Spectrum retail POS billing system - Features and overview

The Retail market of today has never been more challenging due to global competition. Today's shoppers are more powerful than ever, given the abundance of information available at their fingertips. Additionally, retailers need to operate across channels as efficiently as possible, which means breaking down organizational silos that prevent profitable multi-channel retailing. To meet these challenges head on, we present to you:

Spectrum, a comprehensive Retail Business Management Suite solely built for Retail. 

From simplicity at the Point of Sale (POS) to the complexity of a complete company overview with the mere click of a mouse - Spectrum is the future of retail, delivering the retail experience of tomorrow, without the wait.

 

VISION

'Retail Experience of Tomorrow, Delivered Today….!' 

Spectrum Retail Business Management Suite empowers retailers in their business transformation by offering:

  • Unified Multi-Channel Customer Experience
  • Rapid Mind to Market: Real–time Execution of Complex Retail Strategies
  • Multi-Platform, Multi-Device Capability
  • Customer Loyalty Program with Central Management and Local Flexibility
  • Robust Centrally Managed Pricing and Promotions Engine with Seamless Integration to POS
  • Business Intelligence Engine for Dynamic Business Decisions and Strategizing
  • End-to-End Value Chain Visibility Configurable and Scalable Architecture Supporting Multi-Layered Business Hierarchy
  • Lower Total Cost of Ownership

 

EDITIONS

A Unified, Multi-Channel, Multi-Modal, Agile and Comprehensive Next-Generation Retail Business Management suite. Spectrum is an innovative, leading edge solution that addresses the typical challenges faced by Retailers through a feature-rich, scalable, robust and reliable solution.

With traditional systems having come of age, Spectrum provides Retailers with an agile alternative without the pains of high maintainability, process gaps and software rigidity. Spectrum, is best suited for Brand Creators and Specialized Retailers across:

  • Fashion / Apparel / Footwear / Accessories
  • Electronics and Appliances
  • Furniture and Home Furnishings
  • General Merchandise
  • Motor Vehicle and Parts
  • Sporting Goods, Hobby, Books, and Music
  • Health and Personal Care
  • Building Material and Supplies
  • Misc. Retailers

Spectrum's capabilities include Point of Sale (POS), Merchandising, In-store Management, Logistics, Inventory, Customer Loyalty, and Business Intelligence, built around the following principles:

  • Adopting Consumer Centric Retail Strategies
  • Full Supply Chain Tracking and Visibility, A multichannel outlook helping Retailers in their readiness for e-commerce and mobility initiatives
  • Security and controls, built on the PCI Compliant Spectrum Platform
  • Accelerated integration timelines with Enterprise Systems
  • Blurring geographical boundaries for Retailers through Internationalization

Full Spectrum capabilities fortified by IBM technologies. A best of breed solution as a certified part of IBM's Retail Industry Framework.

Spectrum Enterprise - Blue Edition is ready for IBM DB2 and IBM Retail Integration Framework certified. 

Spectrum Enterprise - Blue Edition resides on top of the IBM Websphere® Remote Server (WRS) to make this solution available to retailers at an acceptable price-point.

The underlying DB2 database makes it capable of handling large volumes of data while Websphere® MQ is leveraged for that much needed reliable data synchronization across the enterprise. The Websphere® Application Server within WRS provides the base platform for all the server-side architectural artefacts to operate in an orchestrated fashion. 

The Spectrum Enterprise – Blue POS system has been tried and tested on IBM SurePos 700 Series systems with a local DB2 Express database which has a low memory footprint thus keeping the POS till highly performant at all times.

Spectrum helps retailers “go green” by using IBM technologies to control energy usage, increasing efficiency and extending the life of their assets, thus reducing costs and fuelling growth. Capable of handling large volumes of data, Spectrum is certified as “Ready for IBM DB2 Data Server Software” and “Ready for IBM Retail Industry Framework.”

CITI (IND) and IBM combine extensive retail experience with expertise in business management, hardware, software and services. Together, the partnership delivers capability that enable retailers to address their challenges and achieve profitable growth.

  • Partnership works to integrate retailers’ diverse systems and create a unified on-demand store environment
  • System enables retailers to grow internationally, addressing the challenges of multiple languages and currencies
  • Solution optimizes the balance between management control and local store autonomy
  • One version of the truth: Providing retailers and customers Real-time information whether in-store, online or mobile
  • Speed matters: Launching a new promotion? What once took months may now take only minutes

Spectrum resides on top of the IBM WebSphere® Remote Server (WRS), a leading Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that delivers a fully integrated platform to manage remote environments. This helps make Spectrum available to retailers at an attractive price having integration capabilities with existing systems.

Due to the process-oriented nature of the business, the solution incorporates a Business Process Management Engine providing ease of configuration. Additionally, the n-tier, replicated layer and reliable synchronization engine not only allows for multi-level data consolidation, but also provides disaster recovery features at an application as well as data level.

