Moving into e-commerce made possible with Sage integration

Company Profile

Glasgow-based Artstore is a retailer of art supplies and has over 35,000 product lines across 2 retail stores and a central warehouse.  The company has been in business for almost 20 years supplying both the students of the city as well as well as the general public.

Problem/Challenge

Working with a highly customised, out-of-date Sage Line 100 product, connected to a customised retail product, Artstore had a serious challenge when their bespoke supplier went out of business.  

With over 35,000 products in multiple locations the system was slow and unreliable. Having an integrated Chip and Pin was a major issue that could not be resolved in the existing system. Plans to introduce a new e-commerce web site was an essential part of Artstore’s continued growth, but with so many products this could prove impossible. The challenge was to introduce a new system with zero downtime, as the retail environment could not close, as well as launching a new e-commerce web site.

Solution

Artstore contacted their Sage Business Partner, Eureka Solutions about an upgrade from Sage Line 100 to the Sage 200 Suite. A key factor in this decision was the system’s ability to be extensively customised, and with Eureka Solutions being one of the UK’s leading Sage Developers, Artstore felt confident that a Sage 200 system from Eureka Solutions would be able to meet their needs, with minimum disruption during the implementation process.

As well as being highly customisable the Sage 200 Suite was ideal for Artstore as it is able to handle large numbers of stock items and multiple stock locations, as well as being able to integrate the till system with the back office.

Sage 200 Point of Sale was installed and the company had 4 tills distributed over their 2 retail locations. Eureka Solutions also developed a customised process for replenishment of stock from their warehouse. The process involved re-ordering of stock to the central warehouse from their suppliers, based on total shop location reorder levels, and current overall stock levels.

Eureka Solutions’ Sage 200 Barcode addon was deployed and integrated with their tills to allow the barcodes to be imported into the system quickly. Commidea, a 3rd party chip and pin system, was integrated into Sage 200 EPOS, to meet the requirements of the new chip and pin legislation. Finally Eureka Solutions’ Sage 200 Plus Pack was installed, consisting of over 40 addons and utilities for Sage 200 to improve the functionality of Sage 200.

In addition to replacing the retail/warehouse and replenishment system Artstore are now embarking on a new e -commerce web site with full integration of their 35,000 stock items, linked directly to Sage 200. Without this integration, moving into the ecommerce environment would have been impossible for the company, as they would have to upload all these products manually to the web site. However, using Eureka Solutions’ Sage 200 Data Exchange, all the products are uploaded automatically from Sage 200. In addition, stock changes, orders and customer data are passed between the web site and Sage 200.

Key Benefits

• Artstore’s business systems and processes are integrated and managed from a central location. This means no re-keying of data between systems, saving a considerable amount of time.
• Complex re-order system, developed by Eureka Solutions, has allowed for minimal manual intervention in the process.
• Eureka Solutions’ Barcode Addon saved the Artstore from having to enter the barcodes manually into the till system. With over 35,000 product lines entered this has saved Artstore about 400 man-days, compared to a manual keying process, while ensuring accuracy of data.
• Eureka Solutions’ Data Exchange module ensures data from Sage 200 is transferred seamlessly to the website and web orders travel in the opposite direction ensuring accurate stock with no re-keying.
• By uploading 35,000 products automatically to their website, Data Exchange will save Artstore about 833 man-days.
• Future product and stock changes will be automatically uploaded to the website meaning no re-keying of data.  This will cut the time to update product information in half, while ensuring data is accurate between the systems.

For more information about Sage 200 or upgrading from Line 100 please contact us.