Press Releases

Morton Golf Selects ProphetLine for Retail Management System of Choice for All Sacramento Facilities

SACRAMENTO (August 20, 2008) – Morton Golf, the leader in golf merchandising at public golf facilities in the United States, has implemented ProphetLine’s Point of Sale(POS) Retail Management Software in all of its Sacramento facilities. ProphetLine, a national retail technology solution provider and four-time Microsoft Developer of the Year award winner, was selected to bring standardization and control to Morton Golf’s retail operations.

ProphetLine for Windows, a fourth generation Windows application, replaced existing retail systems at Haggin Oaks, Bing Maloney and Bartley Cavanaugh Golf Complexes. The implementation was started in 2006. Since then an advanced retail stock ledger, open to buy planning system and many other features to streamline the purchasing and receiving process have been added. ProphetLine will continue to work with Morton Golf to provide enhancements designed to save time and increase productivity as developments occur.

“Prophetline’s continued customer support and updates keep our ever-changing software requirements in line,” says Terry Daubert, President Morton Golf. “We have found Prophetline to be very good at “personalizing” each application with each location. Each facility usually has a different twist, and that’s where Prophetline shines.”

Morton Golf is a Limited Liability Corporation and its business is operating golf courses and specialty golf retail. Its founder, Ken Morton, Sr., has been in the golf business for nearly 50 years – winning National PGA Merchandiser of the Year twice, the National PGA Professional of the Year once and is now a member of the PGA Hall-Of-Fame. Morton Golf extended a long-term lease with the City of Sacramento to operate the golf leases for the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex, Bing Maloney Golf Complex, and the Bartley Cavanaugh Golf Course in Sacramento, California.

The ProphetLine solution manages point-of-sale, inventory control, merchandising, customer tracking, and accounting at the point of sale while giving Morton Golf aggregate information on trends, buying power, financials, and sales at each location. The system allows the retail facilities to act independently and autonomously while data is driven back to the corporate offices for analytical uses.

Benefits that ProphetLine have afforded Morton Golf Pro Shops are faster operations, increased ease-of-use, and reduced training time. Other enhancements include more flexible accounting, choice of inventory costing methods, broader range of sales trend reporting options and integration with their tee sheet program.

ProphetLine for Windows brings to the golfing industry a retail management system that fully complies with the Retail Industry Standards Group. "Instead of bringing little pieces of retail management to golf – we bring a total commitment to golf – we help drive the way retail looks," says Bob Brown, president of ProphetLine. "This commitment is why Morton Golf chose ProphetLine," he concluded.

ProphetLine has developed software for many Fortune 500 companies, but specializes in providing specialty retailers like Morton Golf with high quality, inexpensive software that enables them to compete and beat larger big box retailers. “We have all the features you would expect in a quality retail management system, without all the import/export, “integration” and other technical procedures,” states Brown. “ProphetLine is truly a high performance all-in-one retail solution that makes technology simple, including Point of Sale, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, multi-store communications and customer marketing in one all-inclusive system.”

About ProphetLine
ProphetLine is a national leader in the development and implementation of technology-based systems for retail management from point-of-sale through back office. ProphetLine is the POS/Premium Merchandising Software with easy to understand department/class comparatives, vendor comparatives and built in open-to-buy planning. ProphetLine also specializes in project management, operations analysis, custom software development, in-store and headquarters training, installation and implementation, help desk services, and deployment services. For more information, contact ProphetLine headquarters at (800) 875-6592 or bob.brown@prophetline.com.

About Morton Golf
Morton Golf is a national award-winning operation. The PGA of America, Golf Digest Magazine, GSO Magazine, Golf Range Magazine, Golf Business Magazine and Golfweek Magazine awarded Morton Golf, operationally, as one of America’s 100 Best Golf Shops and for its expertise in golf instruction, junior golf programs, clubfitting, customer service and management style. Morton Golf has been recognized by leading golf equipment vendors numerous times, winning national merchandising & clubfitting awards from companies such as Top-Flite, Mizuno, PING, Titleist, Henry-Griffitts, Cobra & Tour Edge. Morton has nearly 20 golf professionals on staff – one of the largest teams in the country – and Morton Golf’s expertise is unmatched in the industry. www.mortongolfsales.com

ProphetLine Initiates Hybrid Agent Channel!

