Microsoft Windows Embedded Customer Solution Case Study
Africa’s Biggest Food Retailer Chooses New Point-of-Service Operating System
Overview
Country or Region: South Africa Industry: Retail Customer Profile The Shoprite Group is Africa’s largest food retailer. It operates 917 stores in 17 countries serving around 11.6 million customers. Business Situation Shoprite needed to modernise its point-ofservice (POS) solution to retain its competitive position, introduce new products, enhance security, and improve customer service. Solution After considering several options, including Linux, Shoprite opted for Windows® Embedded for Point of Service, which is specially designed to provide retailers with a platform for diverse POS applications. Benefits Managers diversify business. Innovation supports company reputation. Improved security minimises fraud risks. Low total cost of ownership.
“Due to Windows Embedded for Point of Service, we are now able to increase our business and diversify our services by selling products such as airtime at our POS terminals.”
Ferdie Voges, Systems Development Manager, Shoprite
The largest food retailer in Africa, Shoprite Group, serves 11.6 million customers with quality brands at affordable prices. The South Africa-based company needed to modernise its point-ofservice (POS) tool to maintain its competitive position, introduce new products, and improve customer service. After considering several options—including Linux—Shoprite opted for Windows® Embedded for Point of Service, which is designed to provide retailers with a platform for diverse POS applications. As a result, Shoprite has achieved complete modernisation of its stores with a cost-effective solution that is fully supported by Microsoft and offers greater security. Shoprite is introducing new products and services on its POS system because more companies support Windows than its previous system. Shoprite is using the latest technology due to its Microsoft® low-cost volume licensing agreement.
Situation
The Shoprite Group, Africa’s largest food retailer, is headquartered in the Western Cape Province of South Africa and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Since 1979, the company has grown both organically and by acquisition, offering topquality food and household merchandise at highly competitive prices. It now operates 917 stores in 17 countries, serving around 11.6 million customers. Employing more than 69,000 people, Shoprite is principally focused on South Africa, but has stores in 16 other countries, including Zambia, India, and the islands of Mauritius and Madagascar. In 2005, Shoprite decided to upgrade the operating systems for its stores’ cash registers and, at the same time, to improve customer service and offer more products in store, such as airtime for mobile phones and online payments. Many Shoprite stores have money market kiosks where customers without bank accounts can access a money transfer service, and the company has recently acquired Computicket, a business specialising in ticketing sales for the entertainment industry. Ferdie Voges, Systems Development Manager, Shoprite, says: “We were experiencing problems with our previous MSDOS operating system for our cash registers, including driver support on new devices, poor security, and problems with memory usage. There were only 640 kilobytes available for the actual point-of-service (POS) application. We also needed better protection against fraud. Finally, there was a problem in that Microsoft and our chosen POS application independent software provider Retalix had withdrawn support for the MS-DOS operating system.” Shoprite has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Microsoft through its current four-year Enterprise Agreement for low-cost
volume licensing of software. But Voges and his colleagues still decided to evaluate several other products on the market. He says: “Linux was an option, but we decided to standardise on Microsoft. We looked at Windows® XP Embedded and Windows XP Professional, but the problem was we did not want to build our own custom images. Operating system support becomes an issue when the image is changed using the image development product.”
Solution
Shoprite chose Windows Embedded for Point of Service, which is designed to provide retailers with a platform for diverse POS applications, including self-checkout counters, information stations, food-ordering kiosks, and automated teller machines. Voges adds: “There were several advantages of this solution, including the 10-year support cycle from Microsoft, the high level of security with less attack surface, and ease of deployment—it could run on older hardware, but could still be managed like the Windows XP Professional desktop operating system. Windows Embedded for Point of Service was also pre-tested on most POS and peripheral hardware.” The implementation and rollout involved a rigorous proof of concept in the first quarter of 2006 when the trial version of Windows Embedded for Point of Service was deployed at selected Shoprite stores in African countries other than South Africa. Following the successful trial, implementation is taking place in the remaining Shoprite stores for completion in September 2007 on all 10,000 POS terminals. Voges says: “We decided to test the new system in some fairly challenging retail environments, including Zimbabwe where prices in our stores change almost daily due to runaway inflation. We wanted to reduce
“Throughout the project, our relationship with Microsoft South Africa has been extremely positive. The team at Microsoft has a very good understanding of our environment.”
