Union Cooperative Society (UCS) is one of the leading Hypermarkets & Supermarkets chains with 10 outlets in major residential areas in Dubai and one Store in Ajman called Aswaq Ajman

UCS had multiple challenges to overcome with the legacy POS system as each store was like an island by itself. Availability and reliability were some of the biggest concerns as the legacy POS was communicating directly with Server, increasing the risk of failure, and even though legacy POS was designed to work independently it did not work properly. The growing number of transactions at UCS was becoming a major hurdle for the legacy POS to handle. Scalability was also one of the issues as adding new functionality was not easily possible

UCS needed a Reliable, Robust and Scalable system offering customization for each store, real-time sharing of data,  fast credit-card and payment processing, and 24/7 support. The new system was required to be a complete end-to-end solution specifically designed for the retail market, catering to all types of promotions.

UCS analyzed many Retail solutions in the market and found LS Retail NAV to be one of the best choices because it provides detailed, real-time views of product sales, store performance, consumer behaviour that will ultimately allow UCS to innovate and grow.

Implementation for new stores was relatively easy, compared to the migration of existing stores on legacy systems; one of the challenges was the migration of data from the legacy system to LS Retail. Integration with current existing POS Hardware was also one of the key issues. Apart from that, JD Edwards being the ERP used at backend, successful integration became a key factor.

LS Retail NAV was implemented in one of the stores as a pilot project. After minor initial hiccups, careful observation and user reviews, it was rolled out to all the other stores in quick succession. After the LS Retail implementation, UCS tasted the success of running different promotions, offering different types of discounts and also being able to have online information, which enabled UCS to take dynamic business decisions.

Most importantly, LS Retail NAV is suitable for UCS, which is coming up with multiple chains of stores. Quick installation, rollout and ease of training were the key to match with the business goals of the company.

LS Retail NAV enables fast processing of sales transactions with minimum interruption to customers enabling the customer to minimize waiting at counters. It also provides an online view for the Stores performance, going into detailed sales transactions to help businesses take quick decisions.

Archie Patrao, Managing Director at AP&T Business Solutions, is extremely pleased with the implementation of Union Cooperatives Society Retail solution. “By implementing LS Retail with real time integration to JD Edwards ERP gave Union Co-operative Society the customized retail solution it needed. The application covers most of the challenges retailers’ face, by linking warehousing and ordering systems, sales data, staff management, customer service, customer loyalty, integrated online EFT, and marketing functions”.

Patrao continuous: “The implementation schedule was tight. During this time, customization of the LS Retail solution to the Union Cooperatives Society company-specific needs has been done. We managed to deploy the solution successfully with planned rollouts. The customer was pleased with the all-in-one POS solution having a more efficient user-interface, integration to various loyalty cards and online credit card payments thus successfully handling huge customer’s transactions in two to four seconds.”