• 100% focus on the retail sector
• Five years experience in transforming the retail experience for Norwegian retailers
• Lean, agile, and responsive company DNA drives efficiency
• Based in Oslo, Norway
• Neptune Software Implementation, Resell, and Solution Partner

When it comes to retail, a rewarding user experience is everything. Yet modern retailers already operate on thin margins and have been facing increasing demands from tech-savvy consumers. Blending the digital and physical experience has become a high priority as more and more shopping occurs online, spurred in part by the 2020 global pandemic.

Customer loyalty is also in play and keeping customers coming back for more requires seamless interactions every time. As a result, the ability to present an easy-to-use, standard user interface across the business is increasingly critical.

Norwegian consulting company EINR helps retail enterprises to do all of the above and more. Focused exclusively on the retail sector, EINR has extensive experience with SAP retail customers and additional SAP ERP projects throughout Norway and Europe.

“As an SAP-focused consulting company, we find that many customers have issues with their user experience,” says Per Atle Steinsland, Managing Director at EINR Consulting. “with our POSBE offering, we’re able to create a more user-friendly interface for SAP.”

EINR Partner Solution, POSBE is enterprise point-of-sales (POS) made simple. It’s a POS solution built for ERP and backend systems. And it’s built to integrate: retail organizations can take full advantage of their already-defined processes for things like pricing, campaigns, products and customers – easily connecting to SAP, Microsoft, Oracle or any other backend to create a better user experience for customers and employees alike.

“Three things make our POSBE approach unique,” says Per Atle, “First, we firmly believe the master data should be in the backend system. It makes the integration with ERP and other backend systems cleaner and makes it very smooth to set up and supports omnichannel efforts where the POS acts as one more of those channels.

Additionally, our solution is built on modern cloud technology – Neptune Software’s DXP Open Edition – so you can take advantage of features available with a modern cloud infrastructure. With traditional POS you typically need a server per store and massive infrastructure, but we can deploy POSBE through a browser. All a retailer needs to do is connect to a bank terminal, connect the cash drawer and printer, and they’re ready to go. That’s where they can save a lot of money on infrastructure.

“It’s also device agnostic. And finally, because there is minimal business logic in the POS, it’s easy to adopt future changes and requirements.”

API-First approach to development and integration

Built on the future-proof technology of NodeJS combined with an API-first approach, Neptune Software is a low-code, flexible, and scalable app development platform for the enterprise. This cloud-based API-first approach allows anyone to build their own micro-service architecture in an easy and scalable way while seamlessly accessing the core services of the platform that cover the entire development application lifecycle.

With EINR Partner Solution POSBE built with Neptune Software, offline sales are also seamless. The solution uses a database in the web browser to store product, price and customer details, so retailers can keep selling even when their internet connection is lost.

“At the same time, it’s actually quite complex to program a POS system, and there are heavy regulations that impact the retail sector. POSBE gives us that capability,” says Kristian Glasø, Solution Architect at EINR.

“We started using Neptune Software to improve user-friendliness and extend the process capabilities further than SAP’s standard user interface. As Neptune Software’s approach evolved from its SAP-centric beginnings to encompass a broader approach beyond SAP, we definitely saw that as a good move and knew the platform could be utilized to build a modern POS solution,” Kristian continues.

Moving data to where it’s valuable is the key to improving the retail experience, whether that data exists in an ERP or master data hub. That’s especially true for POS applications. Neptune Software’s cloud- and API-based approach makes it simple and drives the ability to make real-time decisions.

“We started our POS-journey in January 2019 and were ready to go-live with POSBE in the first store after only 8 months in September,” says Per. “By the second week of December, we had deployed POSBE to 60 stores without any glitches. Now we have a strong solution implemented at two major Nordic retailers, which shows how powerful the Neptune Software DX Platform is to build applications.”

With POSBE, customers find that it reduces operational complexity and provides more centralized control over products, customers and prices. The company works with customers to include new functionality and configure POSBE in a way that addresses their unique needs. For example, self-checkout capabilities and customer loyalty programs can easily be added. Additionally, training is much easier.

“Before, we spent a lot of time on training, especially when launching new ERP functionality with a bad user interface,” says Kristian. “Now, with Neptune Software, the processes and apps are highly intuitive, they are easy to operate, and the training needed is minimal.”

Bohus delivers flexibility with cloud point of sale, reduces POS operational costs 75% using POSBE

Norwegian furniture retailer Bohus wanted to implement a solution that would enhance its in-store sales experience by allowing staff to be mobile, improve how payment could be accepted during the delivery process, help them address legal requirements, and integrate its new loyalty system at point of sale. This was a daunting ask with lengthy, and costly development cycles that made the business case difficult.

Bohus turned to EINR and its POSBE system to deliver a light, flexible and easily configurable cloud-based approach to POS and realized a 75% reduction in POS operational costs.

“If you’re looking for new digital capabilities, they aren’t likely to come from an all-encompassing POS system. We realized we already had the data and logic across our existing applications – we just needed a better way to connect it to our stores in order to innovate,” Krister Mossige, CIO, Bohus.