Herbert Brown
Herbert Brown can trace its business roots back to 1829, but opened its first pawnbrokers and jewellers in Leeds in 1840. Since then it has grown to be the largest independent network of pawnbrokers and jewellers in the North of England, with 26 branches and plans for further expansion.
Pawnbroking has grown to such an extent that it is now worth approximately £100million a year with over 800 pawn shops in Britain alone. To cater for this expanding market, Herbert Brown now offers an extensive range of financial services that covers not only pawnbroking but also cheque cashing and pay day advance loans. These services are offered with no lengthy form-filling process, providing their customers with a no-fuss way to obtain cash instantly.
Bringing management closer to the shop floor
Operating in such a fast-growing market, the management at Herbert Brown recognised the importance of their shops being able to communicate in real-time with head-office. Robert Brown, IT and property director at Herbert Brown Jewellers, explained: “We wanted to put in place a communication platform that would enable us to interact and share information between the head-office and the stores.
This would enable us to bring management closer to the shop floor and vice-versa so that we would know exactly what was being sold, when it is sold and what price it is sold at as well as what money we have made that day.”
The availability of cheap and secure ADSL persuaded Herbert Brown that this should be the communications platform on which it would build its new information system and went out to tender to 8 companies, including BT.
Cost effective solution
They eventually chose Vodat International, because according to Robert Brown, “Vodat came back with the cheapest and most effective system.”
Stockport-based Vodat are the only communication solution provider specialising in retail environments. Their innovative and cost-effective solutions enable retailers to utilise broadband networks to add value and deliver real bottom-line benefits to their organisation. With over 20 years experience of providing solutions to the retail sector, they are now the largest supplier of private, managed broadband networks to the UK retail market, overseeing communication systems in thousands of stores across the UK and Europe.
The Vodat strategic, managed communication platform provides fixed-cost technologies that not only enable information to be shared between locations, but also offer the capability of additional profit-enhancing applications. Such as:
- Free telephone calls between stores (VoIP)
- On-line training for staff
- In-store TV marketing
- Video conferencing
Back office solution specifically designed for retail organisations
Vodat initially implemented their managed ADSL network in 22 branches, but over time this has been expanded to cover all the branches and now provides head office with greater control over branch activity.
Herbert Brown are now in the process of implementing Vodat’s retail back office solution to deliver integrated messaging, diary and task management. This solution also delivers easy intranet deployment and will enable faster communication of key documents between the branches and head office. Instead of having to post documents to the branches, each branch will be able to quickly and securely download and print locally the exact documents it needs. This will not only help to cut costs but also help to reduce the carbon footprint of Herbert Brown.
The Vodat back office solution will also help to speed up the flow of information across the company. It does this by providing a facility to design and create electronic forms that can then replace the paper forms that are typically used to send and retrieve information from around the organisation.
A platform for saving money
Mr Brown concluded: “Our fixed-cost broadband system will allow data and voice to travel down the same line, dramatically reducing internal telephone costs and opening up new opportunities for saving money. In the future we can also use it for credit and switch card authorising.”
Mike Bielinski, director of Vodat International, added: “Retailers have gone through tremendous change over the last decade. Firstly it was the evolution of EPOS systems and now it is the revolution of the Internet and the major advantages that can be gained through the effective use of broadband. Our aim is to provide a service and added value applications that realise those benefits and generate a fast payback for our Retail clients."
For information about Vodat's fixed cost managed communications technologies including Next Generation Networks (NGN), VoIP phones, VoIP networks, ADSL and SDSL broadband and EPOS networks for the UK retail sector, please call Vodat International today on 0161 406 1820 or contact us by e-mail.
Added: 30/06/2008 13:16:35
