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Retailers of all sizes share common goals: Differentiate their stores, increase revenues and employee productivity, and streamline operations. Big retailers have greater resources to implement the latest technologies. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., for example, is pioneering a self-service checkout system based on radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.

Many large retailers are using IP networks for initiatives including:

• self-checkout
• advertising and multichannel marketing
• automatic replenishment
• inventory control
• supply-chain management
• employee recruiting and training
• in-store kiosks

But the hottest new technologies are not limited to the biggest retailers. SMBs are finding that innovations, and falling prices, in retail technologies can bring big benefits for them too.

Two SMBs that know this well are:

• Town & Country Food Stores, which has expedited payment processing and trimmed inventory by implementing a high-speed companywide network
• Legal Sea Foods, which is using IP communications to unite its corporate distribution center with its restaurants and enhance its customers' experience

Faster Payment Processing
For years Town & Country Food Stores, a chain of 151 convenience stores in Texas and New Mexico, conducted credit- and debit-card transactions over dial-up, which took up to 20 seconds. Customers found the wait interminable.

CFO Devin Bates, who also oversees IT and accounting, turned to Transaction Network Services, Inc. (TNS), to implement an IP-based WAN to expedite payment processing. A Cisco Powered Network member, TNS recommended its FusionPoint service, a high-speed, high-bandwidth IP services pipeline designed specifically for convenience stores.

Credit-card processing time plunged from 20 seconds to approximately 3 seconds per transaction. Another benefit: Tech support staff at Town & Country headquarters can now remotely access any computer in any store, which saves hundreds of hours of troubleshooting time, travel expenses, and talking store managers through IT work.

The new system also improved the way store owners polled gasoline tank monitors. The new WAN provides real-time fuel inventory information, enabling owners to monitor gas volume at any time. Town & Country can better manage fuel purchase to meet supply and demand.

The entire system upgrade cost about $2,800 per store, or roughly $500,000 overall and was completed in six months. Bates expects to see the full return on the investment within two years, noting that much of the value comes from reduced fuel inventories, money saved on IT staff travel, and improved customer loyalty.

Better Customer Communications
Providing good customer service was also the goal at Legal Sea Foods, a Boston-based seafood distribution company with restaurants famous for lobster and clam chowder. Rising call volume was interfering with service at the company's flagship Long Wharf location.

"Each time our hostess answered phone calls, it prevented her from greeting customers," says Ken Chaisson, the company's vice president of IT. "We knew there had to be a better way."

Chaisson hired RTM Communications, a Cisco SMB Select and Premier Certified Partner, to deploy the technology at Legal's headquarters. RTM installed Cisco IP Communications call-processing and unified-messaging software, as well as the Cisco IPCC Express Edition call-center solution to help customer-service representatives expedite management of mail-order requests.

Then RTM added a router and eight IP phones at the Long Wharf restaurant. Now when customers call, they're greeted with a message that includes hours, directions, and a list of options for a reservations hotline, the take-out counter, and the manager's voice mail. The number of calls requiring a hostess has dropped by 30%.

The system at Long Wharf cost about $20,000 and was completed in 120 days.

Ongoing Improvements
Both Town & Country and Legal Sea Foods are taking advantage of their new networks to make further operational improvements.

• Town & Country is developing a time-clock application that will run on the WAN.
• Legal Sea Foods plans to bring many of the chain's other 30 restaurants online later this year and have wait staff use handheld wireless devices to manage orders.

Both companies say partnering with technology providers was critical. Bates says there was "no way" Town & Country could have carried out a systemwide deployment without outsourcing, noting that his staff resources are limited. Chaisson openly refers to RTM as part of the Legal Sea Foods IT department.

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About the Author

Matt Villano is a freelance writer based in Half Moon Bay, California. He has written for CRN, the New York Times, and CIO Magazine.

iQ Magazine, Second Quarter 2006