Oscar

Oscar is the definitive retail automation system for independent record dealers. It is complimented by Oscar Lite, a catalogue and order system for the whole music industry and now by Oscar Book, an expanded version holding millions of titles and complete with electronic commerce facilities.

All Oscar systems share a common technology base and consist of both software and hardware environments, supplied as a complete package along with installation, training and continuing support.

couple an shop

Information Rich

Oscar is unique in the world of retail automation because it is designed from the outset as a source, rather than a sink, for information. It is designed for information-rich environments where much more information flows to the user (catalogue information, product sales histories and so on) than flows from him or her (sales price, quantity and other trading data).

Oscar is designed to use industry-wide bibliographies. Information is King in modern business and nowhere more so than in retailing of books and music, where customers expect encyclopedic knowledge to be combined fast service and low prices. Most Epos systems are designed to provide better business efficiency by cost control, ensuring that all sales are accurately recorded, stock levels maintained and prices pre-set. Of course, Oscar provides all of these features, but that is just the beginning.

For the music industry, Oscar provides the official UK music catalogue, which is automatically updated daily, and in the book trade it integrates bibliographies from Neilsen Bookdata, giving it access to literally millions of titles. For the first time, retailers in information-rich sectors like music and books can benefit from vast amounts of product information right at the point of sale, boosting customer orders and confidence and producing a widening expertise gap between independent retailers and mass market super-stores.

So Oscar helps improve business performance, not just by controlling costs, but by expanding sales horizons by empowering staff with information at their fingertips. This truly is a revolution in retailing.

Built in Catalogues

In conventional Epos systems, users laboriously compile product information by hand. While Oscar also offers this facility, it's modern design allows it to easily integrate catalogues from independent sources like industry associations. These catalogues, which usually involve separate subscriptions, provide the user with vast depth of product information and virtually eliminate the chore of identifying each new product as it comes in to stock.

The labour saving provided by this automatic, and virtually instant, product identification has to be seen to be believed. Not only does Oscar 'book in' new stock under the correct author, artist or title but it also ensures that each customer's receipt carries detailed information their purchase. And when the time comes to re-order, Oscar's recommendations are presented as plain English with names of each item, not just catalogue numbers or worse, indecipherable barcodes!

  • For the music industry, Oscar users can subscribe to the UK music catalogue published by the Official UK Charts Company, formerly CIN. The catalogue, which contains more than 640,000 items, is distributed to UK retailers by Ranger, is updated nightly. High performance search algorithms present 'hits' almost instantly, while long lists are compiled in the background by Oscar's Windows based software. Oscar brings a vast information resource to the point of sale.
  • For the book trade, Oscar integrates the book trade bibliography from Neilsen BookData, containing more than 2 million books in the international edition. (Each bibliography requires a separate subscription with the provider). Oscar is unique in it's ability to run multiple catalogues simultaneously, so that, for instance it can search for product details in both book and music without having to be told 'what the product is' first.

Fast and Economical

Speed in the sales cycle is crucial in record shops, where queues can extend into the street on busy days. Oscar makes full use of the Windows environment to allow background processing and communications that don't interfere with selling product. Oscar has only one purpose - to make sales quickly!

Oscar is built entirely from state of the art PC technology and uses industry standards throughout. There are no custom circuit boards to become obsolescent and no bizarre technologies to become unmaintainable. Best of all, Oscar benefits from continuing improvements in PC price/performance to bring the very best value for money to the retailer!

Windows Based

Oscar's information rich concept is fundamentally different to older 'code and quantity' Epos systems and to provide this advanced functionality, it borrows from the latest ideas in personal computer industry. Crucial amongst these ideas is 'multi-tasking', the ability to perform more than one function at once. Indeed, Oscar is built around multiple tasks that operate in their own space. In this way, it can offer maximum performance at the point of sale: barcode - cash - next customer please while processing recommended orders, sales reports and numerous other tasks in the background.

To achieve this result, Oscar is built around the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is Windows that gives Oscar it's unique appearance and 'feel' while retaining the focus and reliability of older industry specific computer systems. Although much more expensive to develop initially, the use of Windows pays huge dividends in staff training and lifetime support, two areas rated by retailers as most important in assessing Epos solutions.

Oscar's crystal clear colour screens bring the point of sale into the modern world for the first time! Distinctive styles reassure operators and help avoid mistakes and delays. Graphics icons help identify product and speed the searching of complex catalogues. Oscar re-defines the term 'User Friendly'!

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Screen Shots

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