POS Overhaul Improves Inventory Management

Imagine managing POS data and systems in more than 50 stores, each of which use a variety of different POS systems. You probably have a headache just thinking about it -- and can understand the position Gary Penner, project manager for Value Drug Mart Associates, Ltd. (VDM), was in. VDM oversees the independently owned Value Drug Mart pharmacies and Apple Drug pharmacies.

All of VDM's stores operated on discontinued, outdated POS software and hardware. Because the stores used a variety of POS applications and data formats, it was virtually impossible for the DC to have access to consolidated store sales information. Supporting the various systems was difficult, too. VDM's IT department was overburdened with having to know about many different retail systems. "For a while, we tried to write interfaces to all the different POS systems out there, so we could at least send the stores updated merchandise information," says Penner. "But with so many different systems, it became an exercise in futility." To compound matters, some of the applications and hardware models used in the stores were in the process of being discontinued.