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What’s Coming in iVend POS 6.4

February 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment

What’s Coming in iVend POS 6.4

iVend Cloud

Complete control and visibility over retail operations are a must for any retailer to stay competitive. iVend Retail has long been an invaluable enterprise class retail management solution for retailers of all sizes. Now, with the iVend Cloud offering, this is much faster and easier to achieve without the cost and complexity of deploying an on-premise solution. With the iVend Cloud you can be sure of access to the most up-to-date functionality without having to use your in-house IT resources to maintain the solution.

Because the software is delivered as a service, there’s no lengthy rollout, no requirement for time-consuming IT training, and no need for ongoing maintenance. You can get up and running quickly and with minimal disruptions. Also, your IT staff is freed up to focus on other tasks. By accessing iVend in the Cloud you can focus on your business, not your technology. Because you don’t need to invest in hardware infrastructure or experienced IT experts to manage and support the solution, the total cost of ownership is kept to a minimum. Costs are affordable, easy to understand, transparent, and predictable. In addition, by accessing the solution on the cloud, you can deploy the software quickly across your entire organization. This means you accelerate time to value and quickly start to see a return on your investment.

Multiple iVend Enterprise on single Machine

With iVend 6.4 multiple instances of iVend Enterprise can be deployed on a single machine.

Deployments with integration to SAP Business One can now have multiple iVend Enterprises integrated to different SAP Business One companies on a single physical machine.

This will also allow multiple deployments of iVend Unplugged or a combination of Unplugged and SAP Business One integrated iVend Enterprises on a single machine.

Tender Based Discounts and Surcharges

Tender based discounts and surcharges allow the user to offer additional discounts or apply additional surcharges based on the tender that is used at POS for paying the transaction.

Discounts and surcharges can be setup separately for the following payment methods:Download Brochure

  • Cash
  • Credit Card
  • Debit Card
  • Check
  • EBT
  • Custom Tender in Local Currency

Tender based discounts and surcharges can be setup for a date range and can also have a maximum threshold limit.

iVend Scheduler

The scheduler functionality in iVend 6.4 will enable the user to schedule the following activities:

  • Automated delivery of reports to a list of users at defined intervals via email.
  • Deliver output of a predefined database query to a list of users at defined intervals via email or SMS.
  • Send email communication to a list of customers / users segmented based on a predefined database query.

iVend 6.4 will support the following SMS Gateways for outbound SMS communication.

  • Nexmo
  • SMS Global
  • Click Send
  • ClikaTell

Act on Demand

The On Demand feature in iVend 6.4 allows the user to interact with the iVend system via SMS.

This feature will enable the user to request a report or output of a database query on demand by sending a SMS to a long / short code provided by the SMS Gateway.

The SMS Gateway integration in iVend intercepts the incoming SMS message and sends out the desired report / query output to the user via email.

iVend 6.4 will support the following SMS Gateways for the On Demand feature.

  • Nexmo
  • SMS Global
  • ClickSend

Sales/Item Attributes

iVend 6.4 allows user to create unlimited number of attributes that can be attached to a transaction or an item level. Using these attributes cashier can capture additional information from the customers while performing the transaction at POS.

Attributes can also be setup based on transaction types. Therefore based on the current transaction type being performed different information can be captured on the POS.

A regular expression can also be specified while defining these attributes. This allows validating the user input while capturing the details for these attributes on POS.

iVend Loyalty

With iVend 6.4 the loyalty module has been merged into the core iVend application and is no longer a separate application. With this the user experience is more uniform and application maintenance is low.

The loyalty module can be configured from the iVend Management Console.

SMS notification to customers for point updates has additionally been added to the Loyalty module.

Reason Codes

Support for capturing the reason codes has been extended to all Management Console transactions

Reason codes can also be captured for Suspended Transactions on the POS.

Existing reports are updated in iVend to display the captured reason codes.

Sale Refund

Sale Refund functionality has been enhanced in iVend 6.4. Users can now define Return days for individual products. Based on this setting the POS user can only refund products that fall within the return days time period from the date of sale.

Return surcharges can also be attached to individual products that will automatically add to the Sale Refund transaction

Sale Refund beyond the refund days or removing of refund surcharges can be approved by using the Manager Override functionality.

Scan Area

A new set of settings have been added to the Retail Profile in iVend 6.4 to control scanning of codes from the Scan Area.

These settings restrict / allow the user to scan the following codes from the scan area:

  • Product / Gift Card related information including Code, Barcode, Description, etc.
  • Customer related information including code, first name, last name, etc.
  • Sales person related information
  • Transaction Id
  • Loyalty related information

Account Receivable

Account Receivable management for customers has been included in iVend 6.4 for Unplugged deployments. Based on the credit limit and the current AR balance of the customer, system can block the customer from purchasing goods using the On Account payment type.

Moving Average Item Cost

Moving Average inventory valuation method has been introduced in iVend 6.4 for unplugged deployments. The system automatically updates the Item Cost for all inbound inventory movements and records the Item cost against outbound inventory transactions.

Surcharges on Goods Receipt PO

Surcharges can now be applied to Goods Receipt PO document in iVend.

