ePOS - Intelligent Retail

[hardwareguy]

Can anyone offer an independent critique or review of Connect or Independent Retail as a whole?

There is almost nothing across the whole web apart from on IR's own website.

On this forum there are posts dating back a couple of years where people were warning against them - but what is the situation now?

Desperately want to believe their hype but scepticism and previous bad reviews warn me not to.

 

[HWRetail]

Just over 12 months ago I was looking for an EPOS system for my retail shop. We sell ladies fashion, jewellery, handbags, design-led gifts, cosmetics and Charlie Bears. Quite a mix of fairly fast moving items with stock constantly changing.


I had an idea what I wanted from an EPOS system in particular the management information it can give you. I wanted to understand what was driving profit and really get to grips with margins. The other big advantage is a professional looking setup with good quality information on receipts, integrated PDQ etc.


I looked at Intelligent Retail after having seen them at a trade show and had the in shop demonstration. I also looked at Actinic’s EPOS system as at the time I was looking at developing an Actinic website for the on-line side of the business. I also looked at a Wasp system, but soon discounted this as it wasn’t what I wanted. I saw Orcus EPOS at another Trade Show and this was the system that I went with after a detailed evaluation.
I created a spreadsheet of all the costs for hardware, software, support and feature sets and ended up with Intelligent Retail and Orcus to compare. In a nutshell, my decision to go with Orcus was based on cost and feature set. Although IR revised their costs a couple of times, their support model was quite different to the one that Orcus have. In addition to a higher capital cost, there were higher on-going costs. Orcus have a straightforward fixed cost for their helpdesk. In summary, for my situation, based on my evaluation, I felt that Intelligent Retail was expensive for my requirements.

I am very happy with my Orcus system, it does exactly what I want it to do and it has provided me with the management information that I need to develop my business. Although I have hardly used their helpdesk because the system works so well, support is excellent when you do need it.
Because of the nature of our business, we are getting new stock weekly and we don’t tend to repeat items as we always like to have new stock, so ease of pricing is important. Pricing is very straightforward and I use a simple spreadsheet that I create a stock list in that I export to the Orcus system. You can also add stock directly from the EPOS software, I tend to use spreadsheets for all kinds of things as I used to be a Business Analyst so feel very at home with spreadsheets. This is by no means necessary though, just personal preference and what I am used to.


There are of course other systems out there, but it is a minefield! I did a lot of searching when I was buying my system and struggled to get any really good nuggets of info from end users.


Good luck with your search for a supplier, hopefully my experience may help a little.

 

[John_Orcus]

Thanks for the review of us HW.

I have heard from people using Connect who report that they are very happy with it, and those who report that it doesn't work for them as they expected. Some say the support is good and some say it is useless.

Intelligent Retail are very good at marketing Connect in an appealing way, but as I have never used it I can't say if their claims are all true or not.

In terms of reviews of Intelligent Retail, there is virtually nothing on the web now. Until a few months ago one ratings site contained a number of mostly disparaging reviews, however they have all disappeared now. Possibly they were malicious ones created by competition.

One thing we offer which I don't think Intelligent Retail do is a free trial of the software. In nearly every case a prospect who runs a trial then becomes a customer of ours. Choosing an EPOS system is not something you should do lightly, and whilst some people can make their minds up after a half hour demonstration, there's nothing like having hands on for those who need proper confirmation.

We also offer telephone support on Saturdays and Sundays as standard, whereas Intelligent Retail charge a premium for this.

Whatever you decide to do, like with anything of this nature, make sure you read the Ts anc Cs of a contract very carefully before committing as you won't have a leg to stand on if you are disappointed.

 

[Page]

Just be aware that that is HWretails first post on here and then followed by one from orcus

It would ring alarm bells for me to say hmm maybe something is going on here

I am not saying it is - but it is not unheard of in forums

 

[John_Orcus]

I've been posting regularly on here for a long time, and will respond to any thread of interest or where I think I can help.

