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The future of the Point of Sale: why retail is going mobile, contactless and more personalized

Retail ERP Software /

Despite the undeniable rise of online, physical retail and the experience that goes with it – going into a store and discovering new products, seeing, touching and testing them in person, trying them on, and asking a store associate for advice – remains critically important.   Over the past decade, POS systems have evolved from a static cash register at the checkout point to a collection of valuable touchpoints that sit at the heart of the entire retail experience. Moving on, POS technology will move from a transactional role to one of consumer empowerment, bringing the shopping experience to wherever the customer wants it, however they want it.   “What we’re seeing retailers deploy now is typically applications which run a little bit in the cloud, a little bit on a mobile device, perhaps on the associate’s device, perhaps on a fixed device, perhaps even on the consumer’s own device,” said George Lawrie, vice president and principal analyst at global research firm Forrester. “The technology is now in place to do that. But also to mine a terrific amount of information and to give people some contextual content depending on where they are, what time of day it is, what day it is – that’s making a terrific difference.” Here are some ways in which the POS is evolving and how it is helping transform the customer experience for the better. 1. Moving the POS to the consumer’s device Running a POS on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet is already commonplace in the industry. And while retailers are still exploring the opportunities that this approach offers, they also recognize that more customers expect to be able to interact in the retail environment with their own mobile devices too. UK retailer Marks & Spencer launched its Mobile Pay Go consumer app to beat long queues in its busy city stores and provide customers with a checkout-free payment option. Using the app, customers can purchase their lunch in under 40 seconds.  “Making it as easy as possible for customers to come in, purchase our products and be on their way is hugely important to us,” said M&S Clapham Junction store manager Joe Erskine.  Other retailers are taking a similar tact, introducing mobile POS in stores but also adding scan, pay and go functionality to consumer apps, putting the power of the transaction in their customers’ hands. Spar and Eurospar convenience stores in Northern Ireland introduced this type of mobile app so that customers can check whether items are in stock before they leave their homes, and build shopping lists ahead of planned store visits. But the convenience extends well beyond planning ahead. Using the app, they can be guided around the premises using aisle satnav, scan goods as they shop and check allergen, dietary and even sustainability information, such as the recyclability of each item’s packaging. 2. Cloud-based technology Retail employees need to be able to access store transactions or sales data quickly from their devices wherever they are. Cloud technology is now widely adopted across the retail industry, also because it enables retailers to integrate customer, transaction and inventory data with omnichannel orders, and make all the data available in real time for store associates. This wealth of information also empowers retailers to deliver personalized brand experiences, offer endless aisle shopping, create offers that resonate with customers and optimize store fulfilment and inventory management.  UK grocery retailer Waitrose is giving some of this functionality back to its customers: they can now build a basket in the cloud which can be accessed and added to on any device. It means the customer can begin the shopping journey on the mobile, adding the basics they know they need, then add more stuff on their laptop at home. Once they’re in store, they can scan more items in before they pay. At the same time, they know they’re getting the items for the best possible price as the same promotion engine runs across all channels.  With consumer habits changing quickly, it’s important to have technology that keeps you ahead of the competition. A big advantage of cloud-based POS solution are the automated updates and upgrades. New features and functions are automatically added to the entire network as soon as they’re made available by the technology provider, enabling retailers to keep pace with change. 3. Personalizing the experience A recent Epsilon survey of 1,000 US adults found that eight in ten want personalized offers and experiences from retailers. In another survey by Accenture, 91% of consumers said they tend to shop with businesses who know them and give offers and suggestions that are relevant to them. Today, POS software can help you tailor the experience to the needs of each customer. For example, a POS with clienteling functionality allows you to identify customers who have a profile with you, enabling store associates to deliver highly personalized and relevant product advice. Using machine learning (ML) you can take this a step further, and identify the products a customer will want to buy again in the future based on their past interactions. At the POS, then, an ML-powered recommendation engine can automatically generate a list of suggested products, which the store associate can use to make personalized recommendations. Intelligent retail will probably extend to more touchpoints in the future. Every time a customer shops in an Amazon Go store, for example, Amazon learns so much from their shopping behaviors to the point where it’s highly feasible in the not-too-distant future that they will be prompted to buy staples that they haven’t picked up recently or have recipes suggested to them based on items already in their shopping cart. Hyper-personalized, dynamic promotions will likely become the norm. So when a customer scans a product, they could automatically be pointed to another item they usually buy which is on offer on the same aisle. Or if they input their dietary requirements and health goals, they could have alerts and guidance pop up on their device as they shop.  4. Contactless tech The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated adoption and development of contactless technology. Contactless payments have come of age: a recent survey by Rapyd found

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LS Retail is now LS Central & Trident is LS Central Gold Implementation Partner

Retail ERP Software /

LS Central is Centralized Software solution for Restaurants and food services industry, this is all in one complete suit to manage front office to back office operations, inventory, customer service, online food ordering, Trident as LS Central Implementation Partner offering Retail ERP implementation, Support & training

