Effective Retail Management Package

Generally very satisfactory

Pros

This package is very adaptable and modular, from inventory management to warehouse dispatching to point of sale modules. Impressive in the ability to customize each module ensuring that the solution is easily adaptable to the organization. Authentication login and assignment of privilege accesses ensures that the solution remains secured.

Cons

Can be a bit user unfriendly at first to the not so computer savy and will require training. Cost is based on server and user licenses which can be inhibiting for smaller companies. Support is excellent, but there is a cost attached and must be budgeted for.

Arms Review

My recommendation to anyone considering jewery software to run their business is to strongly consider the ARMS program. It's not just about the software. Training and philosophy are an integral part of the Arms software approach.

Pros

The Arms software was developed to reflect principles of productivity, specifically for jewelry stores. It was based on years of instore experience by the developers. That is why we originally bought Arms many years ago. We realized that we needed to have good data on the productivity of specific products as well as specific departments. Additionally, we needed to do a better job tracking the purchases of our customers. With the addtion of a POS a few years ago we are now capturing information every day about our customer's buying habits. We that information to send out mailings and make marketing intelligent decisions.

Cons

First it should be noted that, no matter what a software firm might tell you, no software is perfect. It is simply too complex to be perfect. The Arms software covers a lot of bases and like any complex product it is always being improved. Years ago I decided that the most productive relationship with a complex software company was one of being a "partner". So when I identified issues that needed improvement, I would carefully outline the needed changes and forward them to Arms. Over time the changes would be implimented. In the near future, I am looking forward to being able to export stock entry data into Quickbooks-this will be a great change and is a direct result of such a relationshiip. The other thing about a completx system is it can take a while to learn. That will always be the case for any good software. Thanks goodness for Arms' great customer service.

Terrible for your pocket book, training was weak, they changed the software to gouge customers.

ARMS was initially sold to us as making our life easier. The software is over priced, hard to use, complicated, and I have not got to the worst parts yet. We paid a tech to come to our location for a week and train our employees. After training, we found out we had problems on the inventory side of the program. We were then told to do a whole different process after a week of onsite training. Complete change in how we were trained. Waste of time. On top of that they "updated" the system to only accept their proprietary labels which cost four times the market price for labels. You have to buy your supplies from them or they won't work. Absolutely terrible. I wish we would have never bought this system.

Arms

Love the technical support. Extremely helpful and knowledgeable! Very patient!

Pros

Very detailed and numerous reports to analyze my business. The Repair Tracker is fantastic to gather and store information about the customer and their repairs.

Cons

Tricky to make corrections. Only about 2 1/2 years into the software and it is still a bit overwhelming with all of the things it can do. Still learning!

ARMS SS

we have reduces aged stock by 80% and our stock takes are very easy to complete and the results amazing. We use all reports for analysis, incentive bonus's and trend tracking. We have eliminated non performing suppliers and have improved out product lines using SS.

Pros

excellent reporting and ability to save to excel or pdf

Cons

There are reports/changes We have been waiting for but were held up do to the pos re-write