iVend 5.4.6 released with numerous enhancements

iVend 5.4.6 is released today. In addition to the numerous enhancements to the features, the application is also available in 4 languages.

License Management

This release incorporates a new Licensing System which allows license activation over the internet.

It is mandatory that you first request for an activation key before performing the upgrade to this release. Please email to licenses[at]citixsys.com for activation key request.

Moneris Integration

iVend Retail is now certified to process Card Present Transactions via eSELECTplus on a Moneris 7800 Pin-pad. Moneris 7800 Pin-pad is Ideal for use in a variety of merchant environments, including single-lane point-of-sale, multi-lane retail and stand-alone.

Sales Order Integration from SAP to iVend

Using this functionality the users can create a sales order in SAP Business One then mark these sales orders for store deliveries or payment collection at stores. These sales orders can then be searched from iVend Retail POS and the corresponding deliveries against these sales orders can be managed at the corresponding retail store. The sales orders that are created from SAP Business One can only be edited from SAP Business One.

Customer Facing Displays

Customer Facing Display feature allows you to open a special customer facing display window that will show the customer their transaction. It serves the same function as a traditional POS Pole display but instead uses a full computer monitor.

Assigning the default POS terminal to the Till

iVend 5.4.6 provides store managers the flexibility of assigning the default POS terminal to the till. This will help stores to reduce the overall cashier’s login process. If a POS terminal is assigned to a Till then upon login if the cashier logs on to the same POS the cashier does not have to select the till before moving from Till Assignment to the Transaction screen. The system will automatically associate the till to the POS when the user logs into the iVend POS.

Limiting the Maximum Price for an Open Item

Manager can now restrict the upper price limit for an open item.

iVend Add-on Enhancements

The iVend add-on for SAP Business One includes the following enhancements:

iVend Setup Wizard – This release incorporates a setup wizard which will guide the user through the sequence of steps for configuring the iVend Add-on

On-Line Help – This release incorporates screen sensitive help. Users can press CTRL+SHIFT+V to bring up the help for the active screen.

New Release Notification – Whenever a new version of the product is released the system will display the update notification as a SAP Business One alert.

Extended Language Support

Apart from English, iVend application is now also available in the following languages:

  1. French
  2. Latin American Spanish
  3. Italian
  4. Greek

Language preferences for the users can be set from the iVend Management Console. After login in the system user would see the iVend GUI in the user preferred language.  If the user language is not setup then English would be used as a default language.

 

Bugs Fixed

Bug ID: 9707

Bug Description:

In case there are multiple gift certificates are sold in a transaction then while reprinting the gift certificates system does not give option to reprint some of the gift certificates and prints all the gift certificates again. This is specially required when there is printing error while printing the gift certificates.

Bug ID: 9700

Bug Description:

iVend POS does not show all the payment types, in case there are more than 12 payment types defined through the iVend Management console.

Bug ID: 9709

Bug Description:

If the layaway item is voided in the transaction then also the default layaway deposit amount does not change. The user was required to change it manually. This can was happening in case if the Sale Level layaways are applied.

Bug ID: 9710

Bug Description:

If the user exceeds the number of failure attempts specified in the security policy then the user was getting locked and future login attempts were disallowed by the system. However even after unlocking the customer the failure counter was not resetting due to which customer was getting locked after the next failed attempt.

Bug ID: 9699

Bug Description:

Goods return report from iVend Management console is not printing after creating the Goods Return document.

Bug ID: 9711

Bug Description:

If the barcode is not resolved the system makes a sound, but if the system does not have the good speakers then this sound is not heard by the cashier and if the cashier ignores the message displayed on the system then the cashier would assume that the system has scanned this item. This sometimes creates issues if the cashier is not vigilant and could result in loss of revenue for the store.

Bug ID: 9712

Bug Description:

Current fulfillment setting means items stay committed (AR Reserve Invoice) until delivery.  Stock on hand not reduced until fulfillment is carried out.  System does not have the functionality to setup separate fulfillment plan for layaways.

Bug ID: 9712

Bug Description:

Open price item does not ask cashier for entering the price of an item if it already added once in the transaction.  This makes it difficult to work if the cashier wants to add more than one open priced item to the transaction.

