RSS
 This Retail Network Runs As Smooth As Honey |
|
By Mona R. Litt
It's April...Spring flowers bloom and holidays are here. The Original HoneyBaked Ham Co. of Georgia sees more than colorful gardens and parties between Thanksgiving and Christmas and around Easter. As families prepare their celebrations, this company relies heavily on its network and intranet to make sure all their orders are filled.
"A ham company is not expected to engage in high-tech measures," explains Brian Boatright, HoneyBaked Ham's network systems integrator. "If you look at what we're doing and the technologies we utilize, you will see the future of a multiple-state retailing business." HoneyBaked Ham's TCP/IP-based intranet provides the best communication among the company's headquarters in Atlanta and more than 100 stores nationwide, acco rding to Boatright. XcelleNet's RemoteWare software enables remote locations to dial into the main network and upgrade systems with new software and exchange sales, inventory and payroll details with managers from any desktop. Computer Associates International's Remotely Possible and Symantec Corp.'s pcANYWHERE offer remote-control capabilities for managers stationed at various retail locations. During busy seasons, HoneyBaked Ham requires tools to handle the heavy traffic in stores and through its online catalog. Its custom Retail Management System helps process transactions faster and more efficiently, Boatright says. This POS (point-of-sale) system, which includes a CPU, touch-screen terminal and UPSes, lies on a cart placed in a store's open lobby, apart from the main cash register area. This lets employees ring up items at any POS location during busy times, eliminating bottlenecks and increasing the number of transactions made. "There is such an incredible influx of seasonal help during these t imes that we need an application that is easy to learn," Boatright says. "With our touch-screen terminals, we have brought our transaction time down to 15 seconds each." According to Boatright, the company fully utilizes three ISDN channels, X.25 and telephone lines and 64-Kbps data communication for fast credit-card authorization and other transactions. In the rush of filling orders, employees may end up using all of these channels and lines at once. Its custom Catalog Management System, running on an NCR 3450 server, manages mail-order business and handles order entry, distribution and shipping in one inclusive application, Boatright notes. Boatright says he plans to use the Internet with VPN (virtual private network) technology to enable all stores and district managers to securely exchange proprietary information and distribute three-tiered client/server applications to stores by the first half of 1999. As of press time, the company has yet to select the product. For more information on The Origi nal HoneyBaked Ham Co. or details on how to order its products, visit its Web site at www.honeybaked.com.
|
|
|
|
A Complete Guide to Network Computing's Centerfold articles |
|
|