Fort Smith, Arkansas — July 1, 2007 — ProphetLine, a leading provider of retail management systems for specialty retailers, announces the availability of the ProphetLine product line for quality, value added Agents throughout North America.  The ProphetLine Hybrid VAR Program is designed for Agents, VARs, System Integrators, Consultants and Distributors that do not want to build up their infrastructure, increase their operating expenses, or add to their liability exposure; but, still make big profits on selling a tried and proven POS/Retail Management System.  The concept is quite simple; we work with you on the sale, training, support and share in the profits.  No need for one more certification headache.  The ProphetLine Hybrid VAR can do as little or as much of the project as they would like.

The advantages to the agent are:

• Immediate income
• No training required
• Agent stays with core competency
• Retailer is supported by Agent and ProphetLine
• Generous fees and no infrastructure buildup

Products

• ProphetLine for Windows (PLW) is a feature-rich, robust, and proven retail management system. PLW was designed by retail store owners and consultants who wanted a results-oriented product with fast return on investment.
• Visual ProphetLine is a scaleable, client/server point of sale, inventory and multi-unit management system that can be deployed as a hosted application or traditional in-store system. Seamlessly integrated with a web shopping cart, the application is a true unified retail application suite for "click and brick" retailers.

About ProphetLine
ProphetLine is a national leader in the development and implementation of technology-based systems for retail management. Its family of award-winning, state-of-the-art scaleable systems range from enterprise-level, high-performance, multi-tier, client/server POS over WANs/LANs, supporting thin or thick-client architectures, to stand alone PCs that serve specialty retailers of all sizes.  For more information, contact ProphetLine at (800) 875-6592, or check us out at www.prophetline.com.

Top of Page

J & T Management Selects Visual ProphetLine for Value Village Thrift Stores

March 15, 2007 (Ft. Smith, AR) – Value Village thrift stores in the Atlanta area, managed by J & T Management, are currently installing a new point-of-sale solution from ProphetLine that can integrate with their existing reporting system. The difficulty in finding a new solution, according to J & T Management, was that they wanted to install software that had a SQL Server backend, was affordable, would integrate with existing systems and could be installed by the chain’s management. Visual ProphetLine, a multi-tiered, client/server, unified retail and POS, e-commerce and back- office management system was the perfect solution.

“Before installing the VPL software, our stores did a lot of redundant data entry. Store managers would collect sales figures at the store location, and then have to reenter it into a separate reporting system,” said Randy Cohen, CTO

He continued, “Our primary reason for going to an integrated POS system was to allow us to manage the registers and inventory control from our central office. This way we have control over the inventory at each location, giving us a huge advantage.”

J &T Management looked at several solutions that had the power of a SQL Server, but all were extremely expensive, with the exception of Visual ProphetLine. VPL had the functionality built in at an extremely affordable price, according to Cohen.

Bob Brown, president of ProphetLine, said they worked with J & T until they settled on a mutually satisfactory agreement that included J & T installing the software themselves.

“The installation process was very straightforward and easy. This was surprising because the system is fairly complex and we are deploying it in ten locations,” said Cohen. “The store managers are also saying it is easy to use.”

Value Village started with one location in 1981. They now have ten retail locations in Atlanta, and many partner locations in several different states. The thrift stores purchase new and used clothing and merchandise from charitable organizations and wholesalers, then resell it in their clean, bright thrift department stores. This provides vital funding to the charities that they purchase goods from and helps provide families with the best selection, quality, and service in resale merchandise.

“When we developed Visual ProphetLine, we had the small to mid-size retailer in mind, said Bob Brown. “Their budgets are usually limited and they probably have their back office applications already in place. Visual ProphetLine is easy to integrate with other applications and we can usually meet their budget. Sometimes it doesn’t cost more to go first class.”

Corporate Level Inventory Management Now Available to Small Retailers!

