Noritake is a chain of 12 manufacturers outlets owned by Noritake Co., the leading manufacturer of Chinaware in the U.S. and Canada. Corporate offices are in New Jersey, while the operations and retail headquarters are located in Cincinnati.

The search for software began when Noritake became aware of an issue with their software regarding Y2K. To upgrade existing hardware and software would be a substantial fix, so it was decided that packaged software would be investigated. "We looked at high-end solutions and some other companies, and we weren't satisfied. We then went to IBM for a recommendation," states Jerry Rosenback, Director of Retail for Noritake stores.

IBM recommended VAI's S2K Enterprise for Retail as a potentially good fit for Noritake's needs. "To us, The high-end solutions seemed to be better fit for larger chains, and consequently came with a larger price tag…VAI seemed to be a much better fit," says Jerry.

As for Noritake's previous system, "This was a good system, but the upgrade costs were very high to move to the latest version and become Y2K compliant. On top of this, we would have had to license every location, POS and back office. VAI's unlimited user license and one-time licensing fee was a huge cost savings for Noritake."

"We started the research process in November 1998, and were introduced to VAI by IBM in March 1999. We selected VAI’s S2K Enterprise for Retail about 4 months later and went live in a very impressive 3-month implementation, beginning in our 2 brand new stores - Riverhead, Long Island and Woodburn, Oregon. By January 1st the rest of the stores were up."

VAI is known for its quality people, and Jerry largely credits the impressive implementation to the blend of his MIS staff and to his project leader from VAI. The first of many critical issues was real time credit card transactions over frame relay, and VAI could easily do this. "To begin with, the frame relay service was probably the biggest issue and getting this working properly was critical. Once this was handled, the implementation began, which was handled by our MIS department and a great project leader from VAI. We'd ask for something, and 2 days later we'd have exactly what we wanted…. that's what I'd describe as a very intuitive, intelligent and responsive project manager."

"We had a bit of a slow learning curve…and because we were an early install, there were a substantial number of modifications we required, about 30% of the system. Many of our enhancements are now incorporated in VAI's current retail system code. The system is open and easy to modify, and the flexible design of the code is really appreciated by our MIS department."

Jerry goes on to explain why VAI’s S2K Enterprise is an exceptional retail system for Noritake. "Price updates are an excellent feature…the POS screen can do item breaks, allowing discounts, promotions, and special pricing to be easily applied and easily understood. On top of that, these are all programmed in a snap, and this is what we want as retailers, for the system to be flexible and fast. We get instant reports - one keystroke takes us to an inventory look up. Unavailable items can be found easily at other locations making them available for immediate shipment to the customer. If a customer has a custom order request we can process it via fax or email to the manufacturer. For a walk-in customer, capturing ship-to information is made easy using S2K Enterprise. The quoting process, which is integral to the business, is a great feature. For example, customers may have a wedding, come in, pick out things, ask about quantity, and then we can easily print out a quote. They can then go and compare, and when they come back to order, the quote is simple to look up and easy to convert into a sale. They then give us their credit card…and zip, done, populated, real time. Coming from our old system, which was stand alone and batch, this is a huge improvement."

"It usually takes about 50 transactions for our new employees to become proficient with the system. The instant look up, the quote feature, intuitive screen design, and that there are few ways to make mistakes all add up to a system our counter people love. Managers love the reports…they use the prompt feature all the time and love the drill down capabilities. We have over 10,000 SKUs and not all of them are obvious…we can look these up by UPS, description, vendor, etc. This makes the whole process very convenient."

When Jerry talks about the transition for his customers, he describes the beginning as a bit tough. "This happens with any system - in my opinion, the first weeks are always a bit rocky. Expectations have to be realistic. Certainly now they have noticed the improved functionality."

Inventory management is greatly improved. "I didn't work with our previous software vendor very long before we made the switch, and we never really benchmarked the inventory, but there is some definite ROI in that area. I would describe our inventory on VAI's S2K Enterprise system as 'much much much' improved, with the min/max, lead time, and suggested reordering features built in for managers."

"Managers are very independent, and have to be due to the regionality of their business. They have to be able to 'pull the trigger' on the order so to speak, and VAI gets them the data they need to do this very fast.