The National Portrait Gallery has successfully updated its retail and stock management system following a business analysis by Milton Keynes based IT consultants MMCC.
Louis Brady, head of IT contacted MMCC to carry out a complete business process review and to advise the gallery on the best system to meet its requirements.
MMCC’s director Mark Ogier took personal responsibility for preparing an in-depth report, which highlighted the new functional requirements needed to achieve the gallery’s aims. The report also gave the IT management team a clear picture of the current situation and what was needed to move forward.
The gallery had been using an Aries retail system for several years but gradual changes in the retail operations of the three on-site shops meant that the old system was no longer adequate.
The new system would need to handle enhanced security credit card transactions, cope with short term promotional offers, such as two-for-one incentives, as well as manage the thousands of items on the gallery’s stock inventory – but, with so many software solutions on offer, it was difficult to know which would be the best option.
As a software specialist MMCC was well placed to design and build a bespoke system to exactly meet the gallery’s needs, but having studied the options Ogier realised that this would not be the most cost effective solution and recommended an out of the box Microsoft package. This resulted in a considerable saving of capital for the National Portrait Gallery without compromising its management objectives.
Louis Brady said, “Apart from compiling the draft specification document and recommending the best package, Mark acted as project manager and played an important role in pulling all the right people together to make things happen. This saved our IT department and others involved with the project a lot of time and kept everyone focused on the important issues.”
MMCC is continuing to assist the National Portrait Gallery with the future developments of its IT systems.
MMCC Consultants
Stuart Griffin
Tel: 0845 6585777
Email: stuart.griffin@mmcc.co.uk
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