Obviously I know a bit about Intelligent Retail, and the company I work for was mentioned on the thread, so I don't see why I shouldn't respond in order to put across what I know and compare them with the way we do things.

I can assure you that HW is a genuine customer, and I am not in the business of setting up fake posts.

 

[HWRetail]

I appreciate your concerns with this being my first post, but I can absolutely assure you that my comments were completely unsolicited and my only association with Orcus is as one of their customers.​

I have only just recently discovered these forums and the vast amount of knowledge on here. I will do my best to add to this by reflecting on my experience of owning small businesses over the last 30 years.​

You will note that I have replied to another topic today and started a new thread on local traders associations. I do hope that this reassures you and other readers of my good intentions and I very much look forward to reading and posting in the future.​

 

[Oddbod]

I arrived at this forum through searching for comments & reviews of EPOS systems & this thread was first on a basic search with EPOS as the keyword.
It has answered a couple of questions I had & added a couple more!
After more than a year of looking at various options, I can only say choosing a system is one of the least easy decisions I've faced in fifteen years of retailing.

 

[Mayor]

We looked at Intelligent retail, but was warned against it from a fellow retailer, only on the basis that it was a bit expensive and somewhat overkill for our simple retail requirements. Some of these computer systems end up with you having to work for them, rather than them working for you !!

 

[tabish]

Hey, we are planning on developing a web based Point-of-Sale with a central back-end and platform compatible front-ends.

Would love to get some feedback you guys on features that you would want in your point-of-sale that your current POS are lacking.

 

[RobinKay]

Hey, we are planning on developing a web based Point-of-Sale with a central back-end and platform compatible front-ends.

Would love to get some feedback you guys on features that you would want in your point-of-sale that your current POS are lacking.

Happy to help just PM me on the forum

 

[mhall]

We have investigated dozens of "solutions" - it really is a minefield. We discounted based on
a) There were a number doing "complete solutions" which meant we were paying for things we didn't need. IR looks very good and, indeed it is - but it does far more than we wanted it to do,
b) support costs - if the systems are as good as they say, then support costs, in theory should not be an issue - but any company charging for "support" (including mileage charges) went straight in the bin,
c) cost - if the company is charging a monthly fee, then (in my book) that should include all support. Some of the monthly fees are just extortionate and most of the ones who exhibit fall into this category.
d) companies obviously also taking a kick back from hardware - one company wanted almost double for a touch screen that I could buy direct - and they were only willing to supply Ethernet printers instead of USB - I am guessing because that is what they wanted to get rid off.
e) complicated quotes - pages and pages of quotes that I simply couldn't be bothered to get my head round.
f) the ability to export your data easily if you need to get out - some companies simply don't allow you to get at your own data in a format you could use.
g) ease of input and manipulation- we have thousand of lines and I don't want to spend my life re-entering.
h) functions we actually want - some claim to be brilliant but have no option to do the simplest things such as recording cash lifts or banking/ extra floats.
I) Those tied in to card processors - more kickbacks that we don't see the benefit of.
j) and finally sales people that actually want to understand the business and not IT geeks who want you to work to their system and treat you like an idiot when you ask a question like "Why is the barcode error sound the same as the sound for barcode accepted?" .

 

[Sax.co.uk]

The Intelligent retail EPOS system has it's ups and downs but is generally very good, the web side of IR needs to be approached with extreme caution.

As an Intelligent retail user over the past year I can totally understand the frustrations expressed by the user a couple of posts up. When we initially met with IR all our questions we're answered with bold confidence that the software would provide what we wanted and even more. That turned out to be FAR from the case. When we made the transfer over we experienced a huge loss in turnover from our new IR website and a massive cry out from our customers asking why our website had become so bad. The same number of visitors were accessing the site but the conversion rate dropped to an alarming low. I believe this was down to an exceedingly worrying amount of downtime, the website crashing a lot and IR connect not being fit to sell internationally at all (charging VAT to overseas customers). After an unacceptable amount of time IR eventually sorted out these issues but you have to wonder how a company that specializes in this area can get so many things so horribly wrong. These were the worst issues but I really am scratching at the surface at the number of things that went wrong with the website.