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Streamline ordering and communication with a connected Kitchen Display System (KDS)

Uncategorized /

Since LS One 2020 was released in July, the LS One team has been developing extra functionality to enhance the system. They have put special focus on extending the capabilities for restaurants and food service businesses. Trident is LS Retail Central Platinum Partner, offering ERP for Retail & Hospitality. The Kitchen Display System (KDS) is a digital order viewer that replaces paper tickets and printers in a restaurant kitchen. A KDS has become an essential component in a modern kitchen, as it helps organize and streamline work: No more stained, hard-to-read paper tickets: all orders are displayed on screens, clear and tidy. No need for servers to waste time running from the front to the kitchen and back: all communication between kitchen and front (orders, items, their preparation status) goes through your POS system. Items and orders are automatically routed and displayed at the proper food preparation stations. Items are shown on the screens by production order, so kitchen staff can start and complete preparation timely. Kitchen staff can bump dishes to different stations, or mark orders and items as ready. The Kitchen Display System and the POS are connected via a two-way communication system. Front-of-house staff can see the status of orders at the POS, and make sure all dishes are delivered to the guests at the right time. You can add screens and set up specific automations to follow your kitchen’s flow. In the past, to connect a KDS to LS One you needed to do your own integration. From this version of LS One onwards, you can use your LS One POS system with the LS Retail Kitchen Display System. The systems are connected out of the box, no extra work needed. Picture this: Your server takes the order at the POS. When they send the order to the kitchen, the items are automatically routed to the KDS in the correct kitchen station (for example, the grill station versus the sauté or dessert station), and displayed in the right order of production. When a guest asks “When is my dish coming?” front-of-house staff can check at the POS the status of the order, and update the table. Easy, quick, and professional. Sell groups of items easily with assembly items It’s now easier than ever before to sell multiple items at once – for example, as a gift basket. In LS One you can now create “assembly items” by combining different items into one. The options are endless: Set up deals (or meal deals, if you run a restaurant or café) Create hampers and gift baskets Make bills of materials Set up recipes, managing the ingredients as separate items Assemble supply kits Do you run a chain, and want to differentiate your offering across locations? You can vary the list of component items between locations, and easily substitute products or ingredients as needed. For example, your holiday hamper can include Gouda cheese, instead of brie, in some of your store locations. You can set a special price for the final item, or add up the prices of the items that compose it – your choice. If you want, you can also display the list of components on the POS receipt, on the printed receipt, and on kitchen orders – or you can hide it. The integration to SAP Business One ERP just keeps on getting better Since we introduced the out-of-the-box integration between LS One and ERP SAP Business One, more and more businesses have moved from other POS solutions to LS One. Using their valuable feedback, we have been working on the integration to make it even more immediate and seamless. You can now add a U.S. tax setup when you create a customer on the POS The login service layer is more intuitive and quicker We have added tax synchronization for specific localizations You can now easily connect to different versions of SAP Business One HANA More enhancements to come as the LS One team keeps on ironing out the wrinkles. Endlessly enhancing LS One We are continuously working on improving LS One in terms of functionality, speed and simplicity. Some highlights from this release: You can now add the company’s country information Discount calculations are way faster than before We have redesigned the “send to station” and “menu type selection” dialogs (restaurant-specific functionality) The kitchen printing/send to station functionality is now fast and seamless (restaurant-specific). You can find more enhancements and fixes in the release notes. And as usual, more improvements are ahead as the team keeps on working to make LS One the best POS in the industry. If you have any comments, suggestions, or any query for us, get in touch! or write at info@tridentinfo.com

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How to reduce queues in your retail store and keep customers safe

