Article

NRF exhibitors, part 1: Biz intel, cash, HR

Business intelligence, cash management and human resources solutions from retail's 'Big Show.'

January 18, 2009

LLAMASOFT showcased its Supply Chain Guru, an application that empowers users to make the most of their supply-chain network operations. According to executive vice president Toby Brzoznowski, the company's products have allowed clients such as Best Buy and JCPenney to "analyze very specific retail-focused questions as to how they buy products, how they flow products through their network, and where and what the best strategies are for stocking products at specific locations."

RGIS presented a new service for retail space-optimization, joining the company's solutions for inventory, data collection and merchandizing. The service combines a software platform, in-store audits and consulting to help retailers best manage categories and category adjacencies.

TAURUS SOFTWARE highlighted its business intelligence solution, Manage Metrix, developed in collaboration with co-exhibitor F. CURTIS BARRY & COMPANY to provide intelligence across an entire retail enterprise. "It is unique in that it not only consolidates all the information across the enterprise into a single repository where business users can access it to do analysis, but it goes a step further in providing proactive, key performance indicators," said Taurus president Cailen Sherman. "So it's actually searching through the data and producing recommended solutions to problems that it spots in the system."

Cash management

"ARCATECH is all about cash automation for retailers, and cash automation is all about reducing the costs associated with handling cash," said Jim Halpin, ArcaTech Systems' director of retail solutions. The company's retail cash recyclers allow retailers to virtually eliminate the back-office operations that go along with counting and keeping track of cash and coins, and they also have sales-audit and deposit-reconciliation capabilities. Halpin said that a retailer's associates will often spend as many as 40 to 80 combined hours per week counting cash, but ArcaTech's cash-recycling technology is faster, less expensive and much more accurate than the manual-based processes. ArcaTech also sponsored a cash-management forum.

Executives from TIDEL ENGINEERING discussed the company's new cash-recycling solution, the Revolution. The device allows retail associates to quickly and easily get the appropriate funds for their till at the beginning of a shift and turn in the till at the end of a shift, all with no manual counting necessary. The dispensing and counting processes, which take no more than about 30 seconds each using the Revolution, have beendf totally automated, and the machine even has a touchscreen to easily guide users through the process. The Revolution also gives retailers the ability to barcode a till so it can be tracked to the clerk throughout a shift. "It's the first time you can totally automate the cash room," said Tidel CEO Mark Levenick. "It's really the Holy Grail of cash automation."

Human resources