Maya Brady is the Operations Manager of a leading Gianni Versace store in Boston and has been with the company since June of '95. Part of her duties include keeping track of the inventory and making sure the shipments come in on time.

Tell me about your Gianni Versace store.

Maya: Our store carries men's and women's apparel, shoes, fragrances, pocket books, and jewelry. We carry the Gianni Versace home signature line: porcelain (china), towels, table linens and comforters. This store is the "Home" of Versace. We carry his entire product line. This store is located on the hottest street in Boston. We call it the "Rodeo Drive" of Boston. Our clients are young international college and high school students. There are 55 colleges in Boston and we are close to almost all of them. We have five full-time employees. We have a 3,700 sq. ft. store that is in a boutique fashion. The store is constantly maintained to a high quality standard. It is beautiful at all times.

How long have you been using Retail Pro?

Maya: Our Gianni Versace store has been on it since opening in April of '95.

What did you use in your first store, Divino, for inventory and POS?

Maya: They do everything manually. They write everything on paper. We are at the moment trying to get it on-line with Retail Pro.

Comparing your two stores, one on Retail Pro and the other not, how do you think Retail Pro has affected your inventory and POS?

Maya: Retail Pro has affected our inventory and POS in a positive way. First of all, it takes out the headache of losing papers. If I print something out and misplace it, I know the information is still in the computer. Retail Pro makes it easy to do "spot checks." This is our version of a physical inventory that we do once or twice a week. It only takes minutes to see what we have in inventory. At our other store, when you do it manually, it will take all day. Inventory is kept up-to-date with Retail Pro. I don't have to worry if I take a day off. I can rely on Retail pro to keep track of everything. We do a lot of transfers from one store to the other and do it right from the computer. It saves so much time and money.

What do you find are the most useful aspects of Retail Pro?

Maya: Our business is very service oriented. Our customers like us to know everything about them. Overall, the biggest plus is being able to keep our customer history on file. We need to know what size they are and what colors they like. We also get a lot of people who try to return things that they didn't buy at this store. All the Gianni Versace stores are independently owned and are not related. We can look in the computer and if their name doesn't show up, then we have proof they didn't purchase it at our store. A lot of theft goes on where people steal from one store and try to return it at another store. This can be prevented with Retail Pro. If a client wants to return an item and the tag isn't on the merchandise, I don't have to flip through 350 pages of inventory numbers. I can just pull up their name, customer history, date of purchase and locate the inventory number in the computer. This takes only two minutes!

How do your employees like working with Retail Pro?

Maya: Overall my staff enjoy Retail Pro because it takes less time to ring up a customer and they can spend more time with their clients. Retail Pro has most definitely made my staff more productive.

What are your plans for the store?

Maya: The owner wants to either expand this store or open another one. One or the other will happen, but we are not sure when.

How do you think Retail Pro will help your expansions?

Maya: If we expand we will be bring merchandise from the other store. If this happens, all I have to do is get a list of what should be transferred and enter it in the computer. The merchandise will already be tagged, so all that needs to be done is getting the merchandise to this store. Retail Pro takes care of the rest! If the owner wants to open another store, I can enter it into our computer as store three. It would be very easy to add another store.

How have you financially benefited from Retail Pro?

Maya: Retail Pro allows us to implement promotional programs with the customer data base. This is financially beneficial to our staff because they try hard to keep a close relationship with their clients. Retail Pro frees me up. When the store gets really busy, I need to be on the floor and sell. I would never be able to sell and do my other inventory projects without a computer. The job I do, normally would take 2-3 people. Retail Pro is saving the owner money by not having to hire extra personnel. I never fall behind in my work. Retail Pro allows me to be on-top of things at all times.

Thank You.

"Retail Pro has affected our inventory and POS in a positive way. First of all, it takes out the headache of losing papers. If I print something out and misplace it, I know the information is still in the computer. Retail Pro makes it easy to do 'spot checks.' This is our version of a physical inventory that we do once or twice a week. It only takes minutes to see what we have in inventory. At our other store, when you do it manually, it will take all day. Inventory is kept up-to-date with Retail Pro. "