SamoaTel and Inifnity RMS

SamoaTel


Infinity POS software thrives in tough island conditions

“It never crashes, it always works. In retail it’s a catastrophe if your cash register crashes and your customers are backing up. With Infinity POS software you never have that problem.” Raymond Fruean, Manager Retail and Distribution

SamoaTel is a state owned enterprise providing postal, and fixed line and mobile phone services. The company has 11 outlets situated on Samoa’s two main islands of Savaii and Upolu. Staff numbers 300 and SamoaTel has a NZ$50 million per annum turnover.


SamoaTel’s requirement

SamoaTel’s Manager of Retail and Distribution Raymond Fruean says that the launch of its mobile brand, Go Mobile, in January 2007, prompted the company to review its POS software.

SamoaTel wanted to deploy a common POS software system across its six postal outlets and four new Go Mobile retail outlets. And it wanted to replace the existing postal outlet POS software because the system was prone to freezing up, which meant the POS system terminals needed to be rebooted, Raymond says.

“That’s a big issue for our operation if the POS software freezes. You have customers waiting and you lose sales while you reboot,” Raymond says.

So SamoaTel embarked on a worldwide search for a robust and reliable POS software/inventory management software that could remain working despite the challenges of Western Samoa’s climate and idiosyncratic power supply.

“The weather here is not conducive to running PCs. The humidity gets into everything,” Raymond says. “Also the power supply fluctuates, which is a big killer of computers. We don’t have power filters, so if someone turns on too many plugs over the road, it can affect our power supply,” Raymond says.

SamoaTel was also looking for POS software that could be easily configured to provide dedicated functionality for its post and mobile operations.


The Infinity solution

SamoaTel selected Infinity POS because of its reliability and ability to keep POS terminals operating as stand-alone units during a network outage.

The POS software was rolled out in 2006 and is deployed at head office located in Apia (Samoa’s capital), in the back office of each Go Mobile and SamoaPost outlet, and in PC-based POS software terminals in 30 lanes.

As part of the POS software package, Triquestra supplied Extended Service Modules (ESMs) that provide customised functionality for SamoaTel’s Go Mobile and postal retail outlets, without needing to change the Infinity POS system core functionality.

“Infinity POS software gives us mobile and postal functionality that runs alongside the usual retail point of sale. We looked everywhere for that, in the UK, USA and as far away as South Africa, and we couldn’t find it,” Raymond says.

Infinity’s postal functionality provides an overlay that calculates prices for posting an item depending on its weight, destination and the class of postage required.

“It gives the customer different prices and they select one. This price then pops up as a single entry on the POS system screen, which also records anything else the customer buys,” Raymond says.

The mobile functionality provides a similar capability. It calculates a range of price options based on different plans, types of handsets and contract terms, and then creates a single line item on the POS system screen.


The results

Raymond says that Infinity has lived up to expectations as reliable and robust software.

“It never crashes, it always works. In retail it’s a catastrophe if your cash register crashes and your customers are backing up. With the Infinity POS system you never have that problem.”

And Infinity’s superior redundancy, which enables the POS system terminal to keep working during a network outage with no loss of sales data, has proved invaluable.

“Each POS system unit can run on its own if the LAN is broken or the phone lines go down, which can happen a lot in the islands,” Raymond says.

For managers, the Infinity inventory management system makes analysing data and creating customised reports straightforward.

“Because it runs on Microsoft SQL you can drag data from databases on to Excel spreadsheets, manipulate the data and create your own reports, which is another great feature,” Raymond says.

And on the shop floor, Infinity POS software is proving to be very easy for staff to use.

“It’s very, very user friendly. When things are nice and easy to use staff tend to use them correctly.”

Finally, the Infinity POS system also makes the accountants happy. 

“It’s very cost effective for what it can do,” Raymond says.


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