Success story - Vantage Fuels
A country Victoria independent fuel and convenience retailer, Vantage Fuels has been in business for nearly 25 years, operating 16 BP service stations across the State. The company, which has consistently achieved success in a highly competitive industry, has strong commitments to efficient management, quality service and, importantly, an effective and reliable networked POS infrastructure.
Challenge: Improve overall efficiencies
Where operating a far reaching network of 16 service stations might typically call for a 24 hour on-demand IT support team, Vantage Fuels has a team of one; and it’s the company’s General Manager, Chris Richardson, who wears that articular hat along with various others.
“POS systems in service stations today are critical business tools,” Chris states. “Particularly in cases, such as ours, where a service station site functions also as a convenience store and even sometimes as a roadhouse. What this imately means is that the POS systems we run have to be every bit as reliable, accurate and efficient as those used in high demand retail environments.”
Solution: The Toshiba WILLPOS A20
Having established a partnership in 2007 with a Toshiba business partner for the supply and support of POS terminals and service station POS software, in 2010 Vantage Fuels looked to its partner for replacement terminals.
“We were starting to experience hardware problems,” Chris says, “and there were a lot of complaints coming from staff about the terminals’ touch screen capabilities. From an IT perspective, I was looking for a POS terminal that was easier to install and didn’t necessarily come with a premium price tag.”
Coinciding with that, Vantage’s POS solution provider had been conducting its own internal tests on the Toshiba WILLPOS A20, and the results were more than positive enough to support a Vantage Fuels decision to establish the WILLPOS A20 as its network wide POS terminal standard.
“A better product for less”
In commenting on the decision to standardise on the WILLPOS A20, Chris says: “Firstly, it was on the strong recommendation of our solution provider. They had been trialling the WILLPOS A20 for over three months and actually came to us and said they were about to focus entirely on Toshiba as their standard POS terminal hardware.
“Secondly, once I’d looked at what the WILLPOS A20 had to offer by way of connectivity and various other features, then saw we’d be getting a better system for around $1,000 less per terminal, it was a pretty straightforward decision. Also, Toshiba is a name that’s synonymous with quality. Essentially, it was a better product for less.”
Reduced errors and accounting administration
A distinct advantage of the WILLPOS A20, and one that is being felt right across the company, is a more accurate and reliable touchscreen. In stark contrast to the previous terminal, the WILLPOS A20 is delivering a POS experience that has significantly reduced operator errors and is saving up to several hours every week at each site in account balancing.
Kathleen Higgins, Vantage Fuels Healesville Manager, comments: “The sensitivity and accuracy of the Toshiba touch-screen is spot on. It used to be the case with the previous terminals that due to overly sensitive touch screens, operators were regularly experiencing on-screen button presses even without having physically touched the screen.”
All too often, the results were transactions being voided, incorrect items being rung up and customers kept waiting major problems in a rapid transaction environment; and problems that have now been all but eliminated.
“We’re also finding that the end-of-day account balancing is much more straightforward,” Kathleen continues. “I’m easily saving a couple of hours every week that I’d previously been devoting to working out where undetected touchscreen errors had occurred.”
Flexible installation
As the person responsible for the company’s IT infrastructure, Chris regards the WILLPOS A20 as a major step forward in terms of reliability, ease of installation and integration with third-party POS products.
In order to reduce overheads, for many years Chris has been the sole POS system installer for Vantage Fuels. With the delivery of each new terminal, he conducts a pre-install configuration before taking it on-site to effect a full installation; and this is where the benefits of the WILLPOS A20’s broad range of industry standard interfaces are felt.
“We’ve been in this industry for a long time, and we have standardised on a variety of third-party POS peripherals, such as printers, customer displays, cash drawers and barcode scanners,” Chris explains. “Since I’ve started installing the Toshiba terminals, installations are taking less time and actually require less workarounds.
“For example, our customer facing display requires a powered COM port, and this wasn’t possible on the previous terminals without a special cable that cost around one hundred dollars. On top of that, every one of the terminal’s interfaces are clearly marked; and that makes it a lot easier when you’re installing a terminal in what can often be a fairly cramped space.”
Important also is the fact that the WILLPOS A20 features a removable casing that covers all cable connections and, by reducing cable clutter, protects the terminal from accidental cable disconnections.
“In most of our service stations, the POS terminals are close to counter-top POS displays and product racks, which can easily snag loose cables when they’re moved,” Chris says.
“With the connections and cables covered by the POS terminal’s casing there’s no chance of that happening and causing a disruption to service.
“At every level, with the WILLPOS A20 we now have a better POS terminal and, I’ll say it again, for less outlay.”