One centralized database for complex, multi-format operations
Real-time visibility across a complex, multi-format operation
Before LS Central, Ah Liki Group had to pull information from multiple, disconnected systems. Now, wholesale, distribution, and retail all run on the same platform. Inventory levels, sales data, and operational insights are visible across every location in real time, so the team can make decisions based on what's happening, not what the system last recorded.
That real-time visibility has had a particularly strong impact on inventory management. Stock movements are tracked accurately as they happen, which means the team can respond quickly when demand shifts and avoid the gaps that used to develop between what the system showed and what was on the shelves.
As Nicola McColl, Financial Controller at Ah Liki Group says:
"Inventory management is now faster, more accurate, and better aligned with real-time movements, enabling stronger control and decision-making. We have seen marked improvements in inventory visibility and promotion management, ensuring pricing and offers are executed consistently and effectively."
All sales processed from the same POS
Ah Liki Group's retail locations serve both individual shoppers and corporate buyers, something the old POS system couldn't support. As a result, quotes had to be processed elsewhere, even though customers expected to be served on the spot.
The flexibility of LS Central's POS made it possible to build a solution around the way Ah Liki actually operates. Staff can now generate quotes for corporate buyers directly at the counter without needing to step outside the normal sales process. "Our teams can now generate quotes efficiently at the point of interaction, improving customer responsiveness and converting more opportunities into sales," says McColl.
Permissions that power the right people
One of the more significant changes has been the way LS Central's permissions structure has allowed Ah Liki Group to redistribute operational tasks across the team, giving the business the flexibility to assign responsibilities where they make the most sense, while maintaining the right controls. Load list generation is a good example: previously gated to specific roles, it can now be handled by trained cashiers directly, meaning less waiting, fewer handoffs, and faster turnaround across the operation.
"The system's dynamic permissions structure has supported these improvements by enabling controlled flexibility across user roles. This has also allowed us to decentralize operational tasks, including load list generation, reducing bottlenecks and improving turnaround times," says McColl.
Built to scale without the overhead
When running on SaaS, there are no servers to maintain, no backups to run, no upgrade cycles to plan around. Ah Liki always runs the latest version of LS Central, updated automatically in the background. For a business with the operational complexity of the Ah Liki Group, being able to take that entire layer of IT overhead off the table is a meaningful shift, freeing up time, reducing cost, and removing a source of risk. And as the business continues to grow, the platform scales with it.
Rolled out across every location in a single day
Before LS Central, Ah Liki Group had been running legacy on-premises retail and head office systems that didn't deliver the scalability the business needed and limited visibility into performance. Ah Liki Group needed a platform that could handle the full complexity of their operations without compromise. LS Central offered the retail functionality, cloud infrastructure, and POS flexibility to meet those requirements within a single platform.
Canary IT Solutions, a local LS Retail partner, managed the implementation, bringing together on-site teams and remote specialists. The full deployment was completed in three months. When go-live day arrived, every location went live simultaneously, without disruption to daily operations.
What stood out was how quickly the team adopted the new system. Management and frontline staff alike found it more intuitive than expected, and strong adoption from day one meant the business started realizing the benefits almost immediately.
Stronger operations, faster growth
Operations that used to depend on fragmented systems and manual workarounds now run on a single platform that gives everyone, from the financial team to the cashiers, the tools and information they need to do their job well. "Overall, the system has strengthened our operational capability, improved customer service delivery, and supported increased sales performance," says McColl.
For a group operating at this scale, across many formats, that kind of visibility and control is what growth is built on. With LS Central in place, Ah Liki Group has the foundation to keep building.
Q&A: insights from Ah Liki Group's implementation
Why did Ah Liki Group select LS Central?
When your business spans wholesale, distribution, and retail, you can't afford a platform that only does part of the job. Ah Liki needed everything to work together – inventory, sales, back office, POS – without stitching together separate tools for each part of the operation. LS Central was the right fit because it handled all of it in one place.
Why did Ah Liki Group choose to run the platform in the cloud?
Because running your own infrastructure is a distraction. Servers, backups, upgrade cycles; it all takes time and resources away from actually running the business. With SaaS, that gets taken care of by the vendor. The platform stays current automatically, there's nothing to manage internally, and the business can focus on growth rather than maintenance.
How does LS Central support an operation like Ah Liki Group's?
LS Central united all processes that used to be scattered in different places. Inventory is visible across every location in real time. Promotions are set once and applied consistently everywhere. The POS is flexible enough to serve both a regular shopper and a corporate buyer at the same counter, something the old system simply couldn't do. And the permissions structure means the right people can perform the right tasks, without creating bottlenecks in service.
What does Ah Liki Group's business look like now?
The management team has a clear picture of what's happening across the whole business. Employees have what they need to serve customers well and handle tasks they couldn't manage before. And the entire business runs on one platform, which means fewer gaps, faster decisions, and a much cleaner foundation to grow from.
