The Problem

Clerks recorded transactions on sales slips, which each store manager faxed to headquarters at the end of each workday. At the end of the week, store managers collected records in a bag and mailed it to headquarters. There was no accountability, central management, or reporting capability; and crucial periodic tasks such as computing sales and inventory and producing reports took many hours. Worst of all, Cathy Jean Shoes was losing revenue to untracked inventory and theft. The company turned to the IT pros at Virtual Grafitti to improve efficiency and data security.

The Solution

Virtual Grafitti recommended centralizing orders and reporting, a process that would involve transferring sales data securely and accurately over the public Internet. One immediate challenge was to establish Internet access at the numerous Cathy Jean Shoes store locations within shopping malls. Though many malls offer Wi-Fi access to shoppers, high-speed Internet options for individual store tenants may be restricted or unavailable. Virtual Graffiti opted to use existing wiring that had been installed for landline telephones and credit card transactions to establish DSL Internet service.

"All they had was phone lines--no ethernet or coaxial cables," says Ryan Lipschitz, vice president of engineering for Virtual Graffiti. "It was very manual and tedious."