Fort Smith, Arkansas "” October 12, 2006 "” ProphetLine’s Corporate Inventory Management, an enhanced component of ProphetLine for Windows retail management system, optimizes multi-store inventory control from one central location. Never before has it been this cost effective and easy for retailers to automatically balance store inventory levels and manage Just-In-Time replenishment with a single streamlined purchasing system! Previously this technology was affordable only to large retailers.

Retail Stock Ledger and Open to Buy
All sales and purchasing data is automatically/seamlessly moved to the Retail Stock Ledger to give retailers quick views of the vendor, department and class level performance of their inventory. If a department is under or over stocked, or certain vendors don’t perform as well as others, quick resolution can be achieved. Open to Buy plans can be built with full confidence that all the data is concise and factual. Open to Buy plans are also updated continuously by the system as months pass, resulting in truly perpetual plans. All these functions are built into ProphetLine and not add ons that require integration and other technical procedures.

Flexible Replenishment
ProphetLine’s Corporate Level Purchasing gives retailers more order processing flexibility. Multiple store replenishment requests transmitted to corporate may be pooled into one purchase order, allowing retailers to take advantage of larger order quantity discounts, or transmitted to vendors as an individual purchase orders. Vendors then fulfill the order as floor-ready merchandise by drop shipping to remote locations or sending to the corporate location for automatic transfer allocation. Inventory is received by accepting the direct vendor shipment or the corporate transfer and both the corporate and store inventory databases are updated with the actual quantity shipped.

Increased Cost Efficiency and Competitiveness
Corporate Level Purchasing enables the retailer to cut costs by reducing excess inventory stock and increase competitiveness by preventing stock outs. ProphetLine’s Corporate Level Purchasing and Reporting can minimize inventory stock to sales ratios by allowing the retailer to truly manage Just-In-Time inventory replenishment for multiple profit centers; thus lowering total inventory costs and increase your margins!

About ProphetLine
ProphetLine is a national leader in the development and implementation of technology-based systems for retail management. It’s family of award-winning, state-of-the-art scaleable systems range from enterprise-level, high-performance, multi-tier, client/server POS over WANs/LANs, supporting thin or thick-client architectures; to stand- alone PCs that serve specialty retailers of all sizes. As a one stop source, ProphetLine provides a full range of products and services for the retailing industry including: turnkey management systems, project management, custom software development, in-store and headquarters training, installation and implementation, help desk services, and deployment services.

For more information, contact ProphetLine at (800) 875-6592, point Internet browsers to www.prophetline.com, or see us in booth #3007 at Retail’s Big Show, NRF 96th Annual Convention & Expo, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, in New York, January 15th &16th.

Seamless Customer Marketing Now Available!

Fort Smith, Arkansas — September 1, 2004 — ProphetLine, a leading provider of retail management systems for specialty retailers, announces the addition of the Customer Marketing and Loyalty Management module to it’s ProphetLine for Windows family of products.  With this capability, small to medium-sized retailers are provided a single system that includes customer marketing, full accounting, order tracking, web integration and multiple store management, all in a single application at an affordable price.  Before, most retailers had to choose between a suitable Customer Marketing product with a weak retail inventory system; or a weak Customer Marketing package with a good retail management system.  Now retailers can have both, seamlessly within the same system.

Features
One reason many companies implement Customer Marketing software is to build Customer Loyalty.  Loyalty comes from managing customer relations to ensure preferential treatment for your best, most profitable customers.  In turn, these customers will keep coming back.

With ProphetLine for Windows Customer Marketing, data gathered at the Point of Sale can provide valuable information, such as which customers are profitable and which ones only do business with you when there is a sale or they have no other choice.  The bottom line is the need to better understand your customers and use this information for promotions to different customer groupings. No matter what size your company, building and nurturing a base of Loyal Customers through targeted marketing efforts contributes to a better bottom line.  That is how the most profitable companies separate themselves from the pack.

ProphetLine for Windows has everything you need for a complete Customer Loyalty and Marketing program.  You can reward valuable customers with preferential treatment, gift cards, a buying club, loyalty programs and automatically email notify customers of completed orders, special order arrival, promotions and In-Store or Web Sales.

