Customer Stories

Dell simplifies in-store IT for Waterford Wedgwood USA, cutting support time by an estimated 90 percent

Elegant, sophisticated, and timeless are just a few of the words used to describe the fine ceramics, crystal, and objects d'art produced by Waterford Wedgwood. The company is one of the world's prominent luxury lifestyle businesses, with brands that include Waterford Crystal, Wedgwood, Rosenthal, and Royal Doulton.

Waterford Wedgwood is represented in more than 80 countries, and Waterford Wedgwood USA is one of the company's largest divisions, accounting for roughly 41 percent of worldwide sales. An important portion of revenue at Waterford Wedgwood USA comes from retail operations-the division operates 36 stores across the United States. Waterford Wedgwood USA relies heavily on IT, especially in its retail environment. During the sales process, store associates use PC-based POS terminals running a custom application to look up inventory, total a customer's purchases, and authorize credit card transactions. "It's crucial that the POS systems are unobtrusive and work smoothly and quickly," says Michael Fitch, technology manager for Waterford Wedgwood USA. "Everything in the store should contribute to a consistent, premium experience throughout a customer's visit, and our IT systems need to help our store associates be as efficient as possible." Behind the scenes, the in-store IT systems are also a key cog in the company's marketing and merchandising processes. Store managers use desktop PCs to manage store operations, including shipping products, providing daily reports on store activities, and gathering data from the POS stations for analysis to uncover trends that can boost profits. For example, like many retailers, the holiday shopping season generates a large percentage of the company's annual revenue. By comparing year-over-year sales volumes, the company can determine how much inventory to allocate to specific locations.

CUSTOMER PROFILE COUNTRY: United States INDUSTRY: Retail/Wholesale NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 650 WEB ADDRESS: www.waterfordwedgwood.com CHALLENGE A mixed fleet of point-of-sale (POS) systems was time-consuming to maintain and needed to be replaced in time for the holiday shopping season. SOLUTION Dell POS stations, based on DellTM  OptiPlexTM  745 desktops with Intel®  Pentium®  D processors, were rolled out nationwide by Dell Services in six weeks. The new systems simplify maintenance and practically eliminate downtime. BENEFITS - Dell Services deploys systems in approximately 50 percent less time than it would have taken Waterford Wedgwood staff alone. - Dell Services reduces implementation costs by an estimated 25 percent. - Dell POS systems cut support call time by approximately 90 percent, incident costs by an estimated 88 percent. - Dell Financing helps Waterford Wedgwood reduce acquisition costs by an estimated 30 percent.

Waterford Wedgwood USA Team Sees Opportunity to Simplify Retail IT Operations

In the time following the 2006 holiday season, the IT team identified two trends that they needed to address: basic maintenance and troubleshooting had become unnecessarily time-consuming, and the volume of support calls caused by hardware failures had risen. The store POS stations were a mix of desktop PCs from several different manufacturers running the Microsoft^®  Windows^®  98 OS. The systems were equipped with retail-specific peripherals: barcode scanners, receipt printers, and credit card readers. All of the equipment had been purchased as needed, either when a new store location opened or when a particular piece of hardware needed replacement.

"There was very little consistency," says Fitch. "Even the OS configurations varied from machine to machine depending on what peripherals were attached and who had set up that machine."

POS failures are especially troublesome because the stores do not have any technical staff that can immediately set up a replacement system. "We have to configure a system here at the home office, send it out, and talk the store manager through the setup process," says Fitch. "With all that labor involved, every incident costs us roughly US$350."

But the cost of replacing the systems became a minor consideration as the failures became more frequent and the company began planning for the 2007 shopping season. "We were up to an average of one failure per week, and if one of our systems went down during the holiday rush, we risked losing sales data," says Fitch. A faulty POS station could even cost sales directly on a busy day by slowing the checkout process or forcing a store associate to spend time troubleshooting the system. No retailer likes to contemplate losing sales, but for Waterford Wedgwood, the penalty of even a few minutes' delay is especially high. "Even a single missed sale could be worth US$1000 or more," says Fitch.

A Dell Retail System Wins On Form and Function
The Waterford Wedgwood USA team determined that a complete refresh of the retail IT systems was necessary, and Fitch began evaluating options.