On a daily basis we still have issues that we continually chase up, our Google Product feed doesn't work, the images on our site frequently display broken, the search on our site is terrible, we have 20% VAT appearing on pre-owned items which should be 4%, the area where you set up postage to sell internationally is beyond dreadful.

I can understand the attraction behind the simplicity of the IR system, if you run a very basic online business this may work for you, however IR shouldn't market it at people wanting to excel at e-commerce or build upon already successful websites.

The system has improved for us since we started but only after a lot of stress and banging my head against the desk. Maybe in the future I will be able to recommend this software but IR still have a long way to go until it is something I will be pleased to use.

 

[Trendall and Scott]

Some very helpful comments and reviews about IR here, as I'm weighing up between IR and Orcus. Does anyone have any experience of Orcus/Myriad apart from the existing comments on here? They're a lot less expensive and seem to fit our business well. We were pretty screwed a year ago having invested in a Sage Paypoint system which now is defunkt - wasting almost 6k (incl. v basic hardware). Thanks

 

[Nexus]

Hi - Have you considered sticking with your Sage PayPoint system? Although it was announced "End of Life", it is still an excellent and usable system. I exited Sage myself in January, as I headed up the Sage Paypoint Development team. Our company now supports several hundred Sage PayPoint sites and Resellers. We have the original Sage PayPoint developers on our team and therefore know it better than anyone.
If you have invested in that solution, then you can continue using it. Sage issued "unlocked" licences so it only comes down to a lack of support from Sage themselves.
I can put you in touch with various Sage partners who will be very happy to support you. Our own replacement solution for Sage is close to release. Probably not "correct" of me to advertise that here, so please message me if you would like any info. Stuart

 

[Trendall and Scott]

HI Stuart,

The only reason we're not sticking with our existing one is due to lack of support from the co that provided it in the first place, and the fact that it has already started crashing! Would be more than happy to talk to you about how you might be able to help though. Please let me know your contact details..

 

[Nexus]

I'd be interested to find out who that company was, as they should have offered you several migration routes rather than leave you high and dry.
I've dropped you a message with my contact numbers. Feel free to call or text and I can can send you a link to our website about how you can continue using the Sage system. Stuart

 

[Page]

No software is perfect and the more you need it to do the more there is to go wrong

But you could do worse than look at Linnworks
The problem is that their EPOS is pretty basic and may not be up to task

My guess is that IR have come from EPOS and tried to add the rest on
Linn have come from somewhere altogether different - even pre ecommerce
And then added an EPOS module on - but it is very basic
They are a rapidly moving company though and I am sure will get there in the end

But ...
No software is perfect

Do you need integration with EPOS and in the way that you "dream"

For all the cost and hassle you might be better of with Linnworks and then some manual hassles
Does not sound perfect ?
No it never is - but your current system is not either and has cost you hours and hours
So look not for perfection but better and work arounds

For example - you could say only stuff over £30 is on the channels - and so needs to be handled manually
Below £30 it is for sale in the shop and so needs to be handled manually on the channels

Sometimes a bit of rethinking and forgetting the perfection do it all dream is the way to go

 

[Page]

Oh and dont get excited about the new version of linnworks - what they call .net

It is released but not fit for purpose as of yet - and you dont want to relive your IR experience

It has cost US a FORTUNE in time and problems - due to its issues and bugs - but we had to swap for a specific feature

But in the long run I am sure they will get there. They are very techology focussed and have built up a massive team of developers.

So maybe give it a look and stay aware.

They used ot run a freemium package but I am not sure if they still do

It does a lot a lot

But the downside is a steep learning curve - but you can nowadays buy in training and help etc
And I would advise it if you are technology weak and/or time poor