Excess Baggage chooses Omnico and eBECS to create a seamless retail experience across its global locations

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Excess Baggage chooses Omnico and eBECS to create a seamless retail experience across its global locations.

Omnico, the software and services company enabling omni-channel experiences, has entered into a strategic partnership with eBECS, a specialist in total Microsoft Business Solutions, to install a single integrated and unified Point-of-Sale (PoS) system in Excess Baggage stores.

The rollout of the new PoS technology will be conducted in early 2017, at all of Excess Baggage's 33 UK airport and train station locations, which offer a wide range of services including left luggage, luggage storage, international shipping and worldwide parcel delivery, as well as an extensive range of travel accessories for sale.

The strategic partnership will ensure a complete single view of Excess Baggage customers and its purchase transactions, as well as visibility of stock levels and ordering history. By integrating the PoS at individual stores with head office functionality, it will increase productivity, save valuable staff time and ultimately improve the overall customer experience.

eBECS will be providing the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software using Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 that will handle Excess Baggage's stock management, accountancy and purchase orders at its Head Office and will be fully integrated with Omnico's PoS solution. eBECS will be deploying its eBECS Accelerator for Retail module for Dynamics NAV that will deliver retail-specific functionality across colour/size, brands, seasons, item hierarchy, promotions, range planning, store replenishment and much more, thereby allowing Excess Baggage to have full control of its stock position and have real time information to support its purchasing decisions.

Omnico was chosen because of its ability to integrate with web technologies, its global presence and the ease in which it can be implemented in new locations. The former will allow for smoother operations across the various web apps that Excess Baggage uses in its many services, while the latter will allow the company to simplify its expansion into continental Europe and the Middle East. Through its omniBasket PoS technology, along with eBECS's ERP software, Excess Baggage will have a single point of transaction for all of its services and will grant it great visibility of customers among its growing fleet of stores.

"The company's focus has shifted in the past year, which has seen us put more attention into our stores in airports and stations," Paul Malyn, IT Manager at Excess Baggage, said. "That's somewhere we're rapidly growing, especially in our operations abroad. We needed to refresh our PoS systems, and we wanted something that would give us much more visibility and control over all of our processes. What attracted us to Omnico was that its system can be easily changed to be multinational, as well as the fact that the company was already operating and providing support in many of the locations we were looking to expand our operations to."

Paul Malyn continues, "In addition to our PoS requirements we are currently operating disparate systems across finance and procurement, and with our growth expectations we needed to have a fully integrated ERP solution. eBECS was chosen due to its experience in deploying ERP into the retail market and offering, through the Omnico partnership, a true end-to-end solution".

Mel Taylor, CEO of Omnico, said: "Travelling can be a stressful experience, particularly when time is limited, so by ensuring a complete seamless experience for Excess Baggage customers we're improving brand loyalty and the overall travel experience. By partnering with eBECS we're able to provide a unified solution with a single-view of the customer and their purchase history, and the ability to scale to meet Excess Baggage's growth plans."

Kevin Hall, CEO at eBECS, said: "To support Excess Baggage's growth in the market and international expansion, the business required a system with resilience and agility. By choosing Omnico and eBECS, Excess Baggage now has a complete 360 degree package that ensures the company can engage with the customer across all its retail and head office functions, integrating them together to drive growth and profitability."