The major goals of the refresh were to minimize downtime, simplify the retail IT infrastructure, and minimize time spent on maintenance. "Our first priority was to have consistent hardware across all the stores," says Fitch. "The systems needed to be completely reliable, and we wanted the retail-specific peripherals to be made by industry-leading manufacturers."

Fitch and his team also looked closely at the service organizations of vendor candidates, looking for a partner that could install and support hardware at all of the company's stores across the country. Fitch knew that requirement would be especially challenging not only because the stores were geographically scattered, but also because the team would have a limited amount of time to complete each installation. "Because of the nightly reconciliation activities at the stores, our only opportunity was first thing in the morning at each store," says Fitch. "But to honor our agreements with the malls and facilities where our stores are located, each store had to be ready to open at 10a.m."

Fitch and his team quickly disqualified integrated special-purpose retail POS systems, concerned that if one component broke, the entire system would need to be replaced. "With no technical staff at the stores, field replacement of a broken component in an integrated system was out of the question," says Fitch. "We felt that integrated systems would ultimately add to our support overhead." The IT team also evaluated component POS stations from major PC vendors including IBM and Dell. "Waterford Wedgwood USA has been a Dell customer for more than 12 years, and we've always been impressed with the reliability of their servers and desktop computers," says Fitch. "When we examined the Dell POS products, it was very clear they had a winning combination."

HOW IT WORKS HARDWARE - DellTM OptiPlexTM  745 desktops with Intel® Pentium®  D processors - Dell 1815dn multifunctional laser printer - Dell E157FPT touch screens - Dell Retail Integrator - Cherry Electrical Products SPOS retail keyboard - Hand Held Products 3800G bar code scanner - Epson M129H receipt printer - Logic Controls LD9900U-GYcustomerfacing display SOFTWARE - Microsoft® Windows®  XP Pro OS SERVICES - Dell Infrastructure Consulting Services - Dell Financial Services

The IT team ultimately chose Dell for a number of reasons. First, the Dell OptiPlex ultra small form factor desktops would provide a suitable combination of price, performance, and space savings for the requirements of the Waterford Wedgwood USA retail environment. Also, Fitch liked being able to source a complete set of state-of-the-art retail components directly from Dell, from touch-screen monitors to pole displays. "Previously, we had to assemble components from several manufacturers, but Dell offers all the peripherals that we need and supports them as a complete POS station, which speeds and simplifies both the procurement process and our support requirements," says Fitch.

While form often follows function in a retail environment, the IT team was also impressed with the fit and finish of the POS station when assembled in the Dell Retail Integrator, a case specifically designed for the retail environment to house all the components of a POS station, giving a system that has actually been assembled from multiple pieces the look of a single, integrated unit. The Retail Integrator enhances the customer experience by presenting a more finished appearance and is designed to improve staff productivity by keeping POS station peripherals organized and easily accessible for maintenance. "The business team was as impressed by the look and feel of the POS station as the IT team was by its performance and reliability," says Fitch. "The Dell POS station contributes to a positive customer experience and fits in well with the Waterford Wedgwood premium brand image."

Dell Retail Integrator Gives Modular POS Stations a Unified Look
Dell helped the IT team configure a POS station using the Dell Retail Integrator. As the foundation, the IT team chose the Dell OptiPlex 745 ultra small form factor desktops with Intel Pentium D processors and running Microsoft Windows XP Pro OS. "The Dell OptiPlex 745 is a perfect combination of power, expandability, and size," says Fitch. "The OptiPlex desktops run our POS applications very quickly, reducing overall transaction time and improving the customer experience. The OptiPlex desktops also tuck neatly into the Retail Integrator, which helps us maintain clean lines in the stores. Having plenty of USB ports for peripherals simplifies setup and reduces administration time when compared to serial or parallel devices."

The IT team chose Dell E157FPT touch-sensitive displays with scratch-resistant screens for the POS station; the sales staff uses the screens to monitor transactions and to look up inventory. "The scratch-resistant screens are important because the displays get a lot of use, and the sales associates sometimes use a pen instead of their fingertip," says Fitch. The IT team also chose state-of-the-art peripherals offered by Dell, including the Cherry Electrical Products retail keyboard with integrated magnetic card reader, the Hand Held Products code scanner, the Epson receipt printer, the Logic Controls customer-facing display.