For Unplugged deployments users can also select the surcharges that should be loaded on Item Cost.

Matrix Item View

New views for Matrix Items have been added in iVend 6.4.

Management Console users can now view child items and their inventories across stores / warehouses within a single screen.

POS users can filter matrix items by attributes / attribute values and select / add multiple child items to the transaction from a single screen.

Data Import / Export for Matrix Items

Data Import and Export functionality in iVend will now support exporting and importing of Matrix Items. The data import functionality supports creation / updating of Parent / Child items based on the data definition in the import excel template.

iVend Report Designer

iVend 6.4 includes an in-built report designer. This will allow users to create new reports or customize existing reports without requiring any third party reporting tool.

Reports created with the iVend Report Designer can be scheduled for automated delivery at defined intervals via email and can also be viewed in any standard browser using the iVend Web Report viewer component.

Report Enhancements

Following enhancements has been incorporated in iVend reports:

  • Filter criteria for reports now support date range such as Last Week, Last Month, etc.
  • Delivery report can be filtered based on fulfillment plan.

Dashboard Widgets – Auto Refresh Interval

The Dashboard functionality has been enhanced in iVend 6.4. Users will now have the facility to define a refresh interval for each dashboard widget and based on the defined interval the dashboards will auto-refresh the widget data.

New Dashboards

iVend 6.4 includes the following 2 dashboards out of the box:

    • Store Manager View
      • Total Sales for the Day
      • POS sale transaction value / volume
      • Till Tipple Point Status
      • Open Stock Transfer Requests
      • Open Purchase Orders
    • Loss Prevention
      • Suspended Sales
      • Item Scanning Exceptions
      • Voided Sales
      • Cash Drawer Manual Operation

Product Dashboard

With iVend 6.4 the dashboard functionality has been extended to the product screen. Users can click the Dashboard icon on the product screen to view the current product statistics.

Customer Dashboard

With iVend 6.4 the dashboard functionality has been extended to the customer screen. Users can click the Dashboard icon on the customer screen to view the current customer statistics.

Goods Return

Following enhancements have been incorporated in iVend for Goods Return:

  • A new setting has been provided in iVend 6.4 to restrict / allow the user from adding new product rows in the Goods Return document if the document is based on a Good Receipt Purchase Order.
  • A new validation has been incorporated to restrict the user from modifying the item price if the item being returned is based on a Goods Receipt Purchase Order document.
  • In previous versions of iVend, a Goods Return based on a Goods Receipt Purchase Order would integrate to SAP Business One as a baseless Goods Return document. With iVend 6.4 the Goods Return in SAP Business One will be based on the corresponding Goods Receipt Purchase Order.

Globalized On-Screen Keyboard

The onscreen keyboard on iVend POS has been replaced with a new multi-language keyboard in iVend 6.4. The new keyboard can be configured to allow the user to switch the keyboard language at run-time enabling data entry in multiple languages.

Suggested Printing of Labels after Price Change

Whenever store pricelists are updated the store users are required to reprint the item labels.

This functionality eases the re-printing of labels by suggesting a list of products for which the prices have changed since the last label printing.

Label printing is further enhanced to print labels based on In Stock quantity of an item.

Button Panel Enhancements

Several enhancements have been incorporated in quick button panel functionality. With iVend 6.4, users will be able to define the size of the button panel. The button panel can be configured to occupy up to 60 percent of the transaction screen. Moreover the number of button that would appear on the button panel can also be specified. This gives more control to the user as the user can now resize the buttons on the button panel according to their needs.

User can additionally configure the button panel to display the available quantity and item price. The Font colour on the buttons can as well be configured.

Transaction Screen on POS

A new set of settings has been added to the Retail Profile in iVend 6.4 to show / hide columns in the main transaction screen on the POS.

Customer Facing Display on POS

A new set of settings has been added to the Retail Profile in iVend 6.4 to configure the customer display. These settings control the following aspects of the customer display:

  • Show / Hide columns on Customer Display
  • Adjust Row height
  • Adjust Font Size
  • Show / Hide payment detail information
  • Show / Hide transaction receipt view

New Skin

The default skin for Management Console and POS has been replaced with a new Metro style skin. This gives a fresh look to the user interface.

Management Console Menu

The Management Console menus and menu items have been restructured in iVend 6.4 under the following 3 categories:

  • Administration
  • Operations
  • Reports

A search function has also been added to the Menu structure to quickly search for the required menu item. This makes navigation easy.

Replication and Integration Monitors

With iVend 6.4, Replication and Integration monitors have been moved within the iVend Management Console. This will allow users to monitor the integration and replication queues from any machine running the management console application.

POS based Support for Payment Gateway

With iVend 6.4, Payment Gateway configuration can now be attached at the POS level.

Tax Condition Setup

The Tax Condition Setup has been enhanced in iVend 6.4 to include up to 3 attribute / attribute values and 3 UDF values per definition.

Multi-Language Item Description

With iVend 6.4, users will be able to define alternate product description in different languages. Based on the language attached to the POS user:

  • The products can be searched on the alternate product description defined for that language.
  • The product search results will display the product description for that language
  • The main transaction screen will display the product description for that language
  • The alternate product description can be printed on transaction receipt.

