The New IBM Self-Checkout

IBM's Latest Self Checkout software update

STCR has recently completed training and is selling and installing IBM's latest software solution for enhanced self-checkout which IBM calls CHEC (IBM Checkout Environment for Consumer-Service V6.5).  Included in this latest release of the software are the following enhancements: 

·       Several Cash handling enhancements leading to higher lane availability
·       New Cash Tracking and Reporting enhancements
·       User Interface enhancements which include the ability to allow a shopper to use an accessibility mode which makes access to the SCO easier for customers with disabilities
·       New icons for each major button which are easily recognizable by all worldwide users
·       Modified the implementation of the "CLOSED" screen to provide more flexibility and allows lane to open more quickly
·       CHEC 6.5 is the prerequisite software level required to run the new IBM Self Checkout System 6

Also available is the above mentioned newly released IBM SCO hardware called System 6 which has its own enhancements.

·       Enhanced modularity
·       Smaller footprint
·       Availability of optional bill and/or coin recycling
·       Standard high-capacity coin hopper for easier refills
·      Intuitive user experience with follow me LED lighting and 100% above-the-counter consumer interaction
·       Supports the CHEC accessibility mode
·       Front-end serviceability

http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/5/897/ENUS211-005/ENUS211-005.PDF 

http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/4/897/ENUS111-004/ENUS111-004.PDF

STCR Welcomes Elm City Market

Elm City Market based in New Haven, CT opened its doors to the public this month.  Elm City is a member-owned market that has a passion for local and regional products.  The Market was designedwith a mission of creating a highly-efficient, sustainable and healthy grocery store for years to come. The decision to go green was based on a healthy, efficient store creates an ideal environment for members, shoppers, employees and most importantly, the produce and products contained within.  The end result has been beautifully executed, contributing to the first LEED® ND Platinum certified project in the country.   Throughout construction, nearly 90% of all waste was diverted from landfills by recycling waste.  The majority of equipment within the store is local, recycled and refurbished to meet the Market’s quality and energy efficiency standards.

The store has been designed to harbor a strong connection between the indoor and outdoor spaces, encouraging the market and patrons to expand outdoors, engaging the neighborhood with access from three streets, outdoor café seating, outdoor produce and merchandising.

Finishes are low-VOC, formaldehyde-free, recycled and renewable and sourced locally where possible.  One such feature element is reclaimed Berkshire barn wood utilized for checkout stands, display cases, accent ceiling work and signage backdrops.  An abundance of natural light fills the store while not increasing heat through a high-performance window wall system.  This saves on lighting and cooling energy, while also creating a vibrant streetscape for pedestrians.

The electricity, heat and hot water to the store will be provided by renewable energy via an on-site 400 KW

fuel cell, increasing the store’s delivered energy efficiency from the standard 30% from grid power to 90%.  The refrigeration systems within the Market are of the highest efficiency possible and selected for their ongoing green operation.  The refrigeration equipment is 30% more efficient than standard, a huge energy saver considering a grocery market typically expends 60% of its total energy on refrigeration.  The refrigeration equipment will tie directly into an energy recovery system, allowing all waste heat to be re-used within the building, not exhausted to the atmosphere.   Additionally the refrigerant from the system is re-used to preheat the domestic hot water for the Market.  Both measures lower the store’s need for natural gas heating. The back-up heater is a 96% efficient condensing gas water heater.

The kitchen exhaust air ties directly into an energy recovery wheel, allowing the same air for exhaust to be used for the Market’s ventilation.   Exhaust and ventilation are controlled via a three zone variable volume system connected to CO2 and temperature sensors, so the system is only run when necessary.  The Market’s high-efficiency water source heat-pumps use approximately 30% less energy for cooling compared to the standard split system design.

Lighting controls modulate light output in stages using photo-eyes located in zones throughout the entire Market. The abundance of natural light in the store during the day will allow the Market to save on lighting energy. The lighting systems are also fully dimmable and controlled by occupancy sensors.  Track lighting throughout the store is LED. Additionally all refrigerated cases are lit via LEDs, saving lighting and cooling energy.