To handle administrative operations at each store, the Waterford Wedgwood team specified OptiPlex 745 mini-tower desktops with Intel Pentium D processors running Microsoft Windows XP Pro, paired with Dell 1815dn multifunction monochrome laser printers. "Both the Dell OptiPlex 745 and the Dell 1815dn give us great performance in a small footprint," says Fitch. "Space in the stores is always at a premium. Each store has a small area for inventory, and the store manager has to carve an office space out of that. We were particularly excited about the Dell 1815dn because we were able to use it to replace three devices: a printer, a fax machine, and a copier."

Dell Services Reduces Implementation Time by More Than 50 Percent
Dell Client Deployment Services handled the rollout to the Waterford Wedgwood stores. Fitch and the IT team created a core system image of the OS and software for installation on all of the store computers and sent it to Dell. At the factory, Dell Custom Factory Integration (CFI) Order Ready Services tested and validated the Waterford Wedgwood system image on the hardware chosen by the IT team, and then installed it on the computers at the factory before shipping the systems to the retail stores for installation by the Dell Infrastructure Consulting Services team. "Having Dell CFI Order Ready Services install the system images at the factory made the rollout go much more quickly, smoothly, and at a lower cost," says Fitch. "Looking forward, having a consistent image on every retail system will make maintenance much less time-consuming."

After pilot tests at two stores, Dell Services quickly ramped up the project, completing installations at 33 stores in six weeks-less than half the time that Fitch estimates the internal team would have taken. "The entire implementation went very smoothly," says Fitch. "In every case, the Dell teams were able to complete the installations in time for the stores to open that morning. We didn't interrupt daily business at any of the locations."

Dell Services Reduces Implementation Costs by an Estimated 25 Percent
Engaging Dell Services to handle the store installations also eliminated the costs that would have been incurred if Fitch had sent his own team into the field, including everything from travel expenses to hiring the additional temporary staff that would have been necessary to complete the project. "By using Dell Services for implementation, we reduced the implementation cost by 25 percent," says Fitch. "Plus, with Dell providing the legwork, my IT team was able to focus on strategic IT issues at the home office."

Dell Pos Systems Cut Support Call Time by Approximately 90 Percent, Incident Costs by an Estimated 88 Percent
The new Dell POS systems have dramatically reduced the amount of time that the IT team spends providing technical support to the stores. "After moving to Dell POS systems, we went from spending more than 10 hours a week on retail support calls to about an hour a week," says Fitch. "We also reduced our average failure cost from $US350 per incident to less than $40 per incident, with the frequency of incidents down significantly. Simplifying our IT environment with Dell means that our store managers and associates can focus on delivering premium customer service and increasing store revenue."

Acquisition Costs Reduced by an Estimated 30 Percent
On the equipment acquisition front, Dell helped the IT team stay well within its budget by designing a purchase program that is expected to save the company more than 30 percent in equipment costs over the next three years. The program also helped Waterford Wedgwood USA introduce formal life cycle planning for the equipment, helping to ensure that the retail store equipment will be regularly refreshed. "The Dell Financing team was as helpful in the boardroom as the Dell Services team was in the field," says Fitch. "Not only did Dell help us find ways to come in well under budget, but everyone involved also demonstrated a deep understanding of how revenue flows in the retail business and proposed solutions that complemented our business model. The financial efficiency that Dell built into our retail rollout will improve our ability to take on important new IT projects in years to come."

Dell systems and services have improved the efficiency and effectiveness of the Waterford Wedgwood retail operation. The reliable new POS stations and desktops have freed the IT team to take on new projects, like business intelligence tools that will help the company better analyze sales traffic and forecast trends. The new infrastructure also helps store associates deliver the premium customer experience promised by the company's legendary name. "The simplified IT infrastructure will have long-term, positive effects on our performance," says Fitch. "Dell is helping Waterford Wedgwood provide more customers with high-quality service more efficiently than ever before."

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January 2008.
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