Coupon Enhancements

The coupons functionality has been enhanced in iVend 6.4. Coupons can now be issued automatically to the customer based on the transaction total by configuring them under promotions. The coupon value can be a fixed amount or a percentage of the transaction total.

e-Receipts

With iVend 6.4, the transaction receipt can be emailed to the customer. This functionality requires the user to develop a transaction receipt template using the iVend Report Designer. The transaction receipt template is attached to the retail profile.

Datacap Pin Pad Enhancements

Pin pad integration with UIC 795 has been enhanced to support swiping of gift cards on the terminal. This removes the need of having a separate MSR for swiping the gift cards in case user is already using the UIC 795 for swiping the credit cards.

Signature captured on UIC 795 is also integrated with iVend.

System Information

On completion of the End of Day procedure at stores the application will automatically collect system parameters such as Database Size, Free Disk Space, Top Tables by Database Space, Last Database Backup, Last Database Consistency Check, etc and replicate this to the iVend Enterprise for remote monitoring. This information can be accessed by executing a system query – Store Server Performance Report from the iVend Query Manager.

SAP Business One 9.1 Integration

iVend 6.4 will support integration to SAP Business One 9.1.

The integration has been extended to Branch Management in SAP Business One 9.1.

Stock Transfer Document Cancellation

With iVend 6.4, users will be able to cancel Stock Transfer Documents created from SAP Business One and Stock Transfer Documents created from iVend store for the general warehouse.

Restrict Duplicate Barcode on Product

A new setting has been provided in iVend 6.4 to restrict the user from defining the same barcode on more than one product. This setting is turned off by default.

Scan to define Product Barcode on Product Card

With iVend 6.4, scanning a product barcode on the product card screen would populate the barcode into the UPC Code field. This avoids manual entry of UPC Code on the product card.

End of Day Process

A new setting has been provided in iVend 6.4 to restrict the user from setting a past date as the next business date.

Customer Code on Transfer Order

Customer code field has been added to the Stock Transfer document keeping this in line with the SAP Business One stock transfer document.

Comments on Goods Receipt PO

While creating a Goods Receipt PO based on a Purchase Order, the comments on the Purchase Order document are automatically copied to the Good Receipt PO document.

Historical Transaction Import

The Data Import functionality in iVend will now support importing of historical sales transactions. This functionality is specially useful when migrating from a legacy system to iVend Retail. This will allow the POS users to perform sale refunds based on the imported historical transactions. The sale transaction reports will also consider the imported transactions. Historical transactions can only be imported before the first transaction is performed on the POS.

Product Import

The Data Import functionality in iVend has been enhanced for product imports. The product import template can now include multiple comma-separated values for Alternate UPC Codes and Product Attributes. The import template can also include Item Cost.

Collect Rounded Amount as Donation

A new setting has been provided in iVend to round the transaction total to the next dollar and collect the rounded amount as donation.

Import Purchase Order items

Import functionality has been provided on the purchase order screen to import purchase order items from a text file. The import text file can include product code, quantity, price and tax code.

End of Day Procedure for Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, the End of Day procedure has been extended to Mobile POS.

Mobile POS – New Hardware Support

Following new hardware are now supported by the iVend Mobile POS:

  • Epson – M244A WIFI Receipt Printer
  • Cash Drawer via Epson – M244A Printer
  • Koamtac KDC 400 Sleeve with barcode scanner and MSR for iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S5
  • Ingenico iSMP Payment Terminal (for Australia)
  • Motorola TC55 – Touch Mobile Computer for Android Mobile POS

Quotation Transaction from Mobile POS

Quotation transaction type has been added to the iVend Mobile POS. A quotation created on the Mobile POS can be converted to Sales Order or Sale on the Mobile POS.

Sales Order Fulfillment from Mobile POS

A sales order booked in iVend via the Mobile POS or Terminal POS can be fulfilled via the Mobile POS. A new screen in the Management Console allows the user to create customer fulfillment packages and assign them to Mobile POS for fulfillment. The Mobile POS user can lookup delivery packages on Mobile POS along with their customer location on Google / Apple Maps. Pending payments against fulfillment can also be collected from the Mobile POS.

Item and Sale Attributes on Mobile POS

The Mobile POS application has been enhanced to record Item and Sale attributes while performing a transaction. Regular Expressions defined for Item and Sale attributes are also supported on Mobile POS

UDF Support for Customer Card on Mobile POS

The Mobile POS application has been enhanced to support UDFs on customer master. While creating / updating a customer on the Mobile POS, the user can record values in the customer master UDFs. Regular Expressions defined on UDFs are also supported on Mobile POS.

New Payment Types on Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, the Mobile POS will additionally support the following payments types:

  • Foreign Currency
  • Customer Tender

Gift Card Transaction on Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, the Mobile POS will support the following Gift Card transactions:

  • Gift Card sale
  • Gift Card re-charge
  • Gift Card cash back

Coupon Enhancements on Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, users can issues coupons to customers from Mobile POS that can be printed on receipt and / or can be emailed to the customer.

