Case study
Mirabilandia strides into the future with new-generation retail solutions
Amusement park implements integrated HP solution comprising all-in-one RP7800 systems to automate over 90 retail locations
Sector
Retail
Objective
To renew the terminals at all points of sale and restaurants to serve customers faster and to obtain an enterprise-wide solution for managing the park’s retail activities
Approach
Hired a technology partner to deliver a comprehensive project that enables future developments and includes hardware, software and services
IT benefits
- The new open, scalable systems enable centralised IT management
- Sales and stock data is updated in real-time thanks to the integration of the points of sale
- The terminals’ all-in-one configuration allows more convenient operation and maintenance
Business benefits
- Higher performance enables better customer service
- By exploiting the integration with the central system, effective promotions can be run in real-time
- Accounting and tax data can be transmitted accurately without wasted time using the link with the management software
“We chose HP’s all-in-one retail systems, with hardware and software infrastructure integration by Alfacod, because they offered us the greatest scalability and ease of use.”
– Riccardo Marcante, CFO, Mirabilandia
Mirabilandia chooses HP retail solutions to enhance its customer-service efficiency and centralise the handling of its sales data
When it decided to upgrade its Point of Sale (POS) technology, the amusement park opted for a global solution to enable a centralised flow of information and to be ready for future developments. It selected Alfacod, an HP partner, to supply 100 all-in-one HP terminals.
The challenge
Renewal and centralisation
Mirabilandia, Italy’s largest amusement park and a member of the Parques Reunidos multinational group, has always considered technology an important lever for maintaining high efficiency and service levels. This is an essential factor when you welcome thousands of visitors every day.
As part of its trajectory of constant innovation, the park management team decided in late 2013 to embrace the next generation of devices used at the points of sale and restaurants. It wanted to integrate them into a broader project to centralise data processing, to speed up customer service and, ultimately, to facilitate the growth in visitor numbers and turnover that the group anticipated in the coming years.
The requirements were varied, on one hand, to streamline the process of purchasing food, beverages and merchandising (a major revenue source for the park); on the other, to build a universal system, with the HP partner Alfacod. The system needed to be open and scalable to support the business in future challenges and to share the data through centralised handling of the marketing, logistics and sales process.
“Mirabilandia was already on its thirdgeneration Point of Sale automation implementation,” recalls Stefano Vio, manager of Alfacod’s ADCstore division, “so its expectations were high. Therefore, we looked for solutions that would not only offer optimum performance and flexibility but would also be easy to use and maintain without compromising business continuity.”
Alfacod provided a team of retail specialists and worked very closely with Mirabilandia’s IT Manager and CFO to devise a series of proposals based on the HP all-in-one RP7 systems, a checkout solution powered by the Intel® CoreTM i3 processor.
The challenge
All-in-one, ready for the future
Mirabilandia bought 100 terminals to fully overhaul approximately 90 retail locations inside the park. Alfacod integrated them with the company’s other business systems as a first and decisive step towards centralising its information.
Besides the one hundred HP RP7800 Point of Sale Systems, Mirabilandia acquired five mobile POS based on the HP ElitePad 900, each with the HP Retail Jacket. This accessory transforms a tablet into a complete mobile retail terminal with features including a magnetic band reader and barcode scanner.
“We have combined the HP retail solutions according to Alfacod’s recommendations,” explains Riccardo Marcante, Mirabilandia CFO, “because we know just how reliable HP is, and we intend to work with it again in the future. One of the fundamental requirements for the new integrated system, in fact, was that it should be scalable and able to offer a long-term solution covering the whole infrastructure. HP offers these values through its multinational expertise and its experience over many years in the retail sector.“
Customer solution at a glance
Applications
Alfacod ADCstore to manage the points of sale
Alfacod ADCstore to manage the restaurants
Alfacod ADCstore master system
Centralised back office
Hardware
- HP RP7800 Point of Sale System
- HP ElitePad 900 with Retail Jacket
HP services
- HP Care Pack (5 years)
Flanking the fixed and mobile HP POS systems are about a hundred physical printers and as many barcode readers, all controlled by the ADCstore front-end management software supplied by Alfacod. At the central offices, six back-office workstations have also been installed and connected to the POS terminals through a software bridge.
“The mobile POS terminals have been connected via Wi-Fi networks,” explains Pierluigi Carbone, Mirabilandia’s IT Manager, “while the all-in-one HP RP7s are linked over a standard Ethernet network. Thus, assuring a real-time flow of data, we can promptly intervene remotely if any problem arises.”
The project was completed in about two months, including installation and training, and immediately provided the stability and quality that the Mirabilandia management were looking for. In April 2014, when the new tourist season opened using the new systems, the transition to the improved architecture was seamless and trouble-free.
Benefits
Simpler for the IT team,
faster for the customer
“Once we bought the hardware,” says Carbone, “we focused on software that would manage the park’s entire sales system, for both catering and merchandising, and gives us real-time statistical reports on sales and stock levels across the company. We also integrated other services in the park, such as car-park management and product promotions (e.g. for issuing money-off coupons). Among other things, it enables us to serve the customers very proactively.
Another benefit from the new integrated system is the tax accounting: with the old checkout systems, we were forced to collect the receipts at the end of the day, which was rather time-consuming for a park of this size.”
Now, thanks to the HP RP7s’ flexibility and connectivity, our sales information and tax data summary reach both the management and the accounts department automatically in real-time. That helps us to implement optimum strategies for marketing, customer loyalty, and stock management.
By analysing the data arriving in real-time from the POS terminals at various Points of Sale, Mirabilandia can cross-sell and upsell effectively, while the benefits for the food and beverage outlets are more visible, with swifter service to customers.
“For the future,” Marcante concludes, “we are working on some other innovative plans, naturally involving HP technology and Alfacod’s experience. The ideas that we are already looking at include extending Wi-Fi coverage to the entire park and even greater integration of the information systems to support the different services, to give our customers a unique all-round entertainment experience.”