Retail ERP Software /

Consumers hate standing in line at the store. This is nothing new. Nine out of ten UK shoppers interviewed by Box Technologies and Intel revealed they avoided stores with long queues. When Amazon opened its cashier-less, checkout-less store Amazon Go, many hailed it as a much-needed revolution exactly because it eliminated the need to queue to check out. Since Covid-19 hit, long lines have gone from being simply a nuisance and a waste of time to a potential hazard. As a retailer, how can you reduce the risk of lines forming without going the Amazon Go route? Here are six ideas. 1. Bring the register to the customer with mobile POS Today, the most advanced retail software solutions enable you to run the Point of Sale (POS) on mobile devices like tablet computers or smartphones. Your staff can look up information, scan items, close transactions, accept payments and print receipts anywhere the customers are, both inside and outside the store premises. No need for customers to line up at the register and wait for their turn. Another advantage of mobile POS is that you can easily add more devices when needed, without having to devote space to extra registers. [Download our whitepaper “No more strings” to find out more benefits of adding mobile Point of Sale to your in-store experience] 2. Add special stations for complex processes Simple sales are usually fast to handle, so a line of customers simply buying items usually flows rapidly. On the other hand, more complex processes like returns, custom orders or loyalty program signups can take longer, and slow down the line significantly. Since simple sales usually outnumber complex ones, you can reduce the average waiting time having a special service station for shoppers who need extra help, for example those needing refunds, exchanges, special orders and more. 3. Experiment with virtual queues With a virtual queue machine, customers can take a number and secure a place in a queue without actually having to stand in line, close to each other. Although these kind of machines are common in service centers like post offices and banks, they are not as widespread in retail stores, especially at the register. My local electronics store, for example, uses virtual queuing for customers looking for assistance, but relies on traditional lines at the register. Are they missing an opportunity? An added reason to try out virtual queues is that they give customers the time to wander around the store while waiting – a great opportunity for them to see   extra items they might want to add to their cart. 4. Set up one-to-one appointments Not all retail store visits need to be unplanned walk-ins. If a consultation or special attention is required, more retailers are encouraging people to book a time beforehand, so they can be given the time and attention they need. Jewelry chains Watches of Switzerland and Goldsmiths, Mappin & Webb started booking one-to-one appointments with customers as soon as they reopened their stores after the temporary pandemic closures. Craig Bolton, executive director of The Watches of Switzerland Group, says that his company set up 13,000 one-to-one virtual and in-store appointments in the last two weeks of July alone. Although this format may not fit retailers in all industries, reservations can help organize the flux of incoming visitors and ensure that you have the time and space you need for your customers. 5. Add “scan and go” tech The latest revolution in Point of Sale technology sees the POS move into the consumer’s hands. Scan and go mobile apps allow consumers to self-serve in the shop, using either their personal mobile device or a provided handset to scan items and pay. The process is different from traditional mobile POS, not just because customers take care of the scanning themselves but also because items are scanned as they are added to the cart. Although for now Scan and Go technology is most common in grocery stores, there is no reason why retailers in other sectors shouldn’t take advantage of it. In a fashion, health, electronics or DIY store, customers would benefit from the ability to add items to the basket at their convenience while limiting human-to-human contact. Scan and go apps have other benefits, too. When they scan aa barcode , customers can see all the product details, including information like nutrition, components or ingredients and care instructions– a great way for shoppers to get all the extra information they need to make a buying decision without having to touch the product. 6. Empower your staff with intuitive, reliable tech Is outdated, slow technology one of the causes of long lines in your store? One of our customers told us a horror story of their old POS breaking down during the Christmas Eve rush. “It was a nightmare: one of our cash registers locked up, causing all of the systems in our main store to go down. Lines wrapped around the store because we had to process all transactions manually by writing everything down. We easily lost $20,000 that day, and who knows the long term effects it had on repeat business.” His conclusion? “The most important criterion when choosing a system is reliability.” Take a hard look at your technology: is it still serving your customers adequately? When selecting new software, look for systems that ensure short transaction times. Long queues used to be a luxury problem for a retailer; not anymore. Do you need help finding the right technology to give customers a safe, pleasant experience in your stores? Do not hesitate to contact us.

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8 tips to build a successful restaurant experience in times of crisis and beyond