Loyalty Customer Registration on Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, the Mobile POS application has been enhanced to support registration of loyalty customers.

Catalogue View on Mobile POS

With iVend 6.4, the Mobile POS application will include a catalogue view for product selection.

Touch ID support for IOS Devices

With iVend 6.4, the Mobile POS application has been enhanced to support Login using Touch ID on Apple IOS Devices.

Filed Under: iVend Retail, Product update Tagged With: , , , ,

Engage Digitally with Customers

February 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment

citixsys Engage Digitally with customer

Imagine retail customers no longer fumbling at a billing queue to drag out a crushed (or even half-torn) discount coupon, or a sale notice. Instead, visualize the same customers handing their iPhone or Android smartphones over to the store clerk to scan their new Digital Pass! That is no longer a sci-fi element, because the technology is here and now.

Now, a retail customer can be informed of a new location of his favorite store, the offers available, special events and sale timings. And to avail a sale voucher, the customer only needs to show the Pass at the billing counter, where the store clerk can scan the bar-code and process the offer. Technology has made the entire transaction, the whole process in fact, that much simpler, personal, engaging and efficient!

With this advancement, people can save information of their favorite offers or special sales, or get digital discount Passes on their phones . Passes and Passbook are, arguably, the next step in evolution of customer outreach.

Additionally, there is an option for retailers to send an image of the pass that the customers are receiving. The latter can get them via email, SMS, MMS, the web, social media, an app, and as QR codes (using the built-in Passbook scanning app).

Historically, Apple first introduced the concept of Digital Passes in 2012. Passbook is an application in iOS that allows users to store coupons, boarding passes, event tickets, store cards as well as financial information.

How Passes Work?Download Brochure

The Passbook displays Aztec, PDF417 and QR 2D barcodes, which can be triggered by location, localization, and the time of pass (validity). Being a Digital Pass, up to 10 locations can be added to each Pass, as in once a customer stores a Pass in his iPhone/Android Passbook, a location is programmed via GPS coordinates and/or iBeacon UUID. And another advantage of being digital is that up to 35 languages can be stored per Pass.

The 2D barcode in Passes can easily be recognized by a terminal POS barcode scanner, thereby removing the need to issue (and lug around) traditional passes. Going local to woo customers was never so easy!

Changes/modifications in the Pass can be pushed via the Apple Push Notification Service by the pass provider, or manually updated by the user themselves.

Geo-fencing feature in iVend Passes

iVend Passes utilizes the geo-fencing feature to specify different retail store locations. They can specify different stores coordinates while designing the template of the digital passes (it can be a gift card, coupon, or a loyalty card). The tagging of stores on the Digital Passes ensures a notification is received on the customer’s locked phone as soon as he reaches the vicinity of stores tagged in the digital Pass.

Besides the ‘valid-until’ dates of coupons, points and currency balance in Loyalty and Gift Cards are some more notifications that a customer can receive on his/ her phone.

So, what does the customer get out of this? He/she doesn’t have to check the validity on the Passes anymore. The Passbook feature automatically remind the phone owner when the due-date is near. When the customer is near a store, the relevant Pass will automatically put itself on the notification panel. So, the customer actually gets to enjoy the many benefits extended by the retailer.

The edge in going Digital

The information given above outlines what the customer gets out of iVend Passes. And in usual cases, the retailer is content with making it easier to reach out to the customer. But with Passes, there is a whole host of information that can be gleaned out of this avenue.

For one, the retailer gets comprehensive dashboards. A density map allows the analysis of the highest concentrations of Passes and where they are/have being used. That also gives the retailer an idea of where is the highest concentration of his customers. Plus, the iVend Dashboards can be configured to see the Usage Ratios. The management can see graphic evaluations to measure their Return on Investment (ROI). The retailer can see who has viewed their enterprise’s Passes, who has opened, redeemed or deleted their Passes. And this is all possible in real-time.

Integration Woes- No More!

So now, many retailers have installed third-party loyalty and Passes applications on top of their legacy software systems. In some cases, the sales till gets a new machine, adding to the clutter. And even then, there is no guarantee that the separate software can ‘talk’ to each other, easing hassles for the store employees and customers alike.

With the iVend Enterprise Retail Suite, a retailer can go beyond installation and integration issues. The Passes application is one of the complementary application in the software suite, and provides unmatched performance, safety, utility and data for the retailer.

iVend Passes is a platform for retailers to deploy Digital Passes on Apple Passbook, and Android devices as well. This gives retailers a cost-effective, long-lasting solution to engage customers with a digital Loyalty Card, digital Coupon or a digital Gift Card. It is a cloud-based application integrates seamlessly with iVend Enterprise Retail Suite to empower retailers to use the service at their point of sales, whether they be terminal or

Then, with iVend Retail, it becomes as easy as anything to design Passes, using the template designer to layout the design for a gift card, coupon or a loyalty card. The Email Designer enables the sending of customized email messages, along with your Passes.

And of course, customers would prefer the ‘greener’ version of retailer rewards, wouldn’t they?