About ProphetLine
ProphetLine is a national leader in the development and implementation of technology-based systems for retail management. Its family of award-winning, state-of-the-art scaleable systems range from enterprise-level, high-performance, multi-tier, client/server POS over WANs/LANs, supporting thin or thick-client architectures; to stand alone PCs that serve specialty retailers of all sizes.  For more information, contact ProphetLine at (800) 875-6592, or point Internet browsers to www.prophetline.com.

Top of Page

Retailers Discuss How POS Systems Have Revolutionized How They Do Business

Retailers, whose margins are under more pressure than most other industries, have experienced some tough cost cutting years. While some closed their doors, others embraced new technology developments to turn their operations around. Not surprisingly, the point of sale system has become the focal point of the retail operation. This is where errors in retail transactions can be controlled, and it is where the customer’s last impression is made by checkout time, accuracy, and ease of transaction.

Also, today’s point of sale systems have become instrumental in gathering customer data to use in the four major marketing decisions that store managers must make: product, price, place, and promotion. These are the variables that can be worked with to attract and retain customers.

Three retailers, Photo Pro, SimJo Photo, and Art’s Cameras Plus discuss how working with ProphetLine and switching from a manual operation to an automated, computerized POS system revolutionized their businesses.

ProphetLine, Inc., based in Fort Smith, AR, one of the first Windows-based POS developers, decided as one of its market niches to develop software that would specifically benefit the photographic equipment and supplier market, from the single storefront to multiple locations.

Bob Brown, President, recognized long ago the need for businesses to convert their manual operations to a computerized function regardless of outlet size. "It was obvious that handling inventory, markdowns, adjusting for gross profit margins, reorders, and specials was an overwhelming task to the retailer. With the advent of the personal computer, we wanted to change that by offering an affordable, easy to use retail software system that would reduce their workload at least by half," stated Brown.

Today, ProphetLine’s retail software packages can be deployed as either a traditional in-store system or as a hosted solution offering

• Gift Certificate Production, Tracking and Redemption
• Credit, Debit & Gift Card Software
• Serial Number and Warranty Tracking
• Customizable "On-Screen" Shortcuts
• Purchasing, Receiving by Exception
• Customizable Receipt Graphics
• Email and FAX Service from PC
• Seamless Web Shopping Cart
• Electronic Signature Capture
• Inventory Management
• Touch Screen Support
• Customer Marketing
• Time Clock and Payroll Support
• Integrated Accounting or Links to other Packages

Case Studies
Photo Pro – Dave Johnson discusses how he is changing his business model to better adapt to today’s market requirements with ProphetLine.

"Sales associates don’t make errors if I’m not available. Discounts, specials, and pricing are all accurate providing for greater gross margins with the ProphetLine POS system." Dave Johnson, owner, Photo Pro. "Any business that is challenged by working hard but not being profitable, this system can turn it around. By managing the store operation, the system paid for itself in less than a year."

Dave Johnson began Photo Pro in 1981. Every year, through precise work, his business has grown. However, he always did it the old fashioned way, by hand. This resulted in poor inventory control, and price updating was done only on a sporadic basis. His business was running him and this led to thoughts about leaving the industry.

One year, Johnson attended the PMA show and decided to investigate POS systems. After doing some research he determined that ProphetLine was "clearly the way to go." It has transformed how he does business and allowed him to take control of his store instead of the business running him. It has helped him immeasurably.

"It is so logical, and the investment paid for itself in less than a year," Johnson stated. "I can be excited about running my business for the first time. This only happened because of the software. Bob (Brown) and his staff have been an absolute delight to work with, everyone from the sales person to the customer support."

ProphetLine software is used to manage both his retail store and photo finishing business. When an item goes up in cost, the system immediately and automatically transfers the increase. Pricing is increased or decreased, whatever is determined as appropriate. It allows you to look at an item, see if the gross margins are correct, and if not, make an immediate adjustment. Then it controls the inventory on the backside. It moves and tracks a product through its life cycle.

As for the photo finishing business, when a sales associate goes to complete a transaction, all the information fields must be answered or the sale/order processing cannot occur. This is a good thing. It ensures that the transactions are being handled correctly by the sales staff, especially when he is not at the location.