Uncategorized /

Digital transformation is no longer a choice. That’s the key message from the experts who spoke at “How to build a successful restaurant experience in Covid times,” an online event organized by LS Retail and Microsoft. The panel included industry experts from Microsoft and LS Retail as well as Leon DeWet, a CIO with decades of experiences in the F&B industry. The group discussed how restaurants can build competences and resilience to maintain customer loyalty and thrive, now and through the next crisis. This blog is mainly for Restaurant management software & tips for Successful restaurant  experience Restaurant Management Software Here are 8 tips from the experts to help you approach this digital transformation, so that you can ride the next wave of change instead of being crushed by it. 1. Rethink every step of the journey Yesterday, you had to deliver convenience and hospitality; today, you must also guarantee customer and employee safety. Many restaurants have added quick fixes, such as covering payment devices in plastic, so they can easily be sanitized. “How often does the reader on the contactless device not work, now that it’s covered in plastic?,” Minicola asked attendees, adding “And how often do restaurants ask me to touch the screen anyway to provide a tip?” The boom of contactless payments, home delivery, drive-thru and curbside is not temporary. Restaurants must step back, rethink the whole journey, and implement solutions that are effective and designed to last long-term. Two examples that were mentioned of additions that will bring a benefit now and tomorrow: Menus that can be accessed via a QR code are useful now – paper menus are hard to sanitize – and will provide a value later on, as they enable restaurants to make quick menu changes without wasting time or printing costs. Software to manage tables and seating plans can help you easily redesign your floor plan, with safely distanced tables and clear tracking of who is seating where and when for contact tracing purposes. In the future, table management software can help you optimize seating space, track the status of each table (who is waiting to order, who has been served) and easily accommodate last-minute guests, all the while keeping your service flawless. 2. Focus on mobility Mobility should be a priority in any digitization project. Running your Point of Sale on mobile devices helps you manage the flow of guests and staff inside the restaurant premises. Your server can take an order from a group sitting on the terrace, and then go to another table, take their card payment and see them out. Service is faster and more convenient for your guests, who can stay seated throughout. At the same time, you reduce the risk of contagion by reducing needless walking around and queuing at the till, and by letting servers using a personal device instead of sharing a standard till. And if your POS offers a two-way connection to the display systems in the kitchen, you get a whole set of extra benefits. “With our restaurant software, when you punch in an order at the POS, the order is sent automatically to a digital display at the correct kitchen station. Your front-of-house staff is spared all the needless back and forth from the table to the kitchen and to the register. The result is less risk of contact, and less time wasted,” said Eric Miller, Regional Director at LS Retail. But this is just scratching the surface. Mobile POS, especially when part of an interconnected technology platform, also enables more precise communication between front of house and kitchen, reduces the risk of production mistakes, and helps speed up table turns. Michael Mento, Surface specialist at Microsoft, described how eagerly restaurants have adopted the Surface tablet devices, which also come with accessories specifically designed for use on the restaurant floor. 3. Build your experiences on a strong technology platform Customers demand consistent experiences, and these can only be achieved through a unified approach to technology. Unified software solutions are increasingly replacing traditional fragmented IT setups. The benefits are well known: Managers geta 360-degree view of the organisation, with all business and customer data accessible in one place. Decision making is faster, as managers can get actionable reports, accounts and statistics exactly when they need them. Implementation and management costs are lower, as you don’t need to integrate separate systems and to maintain these integrations. You can transmit information quickly across the company, from the dishes on today’s menu to recipes, prices and nutritional content. So everyone can always perform at the top of their abilities. And if you run your unified software in the cloud, you can grab opportunities as they arise. As the pandemic hit, companies that run their software in the cloud, and who were not burdened by traditional on-prem infrastructure, investments and timelines, have been able to add innovative technology and transform their business models faster. “For many restaurants, the ability to add systems for pickup, delivery, and curbside made the difference between success and closing up doors,” Miller pointed out. Leon DeWet, former CIO at F&B enterprises Cracker Barrel and O’Charley’s, reminded business to consider how well the selected software and hardware work together. “If one works, but the other one doesn’t deliver, the project fails,” he noted. “Look for a solution that is proven for software and hardware working together.” Mento, from the Microsoft Surface team, echoed DeWet’s words. 4. Track changes in customer behavior With people working from home and stuck in lockdowns, restaurants have seen tremendous changes. They have lost old customers, gained new ones, and seen regulars approach them at different times, with new needs. These are changes businesses must pay attention to. “You need to capture this data, or you have no way to build your strategy on driving loyalty now and into the future,” said Minicola. “You cannot establish and foster loyalty without data,” she added. Access to data that is both reliable and timely is necessary for action. You need to clearly see what is happening to react, and prevent issues and waste. “During the pandemic, many restaurants have had problems sourcing specific ingredients,” said Miller. “With our software, you can do predictive cost analysis, and experiment varying prices, menus and recipes. The system helps you find the sweet spot with optimum benefits. You can then use this knowledge to

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Why it makes sense to move your retail management software to the cloud

