Bethany’s new Touch screen EPoS & Gift Aid system from azurri creates thousands of pounds extra income

Background

26 years on, the work of the Bethany Christian Trust has helped over 4000 homeless people in the last financial year. They have 9 shops throughout Edinburgh, relying heavily on the generosity of public donations.

As competition on the high street increased, Bethany Christian Trust saw the need to have better control and smoother operating of their shops and stock, with the ultimate goal being higher sales.

The azurricharity system offered to provide all of this as well as an easy to use Gift Aid process as part of the EPoS solution, helping them to maximise on the HMRC gift aid it scheme and reduce their papertrails.

The Project

A project was initiated to source an integrated front and back end till system. The charity had no sales information at item level, no central office communications, needed more banking information and wanted to utilise a comprehensive Gift Aid system. On top of all that, they needed a way of tracking guarantees required on the sales of white goods items.

Colin Foskett, Manager of Retail and Operations at Bethany Christian Trust explains “We needed a IT system which gave us better remote access and control, which was user friendly, utilised modern technologies but in a low cost effective way. We wanted to make use of the increased performance and reporting facilities as soon as possible and so a quick, smooth installation was of paramount importance.”

Colin and his team held discussions with a number of vendors over a 10 month period before deciding to progress with azurricharity.“Undoubtedly the wealth of knowledge and experience which azurricharity brought to the project was a strong factor in us awarding them the contract but above all, their honesty on the systems capability and their ‘nothing is too much trouble’ attitude made them a company we felt comfortable working with.”

The Solution

The Toshiba touch screen EPoS and Gift Aid system solution that azurricharity supplied, incorporated all the transactional ease of use elements required as well as control and tracking from Head Office.

Comprehensive training was provided as part of the solution package to all sites, providing both office and shop staff with the confidence to use the system to its full potential.

Summary

Bethany Christian Trust had a tick list of requirements that the IT system needed to match and this has been met by azurricharity.

Bethany Christian Trust now have an IT solution which provides comprehensive data for accounts and marketing, that enables remote access to tills and allows monitoring of shop operations; as well as a bespoke system which tracks guarantees for white goods.

“The quick and smooth installation of the new system was extremely impressive. We decided to install 2 shops initially and the remaining 7 over a 8 week period. All of the staff felt happy and confident due to the thorough training provided, and now use the Touch screen and Gift Aid system with ease.

The project was delivered on time and within budget. The icing on the cake is that in the last 5 months, the facility of integrated Gift Aid has allowed us to create almost £14,000 extra income.” Foskett concludes, “we are more than happy with the service supplied by azurricharity and definitely made the right decision awarding them our business. I would have no hesitation in recommending their services and expertise to any other charity retailer”.