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It has sometimes been said that in the business world, it's a jungle out there.
But the jungle has nothing on the battlefield, which is what the retail scene can sometimes be.
In fact, given the number of victors and losers, one can be forgiven for thinking it is sometimes a full scale war.
As in any war, smart technology, when used well, can make all the difference. That's why retail players need good technology allies.
Allies like Eleos, an independent software vendor who thinks and works like a crack special forces outfit to help retailers wield technology to great effect, but minimal effort; and Apple, which has helped redefined the retail scene by providing a reliable platform for players like Eleos to build cost-effective and easy to use Point-Of-Sale (POS) retail systems.
A platform built upon something that has performed admirably in action for decades, so much so that it is nothing short of a hero. The tech-savvy call it the Kernel.
Retailers, however, call it fantastic, not only because it is the foundation that ensures that their POS systems works flawlessly, be it in-store or at the backend, but because often times, they have never heard about it. Which is a good thing.
Indeed, Eleos' POS system – a subset of its enterprise resource planning application called Octopus – was built on the current Mac platform precisely because of Apple's decision to adopt an open source Kernel with its new Unix-based operating system.
In a way, the people at Eleos could be called the original switchers by moving its Octopus ERP solution from hardcore Unix to the friendlier flavour that Apple's Mac OS X represented.
Octopus is a Supply Chain Management and Demand Chain Management application that is a full scale ERP product that Eleos implements for retailers big and small, including regional furniture group Picket and Rail and smaller outlets such as women's footwear store Sole 2 Sole.
Says Ong Wee Shiong, Managing Director, Eleos: “Mac is Unix, and then some. We started with PCsWindows, then went on to Unix in 2001. Then Apple announced that it was going to radically port its Mac OS X to Unix,. and We sat up and paid attention.”
Ong adds that his team gave the first version of Mac OS X – called Cheetah – a spin as a form of testing the waters.
“We were really happy with it, it was the most elegant looking Unix-based OS we had ever, ever seen. But it was still not as stable as we would have wanted it to be.
“Then in 2002, Mac OS 10.2 was released – Jaguar – and it made all the difference. We switched over to the Mac platform within months and have not looked back.”
Neither has its customers, who among them, rely on Eleos and the Apple platform to run multiple facets of their POS system.
Says Chua Puay Hian, Chief Operating Officer of Picket and Rail: “The decision to switch was largely due to ease of management in the system administration, doing away with the need for a highly-skilled technical system administrator.
“For simple administration tasks, Apple has provided a simple user interface to manage these technical tasks; a novice system administrator would be able to handle such tasks easily.”
He adds that another layer of simplicity and ease-of-use was the ability for the system to work across different countries, and have retail data accessed over a web-based system.
“The fact that the application can be accessed in multi-geographical locations works wonders for the management in terms of visibility and control of the business, especially when the key managers are travelling.
“In essence, it is great to have a web-based solution for real-time accessibility of information to facilitate prompt management responses.”
Naturally, the ability to access information would be moot if the POS system was not up and running when it was needed.
Explains Chua: “As far as our retail stores are concerned, we have to be up require maximum uptime, everyday of the week, up to 10 pm each day.
“What is marvellous is that the stability of the system is hard to beat, as Apple server essentially runs on a Unix platform. Downtime is currently limited to off-hours for regular system maintenance.”
For the smaller outlets, a versatile no-brainer way to run a POS is also a must – preferably something that could pull double duty.
For Sole 2 Sole, a shoe retailer, its Mac outdid the expectations of store owner Lynnette Lim.
She explains: “I had heard that Apple was really user-friendly, not at all prone to virus attacks, and does not hang as often as PCs. That was enough to make me decide to use Apple for the store.”
But that was just the starting point.
“The retail software solution that I have from ELEOS Eleos runs really well. But Mac does so much more. It even controls all the music in the shop using iTunes, and everything is wireless as I use Airport Express.
“I actually saved money as I only had to buy the speakers instead of a whole new sound system for the shop!”
In fact, she adds that the entire concept of Sole 2 Sole's was designed around the sleek white curves of her Mac.
“The fact that the Mac looks good is definitely a plus point for any fashion-related business. Image is important in this trade and Apple is in the forefront of setting trends for aesthetic features of computers.
“Therefore, by association, the brand does give the retailer a leading edge if they are able to incorporate it well in the design of the store.
“And we did. My customers love the look of the shop especially that little white Apple sitting on my counter!”
Adds Eleos' Ong: “The Mac platform also has very strong administrator access, so that the right privileges can be assigned to the right people, and applications and data that need to be controlled can be done easily.”
And as a retailer's business grows, so too can its POS with Eleos and Apple.
Says Ong: “When customers scale up, we plug in the Xserve and Xserve Raid RAID for storage.”
This level of reliability and simplicity, however, is something that many enterprises find too good to be true.
Explains Ong: “Business in Asia tend to know very little about the Apple enterprise platform, and the Xserve, which is a shame, because it is a beautiful solution.
“So it is usually a hard sell if we try to bring Apple into a traditional enterprise environment. We have had to justify proof of concepts for each and every one of our potential customers for them to see for themselves.”
For instance, his team had to set up an Apple server up against others to benchmark reliability and cost performance, as well as how quickly each came under attack, and how inherently resistant each was to such attacks.
“The Mac platform on the Xserve came up tops every time. So once they see how easy and reliable it is, and how resistant it is to external attacks, most of our potential customers become very open to switching.
“The point about the POS is that it is a very good entrance market for Apple to get into the business world.”
For instance, he explains that Mac OS X has a good enterprise server OS, with robust features like strong security, advanced authentication modules, and effective mail servers like Postfix, among many other essential enterprise-centric features.
Adds Ong: “Even the Kernel is something that the Unix crowd was familiar with – Free BSD – which is very stable, arguably even more stable than most systems running on Linux.
“Looking at the parameters of Mac OS X, we knew Apple was serious, and serious about Open Source, not just paying it lip service. Since we were already using enterprise Unix tools, it was a no brainer to switch.”
It is fitting that Eleos, having itself converted to the Mac platform, should embark on its own campaign to get its customers and prospects to switch.
Concludes Ong: “For us, we switched because of the behind-the-scenes technology, so that our customers would never have to worry about them, and focus only on their businesses"
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