Retail ERP Software, Retail POS Solution /

As a successful retailer, chances are you are already running some of your IT functions in the cloud. That’s smart. The next logical step is to move your entire retail management system to the cloud, and go from the on-premises version to its software as a service (SaaS) one. But even if you know that the cloud is experiencing exponential growth, and that you will, one day, take the leap, you may be hesitant to do it now. Perhaps you are afraid you’re not ready for the change. Perhaps you have security concerns. Maybe you can’t clearly identify which practical, day-to-day benefits you’d get from moving to the cloud. Whichever your reasons, you want the best for your business, and you care about staying competitive. You want to make the right decision, and employ technology that will propel you forward today and tomorrow. While you are debating whether the cloud is for you, here are 8 good reasons why you should consider migrating your system. 1. Stay up to date, automatically With traditional on-premises software, businesses are responsible of keeping their hardware and software up to date. In order to stay current (and safe), they’d need to purchase new hardware every few years, and to update their software every few months. But in reality, retailers usually have more pressing concerns than keeping track of the latest software patch or upgrade. And if the company is using multiple software solutions and there are integrations in place, a system upgrade can become a costly and lengthy project. As a result, many companies end up with outdated IT environments that work, but don’t really support the business, and may even hinder it. In the worst cases, this old tech might reduce the company’s ability to grow and take on new projects, or stay on top of consumer demands. When you are using SaaS in the cloud, all these concerns belong to the past. You don’t need to worry about periodic maintenance, or to budget for expensive and complicated software upgrades. Instead, your supplier takes care of updating your software regularly. And if you have configured your add-ons correctly, you can maintain all your extensions, and even your configurations. SaaS software guarantees that you are always, automatically, on the latest version, and can use all the new functionality that comes with it. 2. Enhance productivity with intelligence One of the biggest advantages of the cloud is the advanced computational power it offers. Tasks that until yesterday were too complex for even the most powerful computer, for example predicting future sales patterns, are now within reach of any retailer. Businesses can run their data into Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) powered tools available in the cloud, and without having to pay for extra servers or data scientists, they can get the answers they need, with minimal effort, very rapidly, and at a fraction of the cost than comparable on-prem technology. There is a wide variety of AI tools available in the cloud, giving businesses infinite possibilities to improve their effectiveness and productivity. AI can also help make smarter decisions, and deliver more personalized, to the point customer service. Would you like to send personalized promotions and special deals to your customers based on their shopping history and specific tastes? Are you thinking about adding a chatbot or virtual agent as a first-line customer support? Or perhaps you’d like to offer intelligent search on your e-commerce site? When you run your software in the cloud, all these initiatives are accessible to you, and can be started within a very short timeframe. But AI can do much more than help deliver bespoke customer experiences. You can use optimize your inventory with advanced forecasting that can factor seasonality, promotions, trends, and product substitutes and complements into your forecasts. You can refine your hiring practices with intelligent talent acquisition solutions. You can simplify searches across your catalog for both staff and customers using AI-powered accurate product tagging applied to images. When you infuse your business with intelligence, you also make it more proactive, agile, and profitable. 3. Guarantee business continuity with a reliable infrastructure With traditional in-house IT setups, businesses are at constant risk of downtimes and failures. On-site servers can’t usually guarantee a consistent performance, and if a key piece of your hardware breaks down, you may be left unable to serve customers or close sales – and could even risk losing your business data. As regards reliability, a traditional infrastructure usually necessitates a disaster recovery plan, requiring you to build redundancy, carefully monitor conditions, having dual firewalls and more – in short, you need to budget for time-consuming, expensive, complex monitoring. Switch to SaaS software, and you can step away from all of these problems. Even if you experience a hardware failure – say your computers or servers break down – you won’t lose your data, as it is safely stored in the cloud and can be accessed when and as you need to. The cloud also guarantees higher reliability. Large cloud services like Microsoft Azure, with expansive resources and entire dedicated teams, have already built in redundancy, from failover hardware to datacenters located across the world. As a result, Azure, the service where the cloud-based version of LS Central resides, can guarantee 99,995% uptime, and top security features. 4. Respond quickly to changing market conditions You know how important speed of action is in the retail industry. Yet, traditional IT environments are all but agile: even a project as simple as adding new servers or applications can be very time consuming. First, your IT staff needs time to procure the hardware or software that will fit within the current infrastructure. Then they have to set it up and test it, and finally, they’ll have to go through implementing it. In the past, this process was the only way to implement change. Today, this is an outdated and ineffective way of operating – especially when the businesses you are competing against are agile and unburdened by traditional infrastructure, such as e-commerce players. To stay

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Why organizational change projects fail and how to prevent implementation disaster

