Systme U and Tyco Electronics Elo TouchSystems business: Partners in Retail

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Systme U and Tyco Electronics Elo TouchSystems business: Partners in Retail.

Back in 2004, Systme U - the number 6 retailer in France with almost 8.5% market share - decided to renew its cash register systems. This was a large and challenging task for the retailer: Systme U has over 9,000 check out-lane systems in 860 stores in France and the DomTom.  As a leading retailer, Systme U knew exactly what was required and wanted to invest in a top solution.  The choice of a provider who can meet these expectations was clear: Tyco Electronics' Elo TouchSystems business, a global leader in touch technology.  As the inventor of touch technology, Tyco Electronics has decades of experience in an area that competitors are just starting to break into.  These years of experience make Tyco Electronics highly aware of the needs of their customers and the market, unparalleled in their quality, and best positioned to provide an optimal touch solution.

Ahead of the Trend

Systme U knew exactly what they wanted from the new system: it had to be hardy enough to withstand intensive daily use, yet still remain user-friendly and act as a major source of revenue.  The renewed point of sales system should incorporate touch technology; additionally, it should be easy to care for, have a long product life and be intuitive to use.  The new system needed to save space, reduce cables and decrease costs when considering the set-up and installation.

The decision to choose touch technology shows Systme Us commitment to having their employees work with the best point of sales devices possible.  Furthermore, it demonstrates they are ahead of the trend: despite the fact that point of sales systems with touch technology are a superior product in a checkout lane, approximately 80% of the retail market has not yet started using them.  There is a real shift in the market from non touch to state-of-the-art systems integrating touch monitors, says Frdric Thibaut, Business Development Manager EMEA at Tyco Electronics' Elo TouchSystems business Systme U was among the first using touch in France, and we see now a clear trend with almost all top retailers in Europe systematically using touch monitors, or having projects started using touch solutions.

Retailers reap many benefits when choosing touch over other forms of POS devices.  Touch technology is an extremely fast and effective system, which in turn increases productivity and the number of transactions at the check-out lane.  Because of its intuitive nature, training time can be reduced from weeks to days.  Other benefits to the buyer of an Elo TouchSystems touch monitor, which were all important to Systme U, include highest performance, one of the best - if not the best - total cost of ownership, high reliability, long-lasting solutions, a compact yet stylish design, and that the user can easily work with it and clean the device, all of which were important to Systme U.

Tyco Electronics' Elo TouchSystems business invented touch technology 37 years ago, and has spent decades optimizing their products to perfectly fit the needs of the market and their customers.  Together with their customers, they build the touch monitors to meet the most detailed of specifications, all with outstanding quality.  All of these traits have contributed to the fact that Elo is a world-wide leader of touch solutions.

The benefits of an Elo touch monitor: Total Cost of Ownership, Choice, and Customisation

Tyco Electronics doesnt just offer the quality up-front when the customer purchases a touchscreen the benefits of the investment in a high-quality solution extend much further when one considers the total cost of ownership (TCO).  While the purchase price may be slightly higher in the initial hardware investment, over the lifetime of the product, the overall maintenance charge, direct and indirect costs shows a lower financial full cost at the end of the day. Particularly for a retail company like Systme U, their revenue is generated through the check out lane solution, so it is therefore critical that all lanes run properly.  In case something was to happen, Tyco Electronics maintenance partner in France is prepared to immediately swap the defective unit for a functioning one in a short amount of time.

Tyco Electronics also supported Systme Us desire to put together the perfect check-out-lane system for their stores.  While some competitors sell bundled packaged solutions that incorporate hardware, software, hardware integration, and services, thereby losing all transparency of the costs component-by-component, Tyco Electronics solutions are created to allow their customer to mix and match from the ideal components for their needs.  Systme U was therefore able to optimize their new point of sales system by purchasing each component from a different market leader.  The advantages of buying a non-bundled system go beyond pricing transparency, because they enable an easier upgrade replacement of each component at different times.

Systme U also wanted their new touch display provider to supply them with choice.  Since Tyco Electronics manufactures all touch technologies and all sizes, Systme U was presented with a broad palette of choices in order to optimise their point of sales and point of information needs.  Tyco Electronics offers resistive, surface acoustic wave, capacitive, and infrared technology, and has since added the breakthrough Acoustic Pulse Recognition (APR) technology to their technology palette.  Systme U did not conduct a pure analysis of the technology, though, because they realized it would not be the IT specialists who would work with the new POS system on a daily basis; rather, it is the employees at the cashier stands.  It was therefore essential to get the cashiers feedback on the future POS system which they would rely on day in and day out. 

After undergoing a series of tests, Systme Us employees determined that they felt most comfortable using infrared technology, still one of the preferred touch technologies in retail today.  It does not wear out and it provides superior optical performance.  Furthermore, it can be operated by a finger or fingernail, gloved hand, or stylus.  APR technology, featuring similar benefits, is also ideal for a retail situation, and Systme U is currently testing these units. 

Systme Us final choice was the 1529L touchmonitor, a 15 monitor from Elos 3000 Designed for Touch series.  Once again, Systme U was ahead of the trend, as 15 monitors have now replaced 12 as the standard for retail applications.  The fact that the monitor was designed for touch means that ergonomics are also important.  Systme U and Tyco Electronics actively worked together to ensure that Systme Us employees had maximum comfort in using the screen.   It was really the combination of all of Elos advantages that convinced Systme U that Tyco Electronics offered the perfect answer to all of their needs, says Thibaut.

While the 1529L touch monitor is a standard model, Tyco Electronics customised it for the application as they learned more about Systme Us specific needs.  For example, Systme U needed a POS system that could be quickly and easily installed, i.e., one which does not have a large number of cables.  Tyco Electronics created a monitor with fewer cables, featuring a customised internal power USB hub.  With Tyco Electronics knowledge base, the company is capable of customising its monitors to fit customers needs.  Elo was also flexible enough to provide Systme U with the variety of options they needed, since different locations, like check-out lanes and welcome desks, had different specifications.  For example, the monitors intended for the welcome desks were shipped with a stand, while those meant for check-out use did not have a stand.

The Results: Satisfaction and a Long-Lasting Solution

The time and consideration Systme U put into its new POS solution and its partnership with Tyco Electronics' Elo TouchSystems business has certainly paid off.  Systme U currently has one of the best performing IT POS solutions on the market.  Considering that transaction times are constantly decreasing at the point of sales, it is vital to stay on top of IT trends, and touch technology is excellent at reducing transaction times.  Systme U understood this four years ago, when first began looking for a suitable system.

At first, Systme U placed an order for 9,000 units.  Over time, however, Systme U continued to expand and needed additional units for both new stores as well as for existing stores that had been enlarged.  The fact that Systme U placed another order for an additional 2,000 units is a true testament to the complete package of price, quality, TCO, and outstanding support that Systme U received from Elo.  Systme U was able to seamlessly integrate the new monitors with the previous monitors, because the long product life cycle of Elo monitors also shows it is a major industrial company who understands the long terms needs of its customers.  Additionally, Systme U has promoted the Elo monitors through good word-of-mouth, so thats another way - beyond placing additional orders that we recognize Systme U is satisfied with their investment, says Thibaut.

The partnership that was first founded in 2004 will continue to develop and flourish as both Systme U and Tyco Electronics' Elo TouchSystems business continue to invest in creating the best retail and POS experience possible.