The market installed the IBM SurePOS 300 Cash Registers from STCR.  IBM’s planet-friendly technology saves power, lowers heat and reduces noise while increasing reliability.

Pin Pad Issues

When experiencing an issue with your PIN pad device, one of the first things a help desk technician will have you do is swap the PIN pad with a known working one.   This is one of the easiest ways to pinpoint exactly which part is failing.  If the issue follows the PIN pad to a different register, it can easily be determined that the problem is with that PIN pad.  If it stays at the register, then swapping the PIN pad cable out will determine if the issue is with the cable or the register.  This way it can easily and accurately ensure the failing element is correctly identified, minimizing down time due to improper diagnosis.  Many times the reason a PIN pad is not working properly is due to a loose cable connection.  Swapping it out will correct the issue because you reseat the connections, resolving the issue.  

Another suggestion is to have a spare PIN pad and a PIN pad cable.  This will not only save time swapping out the PIN pad, but also will restrict any downtime to the one affected lane instead of taking down an additional lane.  Another big advantage of having a spare is if it is determined to be an issue with the PIN pad or cable, you can use your spare until a replacement PIN pad or cable is sent to your store, again eliminating costly downtimes.  If you decide to keep a spare unit available, you should always swap out any replacement units once received from the processor with a known working unit to ensure the replacement also works.  This will also guarantee the spare unit should work when needed as well.

PCI Update

There is good news for those of you waiting to hear about where the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) stands on P2PE (point-to-point encryption).  As part of the standards update to 3.1 released on October 14, 2011 the council has updated its pin transaction security program to include changes that will address encryption for data other than pin numbers.  The changes in this update are effective immediately superseding the version 3.0 standards.  The full document is located at the PCI Councils website here:  https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/documents/P2PE_Hardware_Solution_%20Requirements_Initial_Release.pdf

Appendix A of this document contains the worksheet to determine eligibility to reduce your PCI scope.

What had not been clearly defined before has now been defined for manufactures to comply with PCI requirements for devices and encryption beyond the normal pin pads and pin numbers.  This new information will apply to mobile devices as well.

Please note there is language that specifically states that the end to end encryption does not take the merchant totally out of scope for PCI compliance, however this is a very big step forward.

Link to the announcement:  https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/pr_111014_pts_v3-1.pdf

BUILDING A LOYAL WORKFORCE

Building a Loyal Small Business Workforce
Successful small businesses use strategies to attract, satisfy and build a loyal, high-performing customer base.  These same strategies can be used to attract, satisfy and build a loyal, high-performing workforce.  Working in tandem, these two dynamics will produce strong business performance.  The following five strategies will help you build a loyal workforce.

Make sure compensation plans are competitive.

Small businesses that pay below-market salaries or give the perception of paying below-market salaries risk losing their workers to companies that pay more or give the perception of paying more for the same work value.

Monster research indicates that salary is the number one factor that employees consider as they evaluate new job opportunities.  Therefore, small business must align their compensation plans to be competitive in their market and remove any employee or potential employee perception that a misalignment exists.

Target the right hire.

Attract and retain workers that will appreciate and value your small business company culture.  Monster research shows that about one-third of the workforce prefers working in a small business culture. 

Top reasons those workers give for valuing a small business work environment include: being part of a “family”, feeling more valuable as a worker, being treated as an individual, making a bigger impact and getting opportunities to learn by doing a variety of roles.  Small businesses can promote these workplace values to attract new workers and build employee loyalty.

Communicate a strong and attractive employer brand

Small businesses should build and promote an employee brand that readily communicates its values to attract the right workers.  Reinforcing such values to current employees helps build employee loyalty as well.

Monster research indicates that 68 percent of the workforce would consider a new job to obtain improved work culture and leadership.  By growing an awareness of your employee brand as one that embraces the values these workers are seeking, a small business will attract and keep the right workers who favor similar values.

Continually fill a pipeline of prospects

With a vast majority of the workforce ready to pursue a new job, it is probable that small businesses will lose workers as the economy expands and new job opportunities grow.  Small businesses need to create a talent pipeline that continuously attracts new talent and the right talent for its workforce

Strive to keep your “A” workers

As a small business you are dependent on the key workers who deliver your business performance. These are your “A” players.  These are the workers whose loyalty is most valuable and perhaps, critical, to your small business.

