weren't seeing results. We also were never able to reconcile the finance side with what the system was telling us. There would always be variances, and I'm talking fairly large variances.”
Solution
In order to reduce maintenance costs and transaction times and streamline inventory control, Orca Bay researched several competitive options before deciding to upgrade to a new retail management system based on Microsoft technology.
The upgraded IT environment now includes Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS), which enables midsize organizations to automate store operations and retail headquarters tasks, including customized store reports, point-of-sale operations and inventory control and tracking. The out-of-the-box product features back-office capabilities while also providing crucial data for stock management and relationship marketing.
The system is run on Windows Server 2003, which simplifies identity and access management, reduces storage management costs, provides a rich Web platform, and offers cost-effective server virtualization. Windows Server 2003 also provides a secure and scalable platform for running mission-critical applications.
Orca Bay also implemented IBM SurePOS 500 terminals to replace the in-store PCs, and TD-RMS Bridge software to handle payment processes.
The company worked with The RSC Group, a Microsoft Gold Certified technology partner, to help it implement the solution. “A major reason behind our decision to upgrade our retail systems when we did is because we developed a high level of confidence in The RSC Group. This was a big change from our previous situation,” says Kristy Pennock, Senior Manager, Retail, Vancouver Canucks.
Business benefits
The decision to automate with Dynamics RMS has yielded immediate benefits for Orca Bay. With the new retail management system in place, the company is able to provide timely and customized reports and update its inventory in real time.
Improved sales: Implementation pain points were primarily restricted to hardware issues, particularly around converting PCs running with cash drawers and receipt printers attached to them to true POS touch screen terminals, says Cheng.
“From a software installation point of view, however, I think it was about as smooth as it could possibly be. The new environment simplifies the end-of-day reporting by allowing us to create accurate inventory reports. This makes a huge difference in our business workflow.”
Orca Bay staff can now advertise other products at point of sale, and use information to market other merchandise more effectively. Lines of customers now move faster and debit and credit card transactions are processed more swiftly and securely, says Cheng. “Sales on game night have jumped 20 per cent. This can be directly attributed to the new system – we're putting through more transactions than we were ever able to before.”
Greater inventory efficiency and reliability: Upgrading to the new system has also led to a significant reduction in system maintenance costs. The new system generates precise monthly, quarterly, yearly reports and also allows Orca Bay to integrate external systems, such as accounting. “With Dynamics RMS, we were able to reduce our annual system maintenance costs from $15,000 to $4,000.”
Microsoft Business Solutions Retail Management System integrates with Orca Bay’s existing Microsoft Office System applications, which helped to reduce training costs. 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.
