TruServ sees promise in Unity

Home Channel News, July 17, 2000 by Elizabeth Consavage

E-commerce, data and communications to be managed via point-of-sale system package designed to improve customer service

Training cashiers at Mutual True Value Hardware in Highland Park, Ill., takes half the time it used to. Mutual is currently testing a new retail system that brings new meaning to the phrase "point and click." Next January, TruServ's Mutual buying group is scheduled to make this point-of-sale system -- known as Unity -- available to all of its dealer-members.

Over the next several years, TruServ officials believe that dealers will be able to manage all aspects of their businesses -- including e-commerce, data storage and communications -- via Unity. TruServ expects major benefits to Unity-enabled stores to include a comprehensive package of merchandise management, in-store accounting, processing and credit card POS interfaces, all designed to improve customer service.

"The time to train is cut in half. New employees only need a week or even less," said Dane Sheahen, owner of Mutual True Value Hardware. "We have had some cashiers who have been here for a long time and they knew the old system in and out. But the first day [with Unity] they said, 'This is better.'"

TruServ has a five-year agreement with CCI-Triad, which provides business management computer systems to retail and contractor-based hardlines and lumber businesses. The Unity system will be based on Triad's Eagle for Windows and incorporate the best features of systems currently used by TruServ members.

About 150 TruServ members are currently using the E4W software. The completed Unity system will consist of an SCO UNIX-based file server with client point-of-sale and workstations using Microsoft Windows technology.

The name "Unity" underscores the fact that this system will replace the many systems already in use by TruServ's independently owned retailers. When TruServ was formed in 1997 by the merger of Cotter & Co. and ServiStar/Coast to Coast, its dealer-members had at least seven different systems in use, including TruTrac (primarily at True Value), Triad's Eagle system (in larger True Value stores), Retail Business Systems (Coast to Coast) and American Business Computer (ServiStar).

Designed for all co-op members, the Unity package will make it easier for them to interface with TruServ retail programs -- such as its rental components -- and find items through catalogs and the Internet.

The 1,500 stores currently use ABC, RBS or TruTrac point-of-sale systems, which are known collectively as ARTS systems. Another 1,500 stores run Triad systems. The co-op estimates that 1,200 of its members' stores have large enough operations to need a full point-of-sale system.

"The older systems use older technology," maintained Michael Rosen, TruServ senior vp-logistics and retail systems. "Over the next three-and-a-half years, we're encouraging ARTS stores to convert, and Triad is encouraging its stores to convert. By then, we should have 4,200 stores operating under the same system."

Rosen added that Unity is applicable for dealers with anywhere from one to 100 workstations in their stores.

By using Unity, members will have one system for sales, accounts payable and receivable, general ledger, inventory, word processing, spreadsheets and catalog orders. In the future, stores running Unity will also be able to ring up rental sales and retail sales simultaneously; for now, they must be done separately. Also in effect will be special programs specific to lawn and garden centers and lumberyards.

Through the Unity program, dealers will be able to integrate the co-op's catalog data as well as its inventory assortment via the Internet. By January, Unity-enabled dealers will be able to access the 400,000 skus TruServ has assembled within its Net Warehouse clearinghouse, where it offers products from several vendor partners. By the end of 2001, the co-op expects to have more than 1 million skus available through Net Warehouse.

"We looked at system alternatives over a number of years that would take us to a single retail system. The reason we partnered with Triad is because it gives us the quickest entry into the market," Rosen said. "Full functionality is coming next year. No one else is nearly that close. I don't think any other retail system has the capability of this one."

All systems go

Early next month, TruServ will test the Unity system in about 40 stores that now use one of the ARTS systems. By next year, the new system will be placed in about 50 stores per month, Rosen said. The co-op stated that Unity is slated for complete rollout in 2003, at which time the system will replace all other TruServ-supported systems. TruServ will continue to support TruTrac systems and is currently developing a plan to make the transition easier for ARTS systems. Members will be able to buy systems from outside suppliers as long as the equipment meets Unity system compatibility requirements.

"We want the conversions to work seamlessly," Rosen stated. "This is just a piece of the logistics network which will become a whole integrated picture."