The Business Analytics layer comes preconfigured with standard retail analytics and has the possibility to integrate with any enterprise data warehouse. Device independence is brought in via implementation of the UPOS interface standard, which makes the POS interoperable with a wide variety of peripherals.

The creators of Spectrum, CITI (IND), and IBM, combine extensive retail experience with expertise in business management, hardware, software and services. Together, the partnership delivers capability that enable retailers to address their challenges and achieve profitable growth.

  • Retail empathy – Spectrum developers have retail experience. They understand the pain points and ambitions of retailers across formats and merchandise categories.
  • IBM validation – Retail industry Framework, open-standards-based platform for retail solutions for ease of implementation and integration.
  • Support services – Support is provided during and after implementation by staff with the experience of managing technology in some of the largest organizations in the world.
  • Comprehensive support – IBM has more than 4,400 consultants dedicated to the distribution sector, with more than 750 consultants worldwide specifically focused on the retail industry.
  • Global experience and reputation – IBM has nearly 2,000 retail business partners – the largest business partner network in the industry.
  • Retail-specific hardware – IBM’s time-tested, trusted and robust PoS devices, servers, printers and peripherals are designed for the retail sector.

 

BENEFITS

SPECTRUM creates a unified shopping experience that increases customer conversion, drives higher margins, and facilitates faster business growth. Its adaptability and flexibility allows retailers immediate modifications in an ever-changing industry.

SPECTRUM's key benefits are mentioned below:

Lower Total Cost of Ownership due to

  • Rapid implementation
  • Minimized investments in user training supported by intuitive GUI & Unified Product experience.
  • Platform independent and database independent design
  • Flexible & Scalable SOA Base architecture

High business impact & Tangible ROI through

  • Rapid mind to market (implement your ideas with no wait)
  • Business intelligence engine for dynamic business decisions and strategizing.
  • Centrally managed pricing and promotions engine with seamless integration at Point of Sale and store level flexibility.
  • Easily and quickly execute sales and marketing strategies.
  • Enrich customer experience with dual display & POS based advertising thus driving higher sales.

 

FEATURES

Spectrum is designed to handle multi-layered business hierarchy, variety of business models and several retail formats. It supports franchisee models spread across multiple geographies through its robust technology architecture and a variety of features and functionalities which are available out of the box.

Point of Sale

  • Customizable Menu Screen
  • Cash memo: Scan and Sell
  • Product Returns and Exchanges
  • Sales / Customer Orders
  • Gift Registry For Events
  • Discounts and Promotions
  • Gift Vouchers and Credit notes
  • Multi-Tender and Multi-Currency
  • SMS and Email Ready
  • Customer Management
  • Till Open and Close
  • Petty Cash Management
  • Credit Card Processing
  • Touch Screen Enabled
  • Shift Management
  • Void Control
  • Variance Control
  • Food Costing
  • Detailed POS Reporting

Distribution & Franchise Management

  • Multi-Level Business Workflows and Approvals
  • Business Location and Hierarchy Management
  • Budgeting
  • End Of Day Operations
  • Franchisee Fee Management

Procurement & Planning

  • Purchase Order Management
  • Inter Store Transfers
  • Credit Card Processing
  • Auto Replenishment
  • Goods Receipt
  • Return Orders
  • Budget Management

Inventory Solution/Management

  • Physical Stock Take
  • Stock Adjustment
  • Stock Valuation

Materials Management

  • Pricing (Standard and Moving Average)
  • Recipe Management
  • Production and Wastage Management
  • Master and Raw Materials
  • Multiple Unit of Measures

Warehouse Management

  • Bin Management
  • Batch Management
  • Expiry Tracking
  • Pick, Pack and Dispatch
  • Barcode and Label Printing
  • Supplier Collaboration

Master Data Management

  • Merchandise Management
  • Promotion Management
  • Tender and Currency Management
  • Tax Management
  • Vendor Management

eCommerce

  • Shopping Cart
  • Catalogue Browsing and Promotions
  • Social Media Integrations
  • Multiple Payment Modes
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Content Management

Customer Loyalty Program

  • Multi-Tier Loyalty Programs
  • Customer and Card Management
  • Multiple Point-Earning and Redemption Ratios
  • Inter Store Invoicing
  • Cross Channel Extensibility
  • SMS and Email Marketing/Alerts
  • Trend and Behavioral Analysis

Experiential Mobility

  • Mobile Commerce
  • Sales Force Automation
  • Shop In Shop Billing
  • Products Catalogue
  • Augmented Reality
  • Twitter and Facebook Posts
  • Customer Loyalty

Reporting & Analytics

  • Dashboard Display
  • More Than 200 Reports On Sales, Stock, Purchase etc