Well, as the authors of the RAPID store communication system, we at Retail Answers like to think that we have a pretty good idea of the answers to that question. We work with customers such as Thomas Pink, Moss Bros and Borders to make sure that we keep RAPID up to date and address the issues our clients face.
Retailers with physical shops are facing major challenges with tough trading conditions, rising business rates and stiff competition from online retail. The Retail Operations team is in the front line of this, yet frequently is the least equipped department in terms of systems, often making do with email or even in some cases phones and faxes.
So just to make sure that RAPID is rising to these challenges, we are hosting a RAPID consultants day tomorrow and have invited the leading consultants in the area of retail operations to get their feedback on RAPID. We are very excited to share what we are doing with RAPID and gather new ideas and have a productive discussion around this big question.
The top search term of all time for this blog is “store management system”. It beats the next most popular term 3 to 1. But what does store management system mean to you?
Thanks for voting. If you answered EPOS system, leave a comment to let me know what you would call a system to address the problems retail operations face co-ordinating efforts across stores.
So, what is the press saying about what IT can do for venture capitalists investing in retailers? Here is Christopher Field writing in June’s edition of Retail Techology, particularly with reference to systems upstream of the point of sale.
“While there is no shortage of relevant solutions, most retailers are still running their stores off paper; managing communications using a mixture of CDs, forms and telephone calls ……
Private equity companies generally don’t care that IT can solve most of these problems; they have their eyes on the balance sheet, but I do think that the IT vendors could get better at demonstrating how good technology well applied can shave months or even years off the exit.”
This is exactly the area that our store management system, RAPID, addresses and we would love the opportunity to demonstrate how RAPID could hasten the exit to any interested venture capitalists!
A. Arrange remote access with the new client and do the installation onto their network remotely. This gives the technical team flexibillity and we would visit the client to do the workshops and training when the system is installed.
Q. How does Retail Answers deliver RAPID when the client sends a box to Retail Answers to install it on and remote access can’t be arranged. Oh and the client is based in central London and parking is difficult.
A. Put the hardware in a rack sack and take the train and tube! It’s greener than driving…
Posted by Rachel Maclean 
Posted by Rachel Maclean 
Posted by Rachel Maclean 