Consider your workforce and identify those workers who are delivering the majority of business value.  Next, ensure that your employee loyalty strategies—those strategies you design to emotionally engage a worker—are focused on your “A” team.

Magellan 8500XT Scanner Scale

High Performance In-Counter Scanner and Scanner/Scale.  The Magellan 8500Xt scanner/scales are the culmination of recent developments by Datalogic Scanning in high-performance fixed position scanning for the Retail Industry.  No other bar code scanner designed for high volume retail performs better, has better reliability or has the combination of features that translate into a measurable Return on Investment (ROI) than the Magellan 8500Xt products. 

The Magellan 8500Xt scanner/scale inherits the Magellan brand’s renowned reputation for performance and reliability that has made Magellan the number one high performance retail scanner brand in the world.  Magellan Scale Technology, Datalogic Scanning’s new factory certified weighing system, virtually eliminates additional costs associated with integration.  Scale-settling times (less than 500 milliseconds) are the fastest in the industry, improving throughput on priced-by-weight items.  A Dual Interval Scale model legally weighs smaller, high-priced items for increased revenue. 

The Magellan 8500Xt scanner/scale addresses produce shrink at the POS with the patented All-Weighs® scale platter that allows cashiers to weigh long or bulky produce without touching a non-weighing surface.  Optional Checkpoint® and Sensormatic® integrated EAS antennas reduce shrink at the POS by requiring a good read before deactivating an EAS tag.  Data management is essential for managing POS operations.  A new label editing feature enables easy pre-formatting of data before delivery to the POS.  Value Added Features are reporting tools that allow data from the scanner to be used to improve throughput and manage maintenance.  Special EAS reporting features provide immediate feedback and the ability to track EAS tagging compliance on a per-item basis. 

The Magellan 8500Xt scanners/scales are the world’s number one retail scanner in performance, reliability and high value differentiated features. 

Decoding Capability

1D / Linear Codes
Autodiscriminates all standard 1D codes including GS1 DataBar™ linear codes

Stacked Codes

GS1 DataBar Expanded Stacked
GS1 DataBar Stacked
GS1 DataBar Stacked Omnidirectional

Self-Checkout and Your Customers

Recent news reports seem to indicate a backlash occurring with some grocers toward the self-checkout.  The primary concern being voiced by the naysayers has always been the perceived impact it has on the customer service.  Many grocers who have worked hard to establish a strong customer service culture believe the self-checkout erodes that philosophy and eliminates the important contact needed to build those important relationships with their customers.

Unfortunately, this mindset is short-sighted and misses the mark on what the self-checkout offers store operations to promote their customers' satisfaction.  What these operators fail to realize is that offering the self-checkout option enhances the experience by giving the customer a choice.  Traditional checkouts will always be preferred by certain segments of the population.  Other segments will always select the self-checkout when it's an option.  However, there are other segments of people that appreciate choice simply based on the situation; for instance, depending on their order size, time of day or night, conventional lanes' customer volume/order sizes, etc.  When these moments present themselves many appreciate the opportunity to choose their preference producing higher customer satisfaction.

The other important change the self-checkout facilitates in store operations is affording a shift of staff resources from the front end to the floor.  This is where many important opportunities for interaction and assistance can be created (or missed); making contact, building strong relationships and achieving a very satisfying customer experience.  By training a knowledgeable self-checkout shopper assistant to monitor, assist and intervene as required with multiple self-checkout lanes, you can create a very positive self-checkout experience.  In addition, it allows the freed up front-end staff to be re-trained and re-allocated to be Johnny-on-the-spot for the customers on the floor needing help finding something, making a decision, offering free samples or any other ideas you can invent to generate customer contact.

Ultimately, the customer appreciates the choice of self-checkout and the grocer can appreciate the opportunities it creates to generate new customer service experiences on floor as well as the front-end.  The self-checkout solution clearly advances the customer service objectives and will continue to grow as a service model in many industries and organizations.