Ferdie Voges, Systems Development Manager, Shoprite
the time taken to process transactions for our customers, which in some cases had to be done item by item and settled each time by the customer. Zimbabwe was an excellent choice for the pilot, but it isn’t the only country with regular price changes at the POS because of inflation.” CEB Maintenance, one of South Africa’s leading third-party maintenance firms in the retail industry, helped Shoprite roll out the new system. Initially there were some technical challenges with third-party drivers, but these were resolved quickly. Voges says: “Throughout the project, our relationship with Microsoft South Africa has been extremely positive. We can obtain assistance with issues at any time. The team at Microsoft has a very good understanding of our environment and provides valuable input.” Through its Microsoft® Enterprise Agreement, Shoprite is using a range of Microsoft technologies including Windows Server® 2003, Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006, Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005, Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003, Microsoft System Management Server 2003, and the Microsoft Office system.
their in-store customers a broader range of services at the till. The company is adding financial services and online ticketing for entertainment venues to its customer services portfolio, which is already diversified. Shoprite has a considerable reputation for innovation, which has been reinforced by these in-store developments. When the company was using DOS, IT technicians found that it would not support a large number of new devices that can be connected to the POS machine, such as touch screen technology. Touch screen technology can be used as an alternative user interface with applications that normally require a mouse, such as a Web browser. Voges says: “Due to Windows Embedded for Point of Service, we are now able to increase our business and diversify our services by selling products such as airtime at our POS terminals. This was impossible with the previous system. And there are far more products that we can run on the POS because more companies support Windows than DOS.” Innovation Supports the Shoprite of Tomorrow Shoprite has a reputation for innovation as well as customer service and value for money. By choosing Windows Embedded for Point of Service, Shoprite is investing in a software platform for tomorrow. It supports not just cash registers but also self-checkout devices, information kiosks, and other computerised equipment used to interact with customers in stores and other public settings. Voges says: “We are proud of our reputation, and Windows Embedded for Point of Service will help us to build market share. In the past three years, the Sunday Times/Markinor Top Brands survey in South Africa has consistently placed each of our Shoprite and Checkers brands among the top three
“We are proud of our reputation and Windows Embedded for Point of Service will help us to build market share.”
Ferdie Voges, Systems Development Manager, Shoprite
Benefits
The modernised POS operating system means Shoprite can introduce more products and services in its stores with customers accessing them at its cash registers when they pay for food products or merchandise. Security has improved and the risk of fraud has been reduced. New devices can be connected to the POS machine, including touch-screen technology. The solution is highly cost effective and covered by the company’s four-year Microsoft Enterprise Agreement for low-cost volume licensing. Product Support Gives More Customer Choice With the modernised POS operating system, Shoprite managers are in a position to offer
supermarket brands in South Africa. In 2006, the survey recognised Shoprite as the number 1 supermarket brand in South Africa.” Improved Security Reduces Risks from Hackers and Fraudsters Strong default security settings in Windows Embedded for Point of Service, as well as a minimised operating system surface area, have improved security against hackers and fraudsters. Developers using Windows Embedded for Point of Service can integrate an array of security features into their devices, including: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Windows log on. Windows firewall and Internet connection sharing. Microsoft Internet Explorer® hardening pack. Role-based security. Buffer overrun protection. Antivirus solution support.
“With Windows Embedded for Point of Service, Microsoft has enhanced the customer experience at the point of service, increased reliability and security, and delivered low lifecycle costs for our POS system.”
Ferdie Voges, Systems Development Manager, Shoprite
Voges says: “With Windows Embedded for Point of Service, Microsoft has enhanced the customer experience at the point of service, increased reliability and security, and delivered low life-cycle costs for our POS system.“ IT Technicians Have Full Microsoft Support for 10 Years Retail companies typically allocate less than 1.5 per cent of their operating budget to IT costs. Windows Embedded for Point of Service has provided a robust and costeffective solution for Shoprite because the platform has a support policy of 10 years. This is aimed at reducing development, deployment, servicing, and support costs through the life cycle of the POS system.
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 4269400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 5682495. Customers who are deaf or hard-ofhearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com For more information about Shoprite products and services, call +27 (0) 21-9804000 or visit the Web site at: www.shoprite.co.za
Windows Embedded
The Windows Embedded family of products helps you turn your vision and ingenuity into superior business results. Windows Embedded consists of Windows Embedded CE, Windows XP Embedded, and Windows Embedded for Point of Service. These operating system technologies combine with the best set of tools and support to provide you the control to build what you want, accelerated time to market, and industryleading support. For more information about Windows Embedded, please visit: www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded
Software and Services
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio Microsoft Office − Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 Technologies − Microsoft SQL Server 2005 − Windows Embedded for Point of Service − Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published August 2007