Photo Pro is now also utilizing ProphetLine’s marketing component. We know where our customers come from, how they buy, and when they buy for targeted promotions and advertising efforts.

Johnson cannot stop praising ProphetLine enough, "Their product has an enormous amount of horsepower, but the company is nimble enough to be able and willing to alter it to fit your needs. And, if you think you know a better way to handle an operation, they will rewrite the code."

Johnson added that another benefit of the system is that it allows the retail sales associates to know special pricing that professionals and preferred customers receive.

Tony Miresse – Art’s Cameras Plus extols the virtues of the gift card function to increase repeat sales.

"The gift card function has been absolutely imperative in allowing us to compete with the big box stores," Tony Miresse, Art’s Cameras Plus.

A newer user of the ProphetLine for Windows gift card function software, the system was implemented to give gift cards to customers.

Originally, Art’s implemented the point of sale software in 1997. Miresse started with the inventory control, accounts payable/receivable, and bar code functions. By having the bar code function, it allowed the gift card program.

Art’s uses the gift card function, not only as a "gift" purchase, but as a promotional vehicle. For example, instead of giving a discount on a product, Art’s gives the customer a gift card at a certain value to use in the store on a future purchase. This brings the customer back. For example, a customer buys a camera, they are given a $50 gift card, and this brings them back into the store to become a repeat customer.

We also use the function to implement a club card program on the photo finishing end.

Terry Simmons – SimJo Photo – Uses ProphetLine’s integrated web shopping cart to increase sales.

Terry Simmons of SimJo Photo has many positive comments about ProphetLine. SimJo Photo uses ProphetLine’s integrated web shopping cart and his relationship with ProphetLine "enabled my clients to email files early on in the history of web-based photofinishing and now it’s paying off."

Simmons states, "ProphetLine has been a gateway for us to do a lot of other things."

When Terry Simmons first began investigating point of sale systems about nine years, he came to the conclusion that if the system was not Windows-based it would be left behind. He saw Windows as the way of the future.

Through his research at trade shows and online, Simmons discovered that ProphetLine was the only Windows-based POS system at the time, most reasonably priced, and had the best integration components.

The web shopping cart function can take a retail enterprise, hampered by location and size, and make it equal to a much larger player. The original form of the ProphetLine program was approximately 95% of everything you could want or need. The other 5%, ProphetLine customized to SimJo Photo’s individual needs.

This 5% allows SimJo Photo to conduct business easily with State and Federal agencies. SimJo Photo has the capability to email a link to the customers that will take them directly to the specific catalog page, even to the specific item, so there is no need to "hunt" for items. This function keeps customers on the SimJo Photo site and decreases the chance of them searching out other vendors on the Internet.

However, the purpose of the shopping cart isn’t just for sales. It allows the retail operation the ability to track the location of people visiting the site, the type of browser being used, the time of day, the date, and so forth thus creating a database for targeted direct mail campaigns and advertising.

ProphetLine helped enable SimJo Photo to build a web presence that Terry Simmons has expanded into a multi-tiered website with many photo finishing modules. It offers four methods of sending photos to the store for finishing. There is also an FTP site for professionals that include a digital drop box with a user interface. ProphetLine provided the gateway that allowed for the creation of domain email (simjophoto.com).

"We are a 2,200 square foot retail location that does $2 million in sales per year," says Simmons. "We are very happy with our volume."

SimJo Photo caters to advanced amateurs, the upscale professional market, and the State and Federal government allowing them to operate during normal business hours with a true professional staff Monday through Friday. SimJo Photo has been in business for 21 years.

For more information on how ProphetLine’s retail software packages can benefit your business, call Bob Brown, President, ProphetLine at (800) 875-6592 or visit website at www.prophetline.com .

Top of Page

Seamless Rental and Reservation Management Now Available!

FORT SMITH, AR – ProphetLine/SpectrumRetail.com, a leading provider of retail management systems for specialty retailers, announces the addition of the Rental and Reservation Management module to it’s ProphetLine for Windows family of products. With this capability, small to medium-sized retailers are provided a single system that includes rental management with full accounting, size/color management, order tracking, web integration and multiple store management, all in a single application at an affordable price. Before, most retailers had to choose between a suitable reservation and rental product with a weak retail inventory system; or a weak reservation and rental system with a good retail management system. Now retailers can have both, seamlessly within the same system.