Filed Under: Retail Trends Tagged With: , , , ,

Converging Retail digitally

November 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment

NRF

Technology innovations have been fast transforming the world around us and are leaving a definitive impact on the way customers shop for products and services. Retailers are also evolving to these changing market dynamics by redefining customer experience in retail space with multitude of personalized touch points.

Digital consumers do not differentiate between these trends. For consumers, these trends are just an extension of their Access Your Free Passexperience with the world around them, be it interacting with a retailer, or elsewhere. It is now an accepted fact that future success of retail lies in the convergence of physical and digital channels enabled by digital transformation. This transformation will make it possible for companies to provide an integrated, meaningful and personalized experience to customers across all relevant and critical touch points – when shoppers make their choices.

Channel Integration or convergence is one of the primary challenges for all multichannel retailers in the quest for profitable retailing. When a customer makes contact with a retailer-whether it be online, via mobile application, via catalogue, or in store- it’s important that they are treated in the same way; and that the high level of service that a customer received face to- face is replicated via other channels. To provide that service, the retailer must have an integrated platform for retail, an efficient retail management solution that ensure the right product is in the right place at the right time, which is absolutely critical.

Only an enterprise class retail application can help a retailer address the expectations of a digital consumer. An in-depth understanding of consumer behavior in-store and online with their purchasing preferences has become essential. Modern retail applications represent the key to future retail business model that reflects channel convergence. Discussed below are a few recommendations that can help forward-looking retailers’ adopt this model with ease.

Improving the in-store experience

Physical stores need to offer experiences that consumers can’t have in the digital space. The existing boundaries between digital and physical need to fade by leveraging technologies like mobile. Digital passes, Becons and geotagging are new initiatives to take mobile social consumer with tide.

Access and Discovery

Retailer’s and brands need to creatively promote all channels and applications (marketing mailers, promotions etc.) to generate traffic. At the same time, location-based applications can help retailers find customers and target them with personalized promotions and offers.

Empower your workforce

Mobile POS puts real-time customer data into the hands of your store associates, which can lead to instant in-store conversion, lesser abandoned carts, increased basket size (via cross- and up selling) and improved customer experience and satisfaction in the store.

Real time analytics for actionable insights

Retail analytics is the ultimate performance-monitoring tool, which makes it possible to promote immediate, compelling offers to customers, regardless of channel. Which item is performing, which store is performing, what sells with what etc. a retailer can run and monitor promotions and schemes in real time, enabling a consumer to get a better value for their money – whether through digital or physical channels.

Invest in the last mile

The explosion of order and delivery channels has made order management and fulfillment more important and challenging than ever. A recent study found that nearly nine out of 10 retailers say they support fulfillment through more than one selling channel. In this environment, flexibility is essential. With leading retailers making headlines for their ship-from-store programs, a new bar is being set for inventory utilization in retail, but many retailers do not yet have the infrastructure in place to meet this challenge.

The siloed approach won’t work

The consumer is in the driver’s seat and a halfhearted approach to digital media would not suffice. This convergence of shopping behavior will help make 2015 the breakout year for the digital store, unlocking new experiences and value that can only be delivered in a physical location

Some companies have captured the true business benefits of a digital transformation. Most, however, are only beginning their journey to transform. Our experience in retail points towards Digital convergence as the most sought after trend in retailing for the year 2015, imparting retail businesses an operational advantage to monetary gains for retailer’s who plan to transform themselves for future

Filed Under: Retail Trends Tagged With: , , ,

iVend Retail Dashboards

July 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment

iVend dashboard

Intense transformation in retail industry puts retail technology and information technology in key focus. The data collected from various 200by200 dashboardssources is expected to converge together to derive actionable metrics and give a competitive advantage to retailer’s.

The data is collected in volumes from all possible sources. New technology deployments are driven by an increased focus to use this voluminous data to deliver a better customer experience. Mobile and instore point of sale (POS) systems, mobile apps, online stores, generate a tremendous volume of transactional data. This data is a critical source of information to retailers in providing new insights into operations and business.

With increasing reliance on real-time visibility across a multitude of platforms, today’s retail technology faces a formidable challenge in deriving actionable and accurate insights generated by different retail touch points.

iVend Retail helps retailers’ take full competitive advantage of the wealth of information present in transactional data with iVend Dashboards. These are build-in dashboards available in iVend Management Console. These include inventory snapshots, comparative sales by month, quarter, year; promotional sales, top sellers, gift certificate analysis, promotion analysis, top and bottom performers, sales contribution, sales trends and many more.

This application allows creation of fully interactive business intelligence dashboards for Retailers. iVend Dashboards includes a completely optimized drag and drop feature for faster creation of dashboards. These dashboards created can either be viewed from within iVend Management Console or viewed in any standard browser using the iVend web viewer. With iVend Dashboards, interactive drill down reports can also be created which can be viewed using a web browser.

iVend Dashboards extend a detailed snapshot of business performance levels. Effective, informative and intelligent analysis tools gather data in one place to report on essential KPIs for retail business. The dashboards can be tailored to uncover strategic possibilities within current plans and explore best paths to effect positive results and genuine sustainable improvement.

