ARA Tech Solutions FAQs

FREE Trusted Technology Advice 

• Are you getting the information you need to run your business?
• What is the source of problems - staff, the vendor, or the system itself?
• How can you leverage your IT systems to improve business performance?
• What are the best EFTPOS options?
• Do you want to go on-line without breaking the bank?
• Where can you reduce systems costs?
• Do you need some help in getting your vendor to understand what you really want?
• Do you need to be put in touch with a specialist expert?

Selecting Technology

We help ARA members choose the system or device best matching their needs.

As well as helping choose from an array of standard vendor packages, we help ARA members define their needs.  Our specialists are familiar with retail industry best practices, and we can assist with the development of specifications covering a retailer's requirements exactly.

Specification documents provide ARA members with a way of making sure that the priority for vendor delivery meets what the retail business really needs, not what the vendor thinks is important.  It's a vital step to put retailers in control of their systems.

Our expertise covers many areas:

• POS and EFTPOS - Did you know there are over 200 retail POS systems to choose from? Which one best suits your business?
• Hand-held units for stock taking and sales floor assistance
• Managing the relationships with customers and running loyalty programs
• Supply Chain, B2B, and Inventory Control systems
• Merchandise Planning and Open To Buy systems
• Staff Rostering and Managing your workforce
• Ecommerce trading and going on-line
• Digital signage
• Kiosks

Managing and Implementing Technology

We help ARA members manage their IT resources.  A common problem is that retailers often will never have experienced specialist IT staff to manage their systems resources.

Retailers need a cost-effective and responsive support and management service that understands retailing and how to get the most out of technology.

• Do you need some trustworthy help to resolve day-to-day IT infrastructure problems?
• Do you need some help to implement a new system into your business?
• Do you want to get more value out of the investment you have already made in your systems without replacing the technology itself?

ARA Tech Solutions provide ad-hoc IT problem resolution services and temporary resources while a retailer is implementing a new system.  We help manage the implementation to minimise the disruption to the business.  Vendors are notoriously inept at providing this service, leaving retailers with a huge unplanned gap that adds thousands of dollars of hidden costs.

Going on-line and putting in place a coordinated Multi-Channel strategy

We help ARA members take advantage of the internet. Our experience and understanding of the implications of the internet means we help retailers coordinate their on-line activities with their physical stores, their catalogues, the telephone service, and/or any other channel activity.

• Do you need a roadmap to go on-line?
• Are you measuring the right things to make sure all channels are complementing rather than competing with each other?
• Do you need

We help you set your operation to interact with your customer

• across multiple channels (physical stores, on-line over the web, over the telephone, mail-order, catalogue, kiosks, direct selling, etc)
• Do you know how to generate more sales overall by making your channels cooperate with each other?

Vendor Mediation

We help ARA members with their dealings with their technology vendors.

It is surprising how difficult it can be for a retailer to communicate with some technology vendors.  ARA Tech Solutions understands retailing, and we understand technology - we can bridge the gap to ensure that technology vendors are addressing the retail business issues.

Technology vendors need it all spelled out for them.  In other words, if you don't specify all of your needs, it can be pot luck for them to deliver.  ARA Tech Solutions are experts in developing specifications encapsulating a retailer's business requirements into a form that technology vendors can work from.

Once a retailer has a specification document setting out the system requirements, they then have a benchmark to accept against, ensuring that they don't pay for a development that doesn't perform.

Our specialists are familiar with retailing best practice.  Often this expertise is required to fill a gap within a vendor's product offering.

IT Vendor Accreditation

We provide services to the IT Vendor community to help them provide more relevant and improved services to retailers.

We have established a Vendor Accreditation Service where vendors make a commitment to conduct business according to an agreed IT Vendor Code of Conduct, in a way that maximises project success, and minimises the chances of failure.

Vendors who have been accredited as "Endorsed by the ARA," have agreed to operate along the lines of our code of conduct, and retailers can also be assured that the vendor has direct experience in providing solutions within their retail segment.