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Harvey Nichols
Harvey Nichols has implemented DigiPoS Systems’ Retail Blade
to help improve efficiency and shop floor functionality, and cut
maintenance costs.
The Harvey Nichols estate has seen rapid
growth in the last few years and relatively
quickly has had to go from a single
store mentality to a point where there are
stores across the country. IT, particularly with
regards to the Knightsbridge Store, just hadn’t
caught up.
The old PoS kit, which consisted of PC's as
opposed to retail dedicated units, had reached
the end of its life. Harvey Nichols was embarking
on a new PoS project, mainly driven by
Chip & PIN and the desire for new functionality,
with Itim Technology Solution’s Chameleon
PoS system. The knightsbridge store was also
the only remaining store not to have touch
screen technology at till point, which needed
to be addressed.
The company hadn’t originally intended to
focus on EPoS – the original driver for their most recent IT change being the retailer’s aging
warehouse and merchandising system but,
as Martin Schofield, Head of IT comments:
“Chip and PIN came along and we had to
do something on the PoS side. We needed
an EPoS application that supported the latest
advances including Chip & Pin compliance.”
DigiPoS was selected to provide an PoS
hardware solution for the Knightsbridge store
due to its ability to provide a cost effective, innovative
solution that would have a considerable
impact in improving efficiency and shop floor
functionality and in cutting maintenance costs.
Schofield is very clear on his reasons for
choosing the DigiPoS solution,
“In Retail
Blade, DigiPoS were able to provide us with
a well-respected, cost effective solution to
updating our PoS. These factors, coupled
with the obvious benefits Retail Blade offers
in terms of flexibility and ROI, and our strong,
established relationship with RTC, DigiPoS
Systems’ services division, meant our decision
to award the contract to DigiPoS Systems was a very logical one.”
The Retail Blade system, which Harvey
Nichols has implemented, consists of the Retail
speeds for upgrades, repair or maintenance.
With Retail Blade, it is possible for retailers
to maintain a core stock of replacement
motherboards which authorised, non technical
staff can replace and upgrade in-store in less
than 60 seconds. None of the peripherals are
disturbed, the ‘host’ system remains in place
and any downtime is cut dramatically.
Harvey Nichols completed its PoS selection
process in September 2003 with the
intention of implementing the DigiPoS 1.2Ghz
system throughout their Knightsbridge store
in September 2004. This was following a successful
pilot which began in October 2003 with the refurbishment of the Fifth Floor Restaurant,
retailer reconsidered and decided to opt for
the new Retail Blade system instead.
Roll out of the new poS application was
then deferred to the spring of 2005 to avoid
any disruption around the Christmas sales
period. The retailer was also keen not to roll
out Chip and PIN in January because it was
waiting to gauge customer perception to the
implementation.
Harvey Nichols installed the 150 new tills
at its Knightsbridge store over the Easter
weekend along with the software to cope with Chip and PIN. The implementation went to
timescale and the store was fully operable for next day of trade.
“The store was up and trading as planned
on Monday and sales processed into the existing
merchandise solution without fault,” said
Schofield. “The whole implementation went
incredibly smoothly. It’s the smoothest implementation
I’ve come across.”
To date, Retail Blade coupled with the new
PoS application from Itim has been very well
received. Sales transactions are now passed on
in real time and the new solution has enabled
far more information to be made available at
till point, allowing far quicker and more efficient
assessment of stock availability and position.
Till operators have found the new, space saving
touch screens intuitive and easy to use,
and the printers to be significantly quicker
allowing for much faster transaction times.
The PoS upgrade has made Harvey Nichol’s
expansion easier and because it plans to open a new store in Dublin this year, it will now be
able to cope with multiple currencies. “However, we are going to realise the real
benefits of the DigiPoS solution in the future,”
comments Schofield. “With the implementation
of Retail Blade, non-technical store staff
will now be able to affect blade replacements
and upgrades without having to rip out the
entire PoS to ship back to the manufacturer, as
a result we won’t lose valuable uptime waiting
for a trained technician to arrive.”
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