A retailer can now choose to build his own or modify dashboards to assess the progress of current performance levels. Retailers can now focus on different areas of analysis and swiftly customize each performance overview, Stay in sync with live and current retail metrics to remain in touch with retail business performance level even when on the move

By applying innovative purpose-built data management, reporting and analytics technologies with iVend Dashboards, retailers have the opportunity to take advantage to access and view retail insights to reap significant benefits — they can improve the end customer experience, increase wallet share and drive higher profits.

Filed Under: iVend Retail Tagged With: , ,

Inventory Pro 6.6.5 for SAP Business One 8.82 Released

April 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Release Description

This document outlines the enhancements / bug fixes incorporated in Inventory Pro version 6.6.5.0

Inventory Pro version 6.6.5.0 is only supported on

  • SAP Business One 8.8 SP00 PL07 and above
  • SAP Business One 8.81 PL05 and above
  • SAP Business One 8.82 PL04 and above

Inventory Pro version 6.6.5.0 will not be supported on the following environments:

  • SAP Business One 2007
  • SAP Business One 2005
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000

Contact CitiXsys support for details on Hardware and Software specifications for Inventory Pro version 6.6.5.0.

You must install Crystal Reports 2008 Runtime with this version of Inventory Pro.

With this version of Inventory Pro you would need to install .Net Framework 4.0

Enhancements

Following features have been added / enhanced in the Inventory Pro version 6.6.5.0:

  • Automatic Allocation – A new service has been included in Inventory Pro to automatically allocate item quantities periodically. A new setup screen has been included in the Inventory Pro add-on to configure parameters for Automatic Allocation.
  • Label Printing from GRPO screen – A new button has been added to the GRPO screen in SAP Business One to enable the user to print item labels for item quantities received in the GRPO.
  • Block user from changing allocation control on Sales Order – A new setting has been provided in the Inventory Pro > Document Setting to prevent the user from changing the allocation control on Sales Order. In this case the default allocation control defined in the Inventory Pro > Document Setting will always apply.
  • Inventory Transfer Request – Inventory Transfer Request document included in SAP Business One 8.82 has been added to the Order Management process and RF Transactions. Using the RF Module the user can perform picking transactions against Inventory Transfer Requests and can also post Inventory Transfers based on Inventory Transfer Requests subsequent to the picking process.
  • Picking Report for Independent Picking – Printing of Picking Report for Independent Picking has been enabled on the Picking Screen.
  • Put-Away Transactions from RF Module – Put-Away transaction from RF Module has been extended for A/R Credit Memo, A/P Invoice, Return and Receipt from Production documents.
  • Production Order transactions from RF Module – Issue from Production and Receipt from Production transactions have been incorporated in the RF Module.
  • Customizable Report for Stock Take – With this version of Inventory Pro the Stock Take report can be customized. A sample report template has been included in the Sample Reports folder.
  • Copy UDF values to Delivery Document – A new setting has been included in the Inventory Pro > Document Settings to enable copying of UDF values from Sales Order to Delivery document.

Issues Fixed

Following issues have been fixed in this release:

  • Gross Profit in Marketing Documents – With this version of Inventory Pro the Gross Profit Base Price will be populated appropriately based on the SAP Business One > Document Settings and selected Item UOM.
  • Quantity to Move – With this version of Inventory Pro the Quantity to Move column will be set to Zero after the row is moved to selected matrix.
  • Service Type Marketing Documents – Due to an issue in the previous version of the Inventory Pro Add-on the system would prompt the user to enable the Unit Price column for Service type marking documents whereas this prompt should only display for Item type documents. This has been fixed in this release.
  • Un-do picking for Production Orders – In some rare cases an un-do picking transaction could not be performed for Production Orders which were subsequently updated. This has been fixed in this release.
  • Closing Locked Pick Tickets – Due to an issue in the previous version of the Inventory Pro add-on the user was able to close a pick ticket from Order Management screen which was locked by the RF User. This has been fixed in this release.

Inventory Pro from CitiXsys enhances SAP Business One inventory features facilitating the easy management of inventory either paper based or RF. Designed for companies with light transactional inventory volumes that deal with multiple items, Inventory Pro comprises of four modules – Bin Locations, Available to Promise, Multiple Units of Measure and Allocation.

 

 

Filed Under: Distribution Blogs, News @ CitiXsys, Product update, SAP Add-ons, SAP Business One

iMatrix 5.5.4 for SAP Business One 8.82 Released

April 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Release Description

This post outlines the enhancements / issues fixed in Item Matrix version 5.5.4. Item Matrix 5.5.4 is only supported on

  • SAP Business One 8.82, PL04 and above
  • SAP Business One 8.81, PL03 and above
  • SAP Business One 8.8
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Enhancements

  • Blanket Agreement – With this release user can now use the Item Matrix Catalog button to filter out the item that needs to be added on the blanket agreement document in SAP Business One 8.82.
  • Inventory Transfer Request – With this release user can now use the Item Matrix Catalog button to filter out the item that needs to be added on the Inventory Transfer Request document in SAP Business One 8.82.

Language Support:

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Spanish

About iMatrix

This is a product variant management solution on SAP Business One designed for companies that sell, manage or procure items that have similar attributes such as size, color or style. A matrix item structure is identified by a parent item and categorized by child items having similar attributes.