Retail ERP Software /

New IT installations often fail. At least that’s the widespread belief surrounding organizational change initiatives today. One frequently cited study from the 1993 book Reengineering the Corporation goes as far as saying that as many as 70% of the organizations that undertake a reengineering effort do not achieve the dramatic results they intended. A more recent McKinsey survey of more than 1,500 executives who had undertaken a significant change effort in the past five years found that only 38% of respondents said “the transformation was ‘completely’ or ‘mostly’ successful at improving performance. After two decades of hearing about high failure rates related to change, it’s unsurprising that business leaders are wary of organizational change projects. Organizational psychologist Nick Tasler explained that these negative biases can create a toxic self-fulfilling prophecy. “When a change project falls a day behind schedule, if leaders and employees believe that successful change is an unlikely outcome, they will regard this momentary setback as the dead canary in the coalmine of their change initiative. (Never mind the fact that three other initiatives are still on time or ahead of schedule),” he wrote in an article for Harvard Business Review. “Suddenly, employees disengage en masse and then the change engine begins to sputter in both perception and reality.” Yes, change is hard, and complex IT implementation projects, particularly ERP installations, can be particularly challenging. But it doesn’t mean they are doomed to failure. So where do you start? How can you choose the right technology for your retail business, and ensure that the implementation project runs as smoothly as possible and you get the most from your investment? Here are some of the main causes for failure in any organizational change initiative, and how can you prevent them from happening: Mistake #1: Failure to plan Issue: An outdated legacy system is impacting business performance, and it needs replacing quickly. In their rush to get the project going, business management jump straight into the implementation without taking the time to develop a well thought-out organizational change management plan. Solution: Don’t be tempted to cut corners in your planning. Analyze your business, decide what should be prioritized, and understand all the different ways the project will impact your routines at every stage of the process. “Companies should start by analyzing their current and future requirements and processes,” says Gunnar Ingimundarson, Chief Consulting Officer at LS Retail. “How many software solutions are they currently using, and what are they used for? Map out the disparate solutions in the stack, alongside their dependencies and interconnections. The next step is to figure out where they can draw the biggest – or quickest – benefits. Is your POS system not generating the information you need on stock levels and product visibility? Or, are there integrations that repeatedly cause problems or break down? Do you experience missing data? Identify the area(s) where a new system would bring immediate value in terms of savings or returns. That’s where you should start, and that should determine your priorities.” Once the priorities are set, break the project down into manageable chunks, from pilot phase to initial implementation to company-wide rollout. Consider when it’s most appropriate to start each phase of the installation so you won’t place unnecessary strain on your business during busy times. Mistake #2: Key stakeholders aren’t onboard, or have unrealistic expectations Issue: Management want the new technology in place quickly and only focus on the end goals. They get frustrated by how long the project is taking and threaten to pull the plug. Or they wonder why the new software isn’t being adopted widely and successfully when they failed to communicate the changes to everybody in the business and get company-wide buy in. Solution: All stakeholders need to be committed to the project’s success right from the beginning, and to clearly understand the project’s scope and goals. “Internal resistance can kill even the best implementation project,” says Eric Miller, Regional Director for the Americas at LS Retail, building on his 13 years of experience in software implementations. “Get the buy-in from all stakeholders from the start, and make sure that the goals, objectives and expected end results of the project are clear and communicated from you to the stakeholders, and from the stakeholders to all the customer parties involved. It never pays off to sell a dream you can’t deliver on.” Bring together personnel from different departments to understand their requirements and what outcomes they hope to achieve from the implementation. Similarly, they need to understand how much time should be devoted to a project like this and ensure project teams are given sufficient time to carry out the work. Set realistic timeframes from the start, and ensure everyone knows exactly what’s required of them. Mistake #3: Unforeseen changes throw the project off track Issue: Even the best prepared projects encounter hurdles along the way, but if unforeseen issues arise and major milestones are missed, it can be tempting to throw in the towel and deem the entire project a failure. Solution: Know that when you’re dealing with a large-scale IT implementation, it’s hard to plan for every eventuality. Be willing to adapt and take a different approach if it ultimately means the project will be a success. “What was deemed to be the best approach initially may need to change – this might even happen after the pilot is completed. I have seen companies that went through multiple pilots before finding the right balance. It’s a learning process, and it’s never over,” says Miller. It’s worth learning everything you can from the pilot implementation. Instead of rushing on to roll out store #2, take a moment to see how the system is working and to identify any issues that you couldn’t have planned for in your testing environment. Success comes to those who take a considered approach. Mistake #4: Picking the wrong technology partner Issue: It may be tempting to go for the cheapest technology provider, but cheapest upfront may not necessarily deliver the long-term business value you hoped for. You quickly realize they can’t help you achieve your outcomes, because they lack drive,

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Your Online Grocery Store Isn’t Losing Customers to Competitors — It’s Losing Them to Friction

Retail ERP Software, Retail POS Solution /

INTRO Online grocery sales are growing at roughly 28% a year — more than ten times the rate of total grocery sales. That growth is also exposing which retailers built their online grocery ERP software around real shopping behavior, and which bolted e-commerce onto a system that was never designed for it. The seven gaps below are the ones costing retailers carts, not competitors. Each one is a system problem before it’s a customer-experience problem. Slow Search Costs You the Sale Before Checkout A shopper hunting through a hundred-item bread category for one product doesn’t file a complaint — they just leave. Category filtering, predictive search (“did you mean coriander?”), and complete product data — pack size, allergens, expiry — aren’t UX polish. They’re inventory data problems, and they trace back to whether your ERP actually feeds structured product data to your storefront or leaves your web team entering it by hand. Hidden Delivery Restrictions Kill Orders After the Cart Is Full Nothing costs a sale faster than a shopper spending 20 minutes filling a cart, then discovering their postcode isn’t serviceable. Delivery zones, pricing, and timing need to be visible before checkout starts — which means your delivery logic needs to be connected to your commerce platform in real time, not a static page someone forgot to update last quarter. Fix This With a Clear Checkout FlowLabel every step (Details → Shipping → Payment → Review), show a progress bar, and confirm the order with a summary — items, delivery window, and what happens next. Ambiguity at checkout is where carts get abandoned. Mobile Is Already Majority Traffic — Is Your Platform Built for It? Mobile drives the majority of e-commerce traffic and sales for most retailers now. If your site isn’t fully responsive — large tap targets, zoomable product images, a cart that persists across devices — you’re optimizing for the smaller slice of your audience. Cart persistence in particular matters: a shopper who starts on their phone and finishes on a laptop shouldn’t have to rebuild their order. “Endless Aisle” Only Works With Real Navigation Online stores can carry far more SKUs than a physical location — but only if customers can actually find them. Top-level categories, sort-and-filter by price or brand, and a visibly confirmed “add to cart” action are baseline. Without them, a bigger catalog just means a worse search experience. Delivery Precision Drives Conversion More Than Delivery Speed Nielsen’s Global Connected Commerce research points to 30-minute delivery windows as the benchmark shoppers respond to — not same-day delivery in the abstract, but a specific window they can plan around. Whether you deliver direct, via locker pickup, curbside, or through a partner like Instacart depends on your infrastructure. What matters is picking one you can reliably hit. Freshness Anxiety Is a Solvable Data Problem Spoilage risk is one of the top reasons shoppers hesitate to buy fresh groceries online. Freshness labels showing remaining shelf life after delivery, visible customer reviews per product, and a clear return or refund policy for produce that doesn’t meet expectations all directly address that hesitation — but only if your system tracks expiry data at the SKU level to begin with. One Broken Link in the Chain Becomes the Whole Brand’s Problem A late delivery, a wrong product description, or a broken cold-storage locker doesn’t read to the customer as “a vendor issue” — it reads as your failure. This is why online grocery ERP software has to unify inventory, POS, delivery logistics, and product data on one system. Disconnected point solutions are where these failures start. Running your online grocery operation on disconnected systems? Talk to Trident about an ERP assessment built for grocery retail. FAQ What ERP features matter most for online grocery retailers?Real-time inventory sync, SKU-level expiry tracking, and integration between POS, e-commerce, and delivery logistics matter most — these directly address the stockout, freshness, and delivery-accuracy issues that cause cart abandonment. Why do online grocery shoppers abandon their carts?The most common causes are hidden delivery restrictions discovered late in checkout, slow or unclear search, and lack of trust in product freshness — all of which trace back to system-level data gaps, not just website design. What delivery window works best for online grocery?Research from Nielsen points to 30-minute delivery windows as the standard shoppers respond to best, provided the retailer can consistently meet that window.

