Software keeps tabs on stock movement

Kelly Brown says about 40 per cent of Triquestra's business is done overseas and she plans to increase this. Picture / Greg Bowker

The "out of stock" sign is an increasingly rare sight on the high street as modern technology is used to track sales, ship goods and keep the shelves full.

Auckland-based Triquestra is one company that has specialised in the field of developing advanced point-of- sale software.

The company's retail management system costs from $995 and can be used to track sales by store, till, product and employee.

It can send information on stock levels and sales performance from stores to head office every second and generate sales orders to ship replacement stock, so when the shopper reaches for the shelf the goods are ready and waiting.

Triquestra's software can be used by firms with hundreds of stores. But the data traffic isn't only one way, says Kelly Brown, general manager.

"I might decide I want to do a two-for-one special today in all of my stores, so, bang,  set that up at head office, push the button, [the] replicator carries it down [and] instantly all stores are updated with the new prices for that particular product."

Employees can also use wireless portable devices to scan shelf stock, "which means you don't have to close your shop while you are doing stock take".

One advantage of the system is the ability to increase stock turn - the number of times that an inventory turns over during the year.

"You can also reduce the amount of stock you have in store but increase your range, because at a given time you know exactly what is in each store and you can replace that accordingly."

The software can automatically re-order goods based on minimum or maximum stocking policies and is designed to integrate with a number of broader-based enterprise resource planning systems.

The domestic market for point-of-sale software is about $10 million a year, Brown says, with Triquestra taking a 25 per cent slice of the pie.

The company's major competitor is AdvanceRetail Technology.

To compete in this segment the company focuses on maintaining a high technical capability and tailoring the software to customer requirements, Brown says.

Bespoke work is delivered in "clip on" modules enabling the customer to update the core package without damaging their customised tools.

Having international heavyweights on its home turf hasn't stopped Triquestra looking overseas for customers.

About 40 per cent of its business is overseas, mainly in the United States, Canada, Australia and Britain. A key part of the company's plan is to increase overseas revenue to at least 70 per cent of total business during the next three years.

Being based in New Zealand with key markets half a world away is not such a big issue, Brown says, "because it's not like you're exporting physical things".

Despite benefiting from not having to ship large physical stocks, finding the right partners is important.

"A key challenge with that is finding people with the right knowledge of the retail market rather than people who can just sell software," she says.

The company employs 30 people, about 15 of them based at its Avondale head office developing software and supporting customers in New Zealand and Australia.

It has an office in Britain, and distributors in Australia, the United States and Canada.

And it has reseller agreements in the Pacific Islands and Trinidad and Tobago.

Triquestra

* Who: Kelly Brown, general manager.

* Where: Avondale, Auckland.

* What: Retail point-of-sale software.

* Why: "Our challenge is to constantly innovate, to constantly keep up with the retail market [and] understand what's going on there."