Skiing Into Easier Transactions
Incorporating a bar code scanner into its retail sales and equipment rental stations increased transaction times and customer satisfaction at Appalachian Ski Mountain.
Business Solutions, July 2000
To automate these services and augment its point of sale (POS) stations, the management at Appalachian Ski Mountain chose ECRS' (Boone, NC) Catapult software solution. Seven Catapult terminals, located throughout the resort complex, provide all the automation required to keep retail operations and equipment rental running smoothly.
Peak Operations During Peak Season
"Our yearly business is compressed into one season, November through March," says Brenda Moretz, ski shop manager. "The POS system we've installed lets cashiers quickly and accurately speed through checkouts. The faster customers get in and out of the lodge and onto the slopes, the happier they are."
Appalachian Ski Mountain contacted ECRS through a systems consultant. "The resort was looking to replace its Synchronics DOS-based POS system," says Pete Catoe, president of ECRS. "The existing system was labor-intensive, outdated, and lacked backup redundancy. When its server went down, the entire POS system stopped functioning. This could cause major problems when you have a busload of people in a hurry to make their purchases and get on the slopes."
The Catapult solution includes a 32-bit Windows platform and allows faster training time because the system is completely automated. The new system eliminated polling, downloading, and end-of-day, end-of-month, and end-of-year procedures. The touch screen capabilities significantly reduce the need for cashier training.
The Sales Cycle
"At the first meeting," describes Catoe, "we discussed the various transaction and reporting needs. At the second meeting, we demonstrated how the Catapult system matches up the customers' transactions and the resort's reporting needs with the Catapult feature set. After finding a close fit, the customer decided to move forward with the purchase."
The solution's software includes:
- three Catapult Manager clients
- four Catapult POS clients
- a LabelVision 2000 label printing option
- a Windows NT server network.
- one Gateway GP7-5000 PII 500 MHz computer
- three Gateway GP7-450 PIII 450 MHz POS stations: two in the ski shop, one in the gift store, and one in the equipment rental area
- one Gateway Celeron 400 MHz computer
- ELO touch screen monitors
- Metrologic Orbit bar code scanners
- Epson TM-88 receipt printers.
The installation was not very challenging for ECRS. "The only problem we encountered," Catoe explains, "was that resort employees unplugged the network hub on several occasions. This caused the Catapult system to automatically go into POS redundancy mode, which allows the solution to function during downtime. We plugged the hub back into the wall, and the system was back online. POS redundancy is never important until you need it. The software provides POS redundancy on demand – automatically."
Catoe says the most unique aspect of the installation was the extremely high customer volume at the ski resort. "I believe the installation was a success," Catoe adds. "The resort was able to update to a modern solution without giving up any of the benefits that the older system provided."
Questions about this article? E-mail the author at NancyS@corrypub.com.