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Business team using CRM software to manage sales, customer data, and communication workflows.

5 Clear Signs Your Business Needs CRM Software in 2026

Microsoft Dynamics CRM /

Here is a question most business owners ask too late: at what point does managing customer relationships in spreadsheets, email inboxes, and memory become a liability rather than a system? The honest answer is — sooner than you think. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is not just for large enterprises with complex sales teams. It is for any business that wants to grow its customer base, retain the customers it already has, and make sure no opportunity falls through the cracks. The challenge is recognising when the moment has arrived. Here are five clear signs that your business needs CRM software — and why Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the platform most businesses choose. What Is CRM Software and Why Does It Matter? CRM software is a centralised system that manages every interaction between your business and your customers — from the first marketing touchpoint through the sales cycle, the initial purchase, ongoing service, and renewal. Done well, CRM gives every team member a complete, real-time picture of every customer relationship. Sales knows what marketing has sent. Customer service knows what sales has promised. Management knows exactly where every opportunity stands. Without CRM, this information lives in individual inboxes, personal spreadsheets, and people’s heads — and every time someone leaves the business, some of that knowledge leaves with them. 5 Signs Your Business Needs CRM Software Now Sign 1 — You Are Losing Leads Without Knowing Why Leads come in through your website, social media, phone calls, and referrals. But if you are managing them manually, some of those leads are simply not being followed up — because they were logged in the wrong place, assigned to the wrong person, or forgotten during a busy week. A CRM captures every lead automatically, assigns it to the right team member, sets follow-up reminders, and tracks every interaction. Nothing gets lost. Every opportunity gets the attention it deserves. If you have ever discovered a warm lead that was never followed up weeks after it arrived — your business needs CRM. Sign 2 — Your Marketing and Sales Teams Work in Silos Marketing generates leads. Sales closes deals. But when these two teams work from different systems and different data, the handoff between them is where opportunities die. Marketing does not know which leads converted. Sales does not know which campaigns generated their best prospects. Neither team can make decisions based on the complete picture — because that picture does not exist in any single place. CRM creates a shared view of every customer and every lead — so marketing can see which campaigns produce sales-ready prospects and sales can engage leads with full context on their marketing journey. The result is better targeting, higher conversion rates, and a measurable improvement in revenue. If your marketing and sales teams regularly blame each other for pipeline problems — your business needs CRM. Sign 3 — You Cannot Easily Create Quotes and Track Invoices For businesses that sell through a quotation process — professional services, manufacturing, technology, or any B2B operation — the ability to create, track, and follow up on quotes directly impacts how quickly deals close. A CRM with a built-in quoting and invoicing module connects the entire opportunity-to-cash process: If your team is manually creating quotes in Word documents and tracking them in a spreadsheet — your business needs CRM. Sign 4 — Customer Service Issues Are Falling Through the Gaps Customer service quality is directly tied to information quality. When a customer calls with a problem, the speed and accuracy of the resolution depends on whether your team can instantly see their complete history — what they bought, when, what issues they have had before, and what was promised. Without CRM, this information is scattered across email threads, support tickets, and different team members’ notes. The customer ends up repeating themselves. Issues take longer to resolve. Satisfaction drops. CRM centralises customer service management: If customers regularly complain about having to repeat their issue to multiple people — your business needs CRM. Sign 5 — You Cannot See How Your Business Is Really Performing Good management decisions are built on good data. But if your sales pipeline lives in a spreadsheet, your customer data is in email, and your service records are in a helpdesk tool — getting a clear, current picture of business performance requires manual compilation that takes hours and is outdated the moment it is finished. CRM provides real-time dashboards and reports that give every level of the organisation instant visibility: If your management team regularly makes decisions based on instinct because the data is too hard to access quickly — your business needs CRM. Why Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Microsoft Dynamics 365 is one of the world’s most widely adopted CRM platforms — and for good reason. It covers every scenario described above in a single, unified platform: lead management, marketing automation, sales pipeline, quoting and invoicing, customer service, and real-time analytics — all connected on the same data model. Key advantages over standalone CRM tools: Why Trident Is India’s Trusted Dynamics 365 CRM Partner As a certified Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner, Trident Information Systems has helped businesses across sales, marketing, manufacturing, retail, and professional services in India implement CRM solutions that close the gaps described in this article. Our CRM implementations are configured around your specific sales process and customer management requirements — not a generic template. Ready to find out how CRM software can transform your customer relationships? Book a free Dynamics 365 CRM assessment with Trident today. For more insightful content and industry updates, follow our LinkedIn page.

