Standardized POS System for Oregon Liquor Stores?

 This was sent to me via email:

"The State of Oregon, acting by and through the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, (“Agency”), is issuing this Request for Information for a Point-of-Sale (POS) software for the Distilled Spirits Supply Chain to assist the Agency’s future buy decision. The desirable solution will merge computer hardware, software and peripheral equipment with improved operating practices for managing inventory for our liquor agent’s throughout the State of Oregon. The solution will increase accuracy and improve flexibility and responsiveness through real-time liquor inventory management and revenue capture."

Basically, they are soliciting information from POS vendors for a possible standard point of sale system to be used at all of the 280+ agency liquor stores in the state of Oregon.

If you are a liquor retailer, what are your thought on this? Are you OK with being told what POS system you must use in your store by a state agency? 

I'm curious to know! Please comment on this post or contact me at kevinantosh@gmail.com

The results will be shared in a future blog post (less any personal information so there is no chance of retaliation).

 

Free On Site Consulting - well kind of free

So, I have some vacation time coming up in a few weeks but no real vacation plans at this point so I'm making this offer on a first come first serve basis: I'll waive our normally hourly rate for onsite retail point of sale consulting services. All that needs to be covered are my actual travel expenses.

Who is this best suited for?
Small to mid sized chain retailers with between 4 and 400 locations who either want to get the most out of their existing point of sale system or are searching for a new/replacement point of sale system.

What locations?
Geographically, the following areas are the easiest for me to travel to and I've been to in the past as well:

• All of Idaho
• All of Utah
• Western Wyoming
• Western Oregon
• Seattle, WA area
• Portland, OR area
• Reno, NV
• Los Vegas, AZ
• Phoenix, AZ
• Tuscon, AZ
• Portland, OR
• Las Angeles, CA
• Sacramento, CA
• San Jose, CA
• Denver, CO
• All of Texas
• Lincoln, NE
• Omaha, NE
• All of MN
• All of WI
• Other?  I'm not limited to just the locations listed above.

What sort of services can be provided?
No actual technical or programming work but instead a focus on the following:

• Process analysis and documentation
• Budgeting for a new or replacement POS system
• Options for Microsoft Dynamics RMS/HQ users
• Creating a wish list for a new or replacement POS system
• Solution comparison
• RFP/RFQ/RFI Creation

How many days would you be onsite?
I'm very flexible here but I'm normally onsite for at least 2 business days all the way up to 5 business days..

Whats the cost?
Actual travel expenses - best estimate is $1000 to $1800. Terms are 50% down and remainder due upon completion of the onsite visit.

What's the dollar value?
Our normal hourly rate at RITE is $90 to $125/hour so even 25 hours of onsite consulting would normally run $2400.

What's are the non-monetary benefits?
This will depend greatly on your goals but some common past outcomes have been:

• Labor cost savings via
• Increased efficiency
• better understand of what is needed in a POS system
• Process documentation
• Reduced research time 
• Having an "expert" onsite to help coordinate steps to obtain goals and objectives
• Using pre-existing documentation versus creating your own documentation
• Full understanding of all options that are available
• Q and A style assistance for multiple goals and objectives

Do we get our money back if not happy or if we purchase something from RITE?

• I would not come onsite unless we both agreed that my time would be beneficial and my skill set matches your goals and objectives.
• If you happen to purchase a POS system (Cloud Retailer, Retail Management Hero, or Microsoft Dynamics 365) from RITE "down the road", the travel costs would be applied as a discount towards the total purchase price.

Next Step if Interested:
Call (208-340-5632) or email (kevinantosh@gmail.com) me so we can have a general conversation about your goals and to ensure that my skill set would be beneficial to you.

Public Sector RFP Problems

Update 01/18/2017:
I've actually had a few government entities utilize the information below to prepare better requests - one has even signed on for a 17 location/30 concurrent user Cloud Retailer point of sale system - nice!

Wow - it always amazes me to review any sort of point of sale related RFQ/RFI/RFP from a government entity as they are normally well over 50 pages long but manage to miss critical details.  The one that I am reviewing right now provides some conflicting requirements, fails to include detailed information on existing equipment, and requests accounting functions from a point of sale system (without noting if accounting software is already in place or if accounting software is needed).

Thankfully, they have included a clarification period in the bid response period which is great!  If you are a government entity, or even a larger organization searching for a new point of sale system, please considering the following:

• Have a team comprised from one person from each department develop the point of sale RFP
• No one member of the team has higher say than other members. For example, IT does not have veto rights over someone representing the cashier staff. 
• You do need to have a project leader to keep the group focused and on task
• Have a replacement process in place should one member of the group need to be replaced or removed.
• Do remove members of the group who are only focused on their own departments needs or agenda and are not capable of seeing the big picture (I'm always amazed that organizations keep employees who can't see past their own agenda - regardless of what position they hold. Offer them retraining or show them the door as they are hurting more than they are helping. Interestingly enough, I've seen this equally among women and men, and yes, I have told them to pack it up and move on).
• Seek out multiple experts as needed that are unbiased or speak with other agencies who may have gone through the process recently - you can learn so much from them and they may even be able to provide you with some documentation that can be used.
• Keep in mind that you are asking a potential vendor to spend 20-40 hours preparing documentation so provide them with plenty of time to complete the documentation.
• Be realistic on expectations. For example, I had one member of a POS RFP team insist that the vendor compensate the organization for system outages. That is completely unrealistic. Does the power company compensate you when the power is out? Does Dell, IBM, or HP compensate you when a computer is down and needs to be replaced?  Keep the requirements realistic or you may find it tough to find anyone to respond.
• Make sure that the RFP/RFQ/RFI is announced through proper channels. It would reflect poorly on your organization if the bid was awarded and a local company was missed and filed a freedom of information request exposing that your organization failed to include local companies in the process. 
• Same goes for transparency. It is really easy to tell when a RFQ/RFP is being sent out even though a vendor has already been selected and the bid weighted in that vendors favor. Do this and expect a freedom of information request and a lot of media coverage that reflects poorly on your organization. I'm aware of one government entity that selected a vendor and bypassed the correct process. After spending well over $150 Million (!) in tax payers money, the vendor could not deliver a finished product and the entity had to almost start from scratch.

OK - enough for now. I realize that point of sale systems are a somewhat niche area of knowledge which one reason why this blog exists and why I pass along free advice.