Features

Rental inventory can be moved from rental to retail sales and back effortlessly, markdowns are properly accounted for and full reporting is featured. Retailers’ customers will enjoy fast and efficient checkouts of on-hand rental inventory, along with reserved inventory and services. Proper payment methods by time period, late fees and reservation updates are automatic.

With ProphetLine for Windows Rental and Reservation module, financial reporting will become easier and more manageable. Along with creating sales analysis reports that show performance of retail, rental and service inventory, the retailer can also gather statistics for comparatives by periods, customers, vendors and employees. The integration of the rental and reservation module with ProphetLine System Manager ensures that all transactions are applied automatically and correctly.

Rental and Reservation Highlights:

Security – Allows the retailer to control who can rent inventory and / or view rental inventory reports.

Customer verification – Automatically asks the clerk to verify credit card information on file for a customer, based on the number of days since the last visit for which you define.

Custom rental agreement printed on each receipt – Retailers can create custom rental agreements which print on the customer rental invoice.

Mass return function – Allows quick return of large quantities of rental inventory to stock.

Quick sell rental inventory – Allows quick change of a rental inventory item to a retail sale at the point of sale.

Easy navigation to other days and dates for reservations – Allows for easy change of rental terms at the point of sale.

Top of Page

Centralized Inventory Management Now Available to Small / Midsized Retailers!

FORT SMITH, AR – ProphetLine’s Centralized Purchasing Module , a new component of it’s ProphetLine for Windows retail management system, optimizes multi-store inventory control from one central location. Never before has it been this cost effective and easy for retailers to automatically balance store inventory levels and manage Just-In-Time replenishment with a single streamlined purchasing system! Previously this technology was affordable only to large retailers.

Automated Inventory Balancing

With an easy- to- use graphical interface, retailers set minimum / maximum inventory levels for each store. When inventory levels reach the minimum level, the module notifies corporate with an inventory replenishment request. For chains with warehouses, the system will recommend store- to- store transfers, warehouse replenishment, or purchase orders for a vendor.

Flexible Replenishment

ProphetLine’s Centralized Purchasing Module gives retailers more order processing flexibility. Multiple store replenishment requests transmitted to corporate may be pooled into one purchase order or transmitted to vendors as an individual purchase orders. Vendors then fulfill the order as floor- ready merchandise, notify the retailer with an advance ship notice (ASN), and ship the order. Inventory is received by scanning the shipment’s bar code label to reference the ASN, and both the corporate and store inventory databases are updated with the actual quantity shipped.

Increased Cost Efficiency and Competitiveness

Centralized Purchasing enables the retailer to cut costs by reducing excess inventory stock and increase competitiveness by preventing stock outs. ProphetLine’s Centralized Purchasing Module can minimize inventory stock to sales ratios by allowing the retailer to truly manage Just-In-Time inventory replenishment for multiple profit centers;, thus lowering total inventory costs and increase your margins!

Top of Page

SpectrumRetail Awarded Microsoft Retail Application Developer of the Year for the FOURTH Time.

FORT SMITH, AR –June 8, 2001- ProphetLine, a SpectrumRetail company, is proud to announce that it has won Microsoft’s 2001 Retail Application Developer (R.A.D.) Award in the Special Category of "Best Use of Internet Technologies" for its Visual ProphetLine Solution. This makes a total of four R.A.D. awards for SpectrumRetail. 

Microsoft R.A.D. awards recognize application developers who make the best use of Microsoft technology to provide tangible business benefits to customers in the retail, hospitality, supply chain, and property management fields.

Robert A. Brown, President of SpectrumRetail, noted, "We are especially proud of our customers, Djangos.com, Logos Bookstore and others that are benefiting from increased customer satisfaction and better inventory control with Visual ProphetLine. Their customers are happier, which results in more purchases from their stores and web site. Its not uncommon for our customers, such as Djangos.com, to see an incredible 100% increase in store sales once the inventory is put on line. Few retailers have integrated their physical and web stores as well as these retailers using Visual ProphetLine."