Bug ID: 9712

Bug Description:

Committed Quantity of the warehouse does not change in SAP Business One even after doing the cancellation of Layaway from iVend.

iVend Retail 5.4 certified on SAP Business One 8.8 by SAP ICC

CitiXsys Technologies now has its flagship application iVend Retail certified by SAP for SAP Business One 8.8

New York, October 22, 2010: After releasing iVend Retail compatible with SAP Business One 8.8 in February, CitiXsys Technologies now has iVend Retail certified by Integration and Certification Center at SAP.

The certification confirms that the development of iVend Retail is as per the SDK development guidelines prescribed by SAP and comes just in time when the retailers are gearing up for the festive season. CitiXsys Technologies is one of the largest Software Solution Partner to SAP. With this certification, CitiXsys reiterates its commitment to SAP, its partners and customers to reap business benefits from robust and intuitive applications.

“The certification is an expression of our commitment to adhere to the stringent guidelines laid by SAP. This (certification) will allow partners to confidently position iVend in the market and will provide an assurance to the customers of licensing an SAP certified solution.” says Pankaj Mathur – Vice President, Solutions Delivery, CitiXsys Technologies.

“I’m very impressed with the overall functionality of iVend.  I’ve worked on “RetailPro” and “BeanStore” in the past and iVend is by far the most user friendly POS software I have used” says Marco Albrecht, Director Operations, In Add Minus, Los Angeles, CA

[Read more…]

iVend Retail gets Commidea payment processor certification in United Kingdom

London, October 18, 2010: iVend Retail, a complete Retail Management Solution from CitiXsys Technologies gets Commidea payment processor certification in UK for Ocius for PC.

CitiXsys Technologies got iVend certified for Commidea’s Ocius for PC solution – the leading credit card processing solution in the market today.
iVend is seamlessly integrated with the latest version of SAP Business One 8.8. With this certification, CitiXsys reiterates its commitment to the UK market and its partners in UK & EMEA to reap business benefits from robust and intuitive applications.

“The certification process was done on-site which involved executing a set of test scripts. We were able to execute the test scripts flawlessly. iVend now has certified integration with Commidea payment processor in UK for Ocius for PC. We congratulate the iVend team and CitiXsys Technologies to have achieved this certification.” says Michael Dunkling – Implementations Consultant, Commidea Ltd.

“Commidea certification has been eagerly awaited by our Customers and Partners in UK & EMEA. I feel happy and proud that this certification will help our customers carry out credit card transactions with ease. This certification will also benefit our partners to confidently position iVend Retail in UK&EMEA” says Abinesh Agarwal – Product Manager iVend, CitiXsys Technologies

[Read more…]

Maximize ROI on SAP Business One with transaction rollups in iVend Retail

Modern Retail Systems are known to generate enormous amounts of data, irrespective of the size of operations and their spread. This data, which mainly comprises of historical transactions, is used for all the analysis purposes. Reduction in hardware prices, specifically of storage space and the need to ensure business continuity in scenarios of network breakdowns necessitates the duplication of data across applications and databases across the enterprise.

In order to understand the situation better, it is important to understand the evolutionary cycle of a mid-market retailer from the view point of investment in technology.

In the formative stages of the business, a mid-market retailer has his focus set on setting up and expanding his business. At this stage, issues pertaining to sourcing the merchandise, finalizing the price points, where to open store(s), overall marketing, take precedence than a big investment in a formal fully integrated retail solution. From the initial years to the point where the business gets established and the retailer has found that niche; focus on IT investment is relatively less. Most of the mid-market retailer we have interacted with started with in-store automation, which is not a bad or a wrong place to start with. [Read more…]

Expanding scope of Customer Loyalty Programs

At the center of all commerce activities is the customer. The recessionary times of last year has made marketers realize in more ways than many that customer retention and a sizable share of his expenditure is equally important, if not more than going all out to acquire new customers.

Today, Loyalty Programs are a norm even in non-consumer based industries like manufacturing, and non-profit organizations. The need to be closer to the customers, understand their buying pattern and offering customers a value for their money has prompted these diverse industry segments to seriously think and deploy customer retention strategies.

Ensuring customer loyalty, enhancing it and effectively managing it is one of the most crucial factors impacting sales. It is no longer important to have a formal loyalty management application but it is equally imperative to move forward from the short term promotional campaigns to a well defined customer focused, relationship oriented programs.

[Read more…]