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Case Study: Bedford Camera & Video Stores are “Picture-Perfect” with Microsoft Business Solutions for Retail Management

Customer profile

In business since 1974, Bedford Camera & Video is a chain of photographic equipment stores in Arkansas. Each store carries a full line of photographic, digital, and video equipment and supplies and boasts a busy portrait studio.

Situation

Bedford Camera & Video, Inc. stores maintain a large stock of many photographic products, accessories, and supplies. All stores maintain busy portrait studios and give seminars in new digital technologies. A typical store has 6,800 SKUs.
Bedford didn't like the blurry stock levels they were getting from name-brand legacy software and hardware. Unreliable communications left outlying stores scrambling. The small, independent Arkansas chain couldn't get the fast, accurate answers that retailers need to compete and increase profits. Today, Microsoft Retail Management gives them quick, clear pictures of every department in every store. Bedford's sixth store opened in March 2003.
"We were in a black hole," says Stan Bedford, founder and president. "Our old retail software gave us spotty, most often wrong, product counts. It was inefficient in multi-store inventory management and didn't offer features for agility and growth. The developer offered almost no support for accounting and none for point of sale. My team's good marketing ideas were constantly frustrated by the software's inability to flex, execute, and report."

Solution

"Microsoft's reputation went a long way to help us pick this solution," says Bedford. "A robust yet economically leveraged system is pivotal to retail survival and growth. I want to know the developer's solutions will integrate and that I can count on downstream upgrades and support. Microsoft Retail Management answered our wish list, gave us new capabilities to outmaneuver the competition, and vastly improved our executives' visibility.”

"We also selected Microsoft Great Plains for thorough financial management and accounting," Bedford says, "because, after years of mediocre software, we were unwilling to accept a short-term solution. Microsoft Business Solutions has a reputation for listening to customers and, most importantly, prioritizing the lost art of follow-through when they hear from small businesses."

Installed Over a Weekend

A few SKUs needed to be hand-entered and old, false quantities were updated. An engineer at each store removed and replaced old hardware over the weekend and stayed on-site through Monday to verify operations, fine-tune last-minute problems, and instruct staff.

Bedford's now has an all-new environment, tighter security, and a virtual private network (VPN) to share e-mail and calendars. The network connects via Cisco IOS Firewall and routers. Installation included an all new Hewlett-Packard computing environment with desktops, servers, monitors, printers, and switch. Microsoft Retail Management System enabled replacement of expensive leased ISDN lines with DSL at a fraction of the cost.

"They did the impossible, totally converting software and hardware over a weekend. Five stores in five cities were up and running Monday morning."

HeadQuarters Manages the Big Picture

"HeadQuarters is a tremendous big-picture management tool," says Steve Elkins, Bedford's vice president of operations. "It has details when I need them and scope when I need that. It can manage everything because its visibility and control are tremendous. It's painless communication to and from the stores. Setup was easy and, after that, store data just appears in HeadQuarters whenever you schedule it."

Benefits

"There are almost no operational areas where Microsoft Retail Management hasn't already shown its value," says Bedford.

• Faster Transaction Processing
  Associates can easily learn the clear point-of-sale screens. They immediately reported faster transactions, including those with discounts, rebates, warranties, serial numbers, credit transactions, and store accounts. New bar code scanners speed store lines and assure accuracy. Authorized employees can look into sister stores' stocks to make an immediate sale by offering rapid delivery from nearby inventory. Customers applaud the shorter lines, new receipts, and improved availability of past transactions in case of returns or problems.

• Accurate Inventory Reporting
  Because Microsoft Retail Management–HeadQuarters automatically polled stores for sales and inventory data every 15 minutes, Bedford executives and managers were able to use accurate product levels to achieve better product distribution through the chain. Purchasing is tighter and faster, and Bedford can now view and trade off the cost of maintaining larger in-store inventories of specific products against probabilities of increased sales and customer satisfaction.

• Data Compatible with Financial Management Tools
  Stores' data moves from HeadQuarters into Microsoft Great Plains for complete financial details, reports, and analysis. "Already we have saved money several ways," reports Bedford. "We eliminated one IT position, consolidated five servers down to one Compaq ProLiant ML350 G3." Bedford's uses Microsoft Great Plains in their Springdale headquarters for accounting and finance needs such as payroll, accounts payable, and general ledger. They find it smoother, more flexible, and more complete than their earlier solution.

• Success Confirms Expansion
  With the system in place, Stan Bedford assessed its results in fast-moving lines, accessible customer information, balanced inventory, accurate purchasing, and flexible reporting. He resolved to proceed with plans for their sixth store in North Little Rock. Microsoft Retail Management System–Store Operations will manage point-of-sale transactions, track inventory and customers, and connect automatically to HeadQuarters. "I'm running Store Operations, HeadQuarters and Great Plains. I can get sales levels, stock, revenue, purchasing and accounting/finance answers 24/7. Our new data communications is proving nearly bulletproof. We get good follow-through from our providers and from Microsoft itself. Based on proven results in a short time, opening a new store is a much easier decision," says Bedford.

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