Visual ProphetLine is a 32-bit system developed with Microsoft Visual Studio. Visual ProphetLine provides comprehensive retail management and POS functionality to Microsoft products such as SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft Commerce Server to provide an extremely rich shopping experience to consumers. 

"Visual ProphetLine provides retailers with powerful, unified Internet and physical store inventory control that dramatically exceeds retailers’ and their customers’ shopping experience expectations. Few products exploit Microsoft’s internet technology products as completely as Visual ProphetLine." noted Tom Kirkham, executive vice president of ProphetLine. "We are proud to have been selected over the high quality of competition which is the hallmark of this award program."

Top of Page

Djangos Selects SpectrumRetail’s Visual ProphetLine for Click and Brick Operation

Ft. Smith, AR – Djangos.com, the world’s largest new and used music and movie web site, announces the use of SpectrumRetail’s Visual ProphetLine (VPL) retail management system to link an inventory of over one million titles in 19 stores and a distributionand fulfillment center. The system will deliver both web and in-store customers real-time access to Djangos’ global inventory. SpectrumRetail is a premier provider of feature-rich retail management systems and extended services such as ASP and Internet technologies.

SpectrumRetail technology and the Djangos IT department’s innovations use web technology to link the store’s POS system, the fulfillment center location system, the Djangos Kiosk network and the Web, thus providing customers access to the universal inventory. In stores, Djangos provides computer kiosks where customers can search for a selection that might not be available at a particular location. The customer can then order the title online. On the web, sophisticated search engines immediately drop a title into a shopping cart and update inventory on all systems within nanoseconds, enabling Djangos to have the best customer satisfaction and "fill rate" in the industry.

Immediate access to inventory is a key feature. Djangos deals in many one-of-a-kind items offered simultaneously on the web and through its stores. "If we could not offer this proprietary patented technology, our success would be limited due to many unfilled orders and disgruntled customers," stated Steve Furst, President & COO, Djangos. When a music or movie title is purchased by Djangos or traded in at a retail location, it is immediately scanned into the system. Within hours, it is available for purchase worldwide on the Internet and in stores. "Turnover is so rapid that many of these titles are usually purchased and shipped out by the end of the same day," Furst continued.

A unique feature of Djangos shopping with VPL is provided by a partnership with MP3 to offer digital streaming. A customer who makes a purchase on the MP3 site is actually purchasing from Djangos. On the Djangos site, customers can immediately enjoy the music just purchased through a personalized "Instant Listening" music manager library, which can be accessed from any Internet connection. All new music purchases can be streamed free anywhere in the world on the Internet.

Djangos, currently in five major U.S. music markets, (Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Portland and Chicago) will continue an aggressive expansion plan in 2001. Djangos recently opened a new store in the UCLA Student Union Book Store and is currently in negotiations with two other major colleges to expand in that venue. Additional acquisitions are being negotiated and should be announced later this year.

As to SpectrumRetail’s role, Steve Furst stated, "We have found them to be a very strategic partner in our technological growth and development of this ‘Bleeding edge’ real time technology."

Djangos.com offers quality-guaranteed, used and new CDs, DVDs, and VHS through an online catalog djangos.com linked through proprietary technology to the inventories of the company’s retail locations and centralized distribution facility. The company’s name is derived from the brilliant three-fingered gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, who has inspired European and American jazz for decades. Djangos.com and 19 stores in five major music markets are shopped by tourists, local music lovers, and internationally known musicians.

Top of Page

ProphetLine POS System Powers Five Days of Heavy Sales at World Golf Championships

Ft. Smith, AR – Through five days of intensity, both on and off the golf course, ClubCorp’s Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, served as the site of the World Golf Championships NEC Invitational. While Tiger Woods defended his trophy, the pro shops, powered by the ProphetLine for Windows point-of-sale system, sold approximately 18,700 items – an average of one item every 11 1/2 seconds. 