Filed Under: News @ CitiXsys, Product update, SAP Add-ons, SAP Business One Tagged With:

Multi-Channel Retail – One Critical Key to Success

March 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
If you are like most business owners your number one concern is how to get your business name and product out effectively to consumers. How do you get what you are selling a topic of discussion and a solid referral base established? The answer lies in multi channel retail.  The first and most crucial step being ecommerce, it is essential that your business has a very strong online presence. A custom website that is both easy to use and secure is a must. Having your business name on blogs, and various social media outlets is a sure way to skyrocket your business.
Customer Loyalty managementNext, is customer loyalty. How do they remember you? What better better way to remember a place than to be given a little something extra, this can be in the form of a sample or in building a loyalty system. Further you must create synergies with other businesses so consumers recall your product when they least expert it, think coca cola and movies. Also placing your product at unique locations can develop the same strong pairing.

Multi channel retail is exemplified in the kiosk. This quick simple station at any local mall is the epitome of driving your sales numbers without the harsh investment of opening up another store. The placement of the kiosk is key, making sure that whatever you are selling is aligned with the stores around you is another smart move that will pair your product with the very thing the consumer is looking for. An example, if  you are selling accessories place yourself near one of the major department stores where you can attract those ladies that just purchased that perfect dress and really need that missing touch. On the subject of major department stores here is an ideal place to sell your product and really benefit from the consistent flow of people.

Without multi channel retail, especially with this very competitive arena, and with the struggling economy, your chances of success really dwindle. Making sure your product is linked to something unique stems from the idea of synergy, however instead of the pairing with a product, perhaps a better idea would be the pairing with a cause. An example would be for each item purchased a similar item will go to an individual in need, or perhaps for each dollar amount spent a percent will go to a certain charity. Make sure that the charity or the giveaway correlate appropriately with what you are selling.

One of the strongest ways to ensure your customer will return is to engage them during the process of the purchase. At the  point of sales each customer should receive stellar treatment which spotlights their uniqueness, focuses on them being appreciated as a shopper, and makes them feel welcomed. These are key components to ensure that your customer will come back and make a purchase if for anything that warm pick me up by the sales associate. Mobile POS within the store on a Windows or iPad or Android devices is a must for competitive retailing. Customer experience is the most important factor for customer retention by retailers.

The main idea of multi channel retail strategy is to set yourself apart by being everywhere in very distinctive ways. Setting yourself apart from the competition is the best way to get ahead of them, and placing yourself in various locals will make you a household name sure to increase your sales. Giving personalized treatment to your buyer will bring them back time and time again. This concept of integrated retail systems mixes having your store in more than one place with a unique shopping experience, and further establishing a solid online experience. It is ensuring that your name comes up whenever a buyer is looking for what you are selling.

Filed Under: Emerging Trends & Innovation, Multi channel retail, Retail Trends

Item Matrix 5.5.2 & iCharge 10.5.1 released with minor enhancements

September 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Item Matrix –5.5.2

Bugs and Defects Fixed

Upload Tool – Due to a bug in the previous release of item matrix, the add-on would disconnect during the upload process. This has been fixed in this release.

Hiding Sales Related and Purchase Related Information in SKU screen: Due to a bug in the previous release of item matrix, while checking the Hide Purchase Related Data and Hide Sales Related Data check boxes, system hides purchase and sales related information, but the add-on does not record this settings and therefore on reopening the screen the Purchase and Sales Related data becomes visible again. This has been fixed in this release.

Freezing of Item screen: Due to a bug in the previous release of item matrix, while resizing the screen the scroll bars freezes. This has been fixed in this release.

Language Support:

  1. English
  2. French
  3. German
  4. Italian
  5. Spanish

iCharge 10.5.1

Bug Fixes

Due to a bug in the previous release iCharge does not allow the user to create a delivery using Pick and Pack Manager. This has been fixed in this release.

Due to a bug in the previous release, iCharge freezes the screen while creating invoice/delivery using invoice wizard. This has been fixed in this release.

iCharge –10.5

Enhancements

iCharge Setup Wizard – This release incorporates a setup wizard which will guide the user through the sequence of steps for configuring the solution.

On-Line Help – This release incorporates screen sensitive help. Users can press CTRL+SHIFT+E to bring up the help for the active screen.

New Release Notification – Whenever a new version of the product is released the system will display the update notification as a SAP Business One alert.

Incoming Payments – Ability to select A/R Invoices and A/R Credit Memos when processing Incoming Payment for CC Type Documents.

Service Type A/R Documents – With this release it is possible to perform Credit Card transactions for Service Type A/R Documents

Invoice Wizard – This release will enable the user to additionally process non Credit Card Payment Type documents using the Invoice Wizard.

Language Support:

  1. English
  2. French
  3. German
  4. Italian
  5. Spanish
Filed Under: Blog, News @ CitiXsys, Product update, SAP Add-ons, SAP Business One Tagged With: , ,

Inventory Pro 6.6.2.0 Released with enhancements

September 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Enhancements

Following features have been added / enhanced in the Inventory Pro version 6.6.2.0:

Language Support – With this release of Inventory Pro the user will be able to select the desired language for the Inventory Pro add-on irrespective of the language set for SAP Business One.