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What Considerations Should be taken into Account when Implementing the New ERP for Food Manufacturing?

Food Manufacturing ERP /

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Usually, the decision-making process for ERP for Food Manufacturing is long and complex. From deciding which functionality is most vital to your business, to choosing a system that will make rapid and meaningful changes, it may seem daunting to decide on the appropriate ERP solution for your organization. But don’t worry, Microsoft gold partner Trident got you covered. As we have 20+ years’ experience and  implemented ERP food manufacturing various satisfied customers like Haldirams, Nik Bakers, etc. Through sharing tips on how to pick and incorporate the right food production ERP solution for your food company, we will make the decision-making process of implementing an appropriate ERP for food manufacturing a bit easier for your organization. 1) – Food Specific Approaches Tons of ERPs and business solutions are available to choose from. But as a food manufacturer or supplier, you should understand that it is complex to manage a food business effectively and comes with its own set of unique complexities. Many of the integrated software systems in the marketplace for small to medium-sized enterprises provide the functionality you would expect for sales, acquisitions, operations, accounting and inventory management only. But what about the extra features distinctive to food manufacturing? Once you settle on a standardized ERP solution, ask yourselves how much modification and flexibility a food-specific system will have to go into implementing the following characteristics: Food safety and compliance Manufacturing and quality Recipe development and management Food recall and trace-ability 2) – Functionality Recalling that not all food businesses run in the same manner is also relevant. A supermarket bakery operates much differently than a manufacturing frozen food, and a meat processor will have a completely different set of software specifications than a broad line dealer. So where are you going to start? Try to address the features and functions that your existing system currently lacks. Create a “wish list” of elements that would make operations run better if you had them in the spot. From there, you can filter a lot of ERP providers and can concentrate on only those solutions that are suitable for your organization. 3) –  Easy to Use Suppose: at your job you’re a warehouse worker or a machine technician. Now your management team has decided to introduce a new software platform throughout the organization, and you are responsible for learning it as soon as possible (and as precisely as possible). Too much load, right? Moving from manually managing stuff or from a legacy system to a fully integrated ERP solution can be terrifying for everyone in the company. The accounting department now needs to learn how to use a new system to enter figures and run calculations. The QA department now has a new way to set up quality controls and audits. If a new process is too complex, your staff might feel frustrated, disheartened, and underappreciated. Look for an ERP running on a system that is probably already familiar with most of your workforce (such as, for example, Microsoft Dynamics) 4) – Customer Support Working with a vendor of an ERP solution is so much more than just buying and using the product to run your business. The ERP solution is implemented, which usually takes five to nine months, and then continued support and facilities will proceed across your software’s life cycle. It is therefore essential to ensure that the ERP you choose is assisted by a team of people who are committed to ensuring that you are successful. This means for the food industry you need experts who are not only professionals in software but also food specialists. You wouldn’t recruit somebody to work in your warehouse that wasn’t a good choice, correct? Think the same way about the people who are working for your ERP provider. Because they are also responsible for your business ‘ success. It is easy to get confused as there are too many ERP for food manufacturing service providers, so remember to remain vigilant and consistent with what you want to get out of your solution. Selecting the right ERP means choosing software to help you enhance food security, simplify efficiency or productivity and handle the progress of the enterprise. If you still have any doubts left in your mind then you can contact to Trident’s ERP for food manufacturing providers on https://tridentinfo.com/contact/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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