PCMS

The Retail Business Technology Expo (RBTE)  saw its first show in 2011 at Earls Court, following the demise of Retail Solutions it was a welcomed new addition to the exhibition calendar.  The team at PCMS attended RBTE’s first show and it proved a great opportunity to chat with like-minded members of the retail industry and to discuss the latest key topics in retail.

Next week will see the second year of the show running and once again, PCMS will be there with our range of retail solutions on display.   We’re expecting Mobile to be a key topic for the second year running and are looking forward to hearing what others in the industry have to say on the topic.

 We’ll be on stands 550 and 650 demonstrating our solutions including our leading EPoS solution VISION BeanStore,  VISION Loss Prevention and our M-PoS solutions. 

Once again there is a great list of attendees, all of the key suppliers and free drinks in the evening – what more could you want?

Richard Goodall
Group Sales and Marketing Director

2011 continued to be a challenging year for retailers around the world, with the effects of the global recession still reverberating through our economies, it forced us to address efficiencies at every level of our organisations.   Here at PCMS Group, we invested heavily in our product suites, managed services, infrastructure and personnel, to provide a range of leading-edge technology solutions and services that enable us to help our customers maximise the performance of their business.

The team at PCMS has never been stronger which was reflected in our performance throughout 2011.  We are delighted to have welcomed a number of new clients from around the world across multiple retail sectors including Department Stores, Convenience, Fashion, Grocery, Books, Hospitality and Electrical Hardware.   Our successes have been recognised with our first appearance in the  Sunday Times Profit Track 100, continuing success in the RIS 2011 LeaderBoard and being named for the first time on the MSPMentor 100 list of the world’s top 100 managed service providers.

We held our first Global Software User Group in New York following this year’s NRF ‘Retail’s Big Show’ in January.  This was a prime opportunity for our customers to meet in one place and discuss the big issues in global retail, as well as updating eachother on their current IT projects.  The user group also enabled us to keep our customers informed on what PCMS is doing to ensure our technology remains at the forefront of retail solutions.  The user group was well received with customers from around the world including the UK, USA, Italy, Germany, South Africa and Australia joining us – many thanks go to all of our customers and partners who joined us for making the first meeting such a success.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our users and partners from around the world for their support in providing references and introductions which have contributed significantly to our continued success.

Richard Goodall

Group Sales and Marketing Director

I’m pleased to announce that PCMS has been shortlisted in two categories of the 2011 Retail Systems Awards; best use of technology in the hospitality and leisure sector and technology vendor of the year. The Retail Systems Awards recognise excellence and innovation in the field of information technology within the UK retail sector.

PCMS has been shortlisted for the best use of technology in the hospitality and leisure industry in partnership with Krispy Kreme, in recognition of the innovative technology needed to meet the rigorous demands of Krispy Kreme’s ambitious growth strategy.

The technology vendor of the year award recognises a UK technology vendor that has excelled in its field, implementing innovative technology into retail organisations during the past year.

The work that we have carried out for retailers such as Krispy Kreme, Marks and Spencer, Luxottica Retail and John Lewis in addition to our work to keep our solutions at the leading edge of retail technology has shown that PCMS is a strong contender for this title.

The Retail Systems Awards 2011 winners will be announced on 26^th October; everyone at PCMS feels extremely proud to have been selected amongst the shortlisted candidates.

Richard Goodall

Group Sales & Marketing Director

This year was PCMS’s second time at Palmer and Harvey’s Pro-Retail expo, which was held at the International Centre in Telford on 10^th and 11^th May. The event ran over two days and was a fantastic opportunity for anyone who works in the convenience retail industry to see a showcase of established and new products and services. It was also a fantastic opportunity for myself and my colleagues at PCMS to meet entrepreneurs and independent retailers and discuss their experiences running their own businesses. In return we were able to show how the latest technology we provide has been designed with their businesses in mind, to make life simpler and improve profit margins.

On the PCMS stand, we showcased our latest EPoS technology for the convenience industry, BeanStore for Convenience, which has been selected by Palmer and Harvey and their symbol brand ‘Mace’. Over the two days, my colleagues and I spoke to hundreds of entrepreneurs and retailers about what BeanStore can offer to their stores and the feedback on our demonstrations proved to be extremely positive.

The big attraction to Pro Retail 11 was certainly Mary Portas ‘Queen of Shops’, who was there to give her views on best practice for independent retailers. Mary proved to be a great draw for thousands of visitors to the event, who all seemed to be very excited to have the rare opportunity to gain advice from one of the best known retail gurus in the business.

The Pro-Retail Gala, held at the close of the expo on Tuesday gave 1,600 exhibitors and attendees a fantastic show, a party that ended with a live band and a free funfair so large that local residents were queuing outside the event seeing if they could come in – a great way to end a busy day talking shop!

Rob Lenane

Convenience Sales Consultant

This year’s Comic Relief night went on without a hitch and the event was bigger than ever here at PCMS, with more volunteers joining us in our contact centre to handle donation calls than ever before.

The total that PCMS volunteers raised on the phones reached £64,386.00 and our volunteers handled an astounding 1745 calls over the course of the evening. In addition to the donations handled on the phones, PCMS staff also raised the amount of £1,112.85 through a dress down day, raffle and other activities all in the name of ‘do something funny for money’.

Volunteers were involved from across the company and the local community and we were thrilled to receive a visit from ‘Sky Blue Sam’ the Coventry City Football Club mascot who came to cheer us all on and draw the raffle. Food and refreshments were kindly donated for our volunteers by a number of local businesses and suppliers and we are extremely thankful to all of them for supporting us.

The Comic Relief team at PCMS worked tirelessly to organise this voluntary event for the fifth time and everyone at PCMS is extremely proud of what they have achieved. Thanks go out to all of the people who donated raffle prizes, refreshments or their time to make this event such a success.

Melinda Richardson

Marketing Assistant