Put-Away / Picking – With this release of Inventory pro it is now possible to make the Picking / Put-Away process mandatory on adding the relevant marketing document. A new setting for this has been provided under the Inventory Pro – General Settings.

Bugs and Defects Fixed

Following bugs have been fixed in this release:

SYS_BIN Transfer – In the previous release of the Inventory Pro Add-on, due to a missing validation, the stock quantities were not appropriately transferred to the SYS_BIN on updating the Warehouse as a Multi-Bin warehouse. This has been fixed in this release.

Inventory Tracking Tool – In the previous release of the Inventory pro Add-on, Serial Numbers were not imported appropriately using the Inventory Tracking Tool. This has been fixed in this release.

Stock Transfer Recommendation Tool – In the previous release of the Inventory Pro Add-on, if the customer code was populated in the excel template, the transfer recommendations could not be imported. This has been fixed in this release.

Order Management – Document Details – In the previous release of the Inventory Pro Add-on, when a Draft Inventory Transfer document was created from the Picked Tab, the Document Details screen would display the wrong Draft Document on clicking the Golden Arrow.

Issue for Production – Due to a bug in SAP Business One 8.81 PL07, the buttons on the Issue of Production screen would disappear when running the Inventory Pro Add-on. The Inventory Pro add-on code has been tweaked to overcome this SAP issue.

Filed Under: Distribution Blogs, News @ CitiXsys, Product update, SAP Add-ons, SAP Business One Tagged With: ,

iVend Retail 5.4.7 Released

September 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This release of iVend Retail has many new enhancements and features. The database mirroring ability will now help retailers to create fail-safe deployments thereby reducing business loss during server crashes or IT disasters. Latin America countries can now use iVend with SAP Business One localized for below mentioned countries. Read below for many more enhancements.

License Management

This release incorporates a new Licensing System that allows license activation over the Internet. It is mandatory that you first request for an activation key before performing the upgrade to this release. Please email to licenses [at] citixsys.com for activation key request.

Fiscal Printer Integration for Panama

iVend is integrated to Bematech MP400 TH FI printer to support the printing of fiscal documents. Printing the fiscal documents is government mandate in Panama.

Club de Mercancia Integration (Panama)

iVend is integrated to Club de Mercancia application developed by our partner in Panama to cater to needs of local retail scenario.

Localization Support Extended

The following locations for SAP Business One customers are supported as an experimental beta in this release

  1. Chile
  2. Costa Rica
  3. Guatemala
  4. Mexico
  5. Panama
  6. China
  7. Germany

Support for Database Mirroring

With this release, iVend extends support for database mirroring. Database mirroring provides a fallback server in case the primary server is unavailable due to system crashes. Configuring this feature will enable the iVend system to automatically switch from primary database server to the secondary mirrored server without disrupting operations.

Please refer to install guide for configuration details.

Till Management Enhancement

Till management at the POS has been enhanced with this release of iVend. This release allows the team members to logon to the POS terminal without selecting the till for operations provided one of the team members have already selected a till in a previous login. iVend Retail Release Notes

Discount Management

Discount management has been enhanced with this release. A new setting has been provided on the product card to block the additional sale discount for the item if the line discount has already been applied.

Plutus Integration

Plutus payment processor integration for India has been incorporated in this release.

Transaction Search

An additional setting has been provided in retail profile for pre-populating the current business date in transaction search screen at POS.

Hardware Initialization

A button has been provided in user menu to display the list of hardware which has been successfully initialized at the POS.

Receipt Enhancement

Based on the print profile, the users can now print cash in and cash out receipt from POS.

Extended Language Support

Apart from English, iVend application is now also available in the following languages:

  1. French
  2. Latin American Spanish
  3. Italian
  4. Greek
  5. German

Language preferences for the users can be set from the iVend Management Console. After login in the system user would see the iVend GUI in the user preferred language. If the user language is not setup then English would be used as a default language.

Bugs Fixed

Bug ID: 9707

Bug Description: The iVend POS crashed when clicking on Open Till button while assigning the till to cash drawer.

Bug ID: 9804

Bug Description: The user is not able to issue the store credits if the store credit is setup as user defined.

Bug ID: 9805

Bug Description: The UDF integration was giving error if more than one UDF of SAP B1 was integrated with iVend.

Bug ID: 9806

Bug Description: The purchase order edited in SAP B1 on integrating with iVend was throwing an error.

Bug ID: 9771

Bug Description: When upsells are marked for auto add to transaction, then the system was not calculating the discounts properly on the upsell item.

Bug ID: 9772

Bug Description: The users are able to specify the inactive sales person while doing a transaction at POS.

Bug ID: 9773

Bug Description: Bug fix for restricting the addition of line to AP Invoice, if the AP invoice is copied from PO generated from iVend. This was creating an issue in SAP B1.

Bug ID: 9773

Bug Description: User is able to remove the till assigned to another user at the POS.

 

Filed Under: iVend Retail, News @ CitiXsys, Product update Tagged With: ,
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