Dallas based ClubCorp entered into a partnership with ProphetLine, Inc. in 1999 to provide the corporation a fully integrated point-of-sale system to handle sales at most of its more than 220+ clubs and resorts. Doug Williams, Vice-President, Systems Development and Implementation, ClubCorp, stated, "ProphetLine for Windows flawlessly handled the numerous transactions, confirming our decision that ProphetLine is one of the best choices in retail technology to handle a fast, heavy sales volume." He continued, "ClubCorp is fulfilling the vision of having a fully integrated suite of systems enabling superior personalized services for our guests and members. The point-of-sale system from ProphetLine is a significant component of this capability."

ProphetLine is a national leader in the development and implementation of technology-based systems for retailing management, and provides award-winning, state-of-the-art systems to specialty retailers of all sizes. The full range of products and services for the retail industry includes turnkey management systems, project management, custom software development, in-store headquarters training, installation and implementation, help desk services, and deployment services. For more information, contact ProphetLine headquarters at (800) 875-6592 or point Internet browsers to http://www.prophetline.com.

Founded in 1957, Dallas-based ClubCorp has $1.6 billion in assets. The company is the world leader in delivering golf, private club and resort experiences. Internationally, the company owns or operates more than 220 golf courses, country clubs, private business clubs and resorts. Among the company’s nationally-recognized golf properties are Pinehurst in the Village of Pinehurst, N.C., (the world’s largest golf resort, the site of the 1999 U.S. Open and site for 2005 U.S. Open); Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, (site of World Golf Championships NEC Invitational); Indian Wells, Ca., (site of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic); The Homestead in Hot Springs, Va., (founded in 1766 and America’s first resort); and Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Ca., (home of the Nabisco Championship). The company’s 23,000 employees serve the 500,000 club members and 250,000 guests who visit ClubCorp properties each year. Visit www.clubcorp.com for additional company information.

Top of Page

ProphetLine Brings ASP Solution to RT Market

Benefits Single Store and Multi-Store Retailers

Ft. Smith, AR ­ ProphetLine Inc., a three-time Microsoft Developer of the Year award winner, continues innovating for the retail technology market with the introduction of its Application Service Provider (ASP) model. The system will provide centrally managed, hosted retail applications for web sites, point of sale, inventory control, and administration needs. With this ASP-based system, ProphetLine will provide specialty retailers of all sizes true "click and brick" integration with the added benefit of lower information technology expenses.

Hosted applications have the ability to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) for retailers a number of ways. Enhancements and upgrades are immediately deployable to a central, single site for all stores, regardless of location; dramatic reduction in onsite maintenance, troubleshooting, and hardware upgrades; more robust backups and system security; tighter and faster integration to other retail applications especially web sites; and the availability of true real-time information. It is also feasible for hosting computers to employ a number of methods to increase reliability that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive at the store level. System upgrades can be performed much more easily, frequently without the users knowledge, since they now do not require store visits or any on-site contact with personnel. Terminal failures at the store level are simply replaced with another piece of hardware that requires little, if any, configuration. "It is a true "plug and play" replacement," stated Tom Kirkham, Executive Vice President of ProphetLine.

"Another benefit of employing an ASP model to the retailer is that nothing is stored at the store level," continued Kirkham. The store applications and all related data reside on computers centrally managed by ProphetLine, allowing immediate access and administration by highly skilled staff.

Deployment of the solution is over the Internet or private network, which will allow for launches of e-retail stores, tied to brick and mortar operations, to be more or less a turnkey operation. The virtual stores will be managed with the back-end and existing retail management and distribution applications at the central server location. Retailers will be able to control and make changes to their e-retailing sites effortlessly. The seamless integration between the brick and mortar stores and e-commerce sites will allow changes in inventory and sales records to be reflected immediately at the store and corporate level. This supply chain integration, from e-retailing to brick and mortar stores to warehouses, will enable personnel with access rights the ability to view sales, inventory, and other data in real time over the Internet at any given point of the retail process.

Kirkham stated furthermore, "Since all of the application code and data is centralized, business integration of a true click and mortar environment is more easily realized." Particular to ProphetLine’s ASP solution is that it can be applied from a single store subscription to a multi-chain, offering benefits and costs savings to both.

Top of Page