As the retail industry changes and competition intensifies, retailers require immediate access to the right information. They require the ability to instantly act on that changing information, either selectively by store and region, or globally. Stores' information must be easily and flexibly reportable and management decisions must be easily entered, implemented and enforced.

Information technology infrastructure must tell management what was bought, when, where, by whom and why. Retailers that survive and grow will understand the impacts of promotions and markdowns, buying trends and dynamic consumer demographics/lifestyles. Strategic decisions can then be made centrally and implemented chain-wide or at individual stores. Retailers and suppliers can work together to distribute the right merchandise mix in a timely, efficient manner.

Accordingly, retailers have struggled for years to set up information systems that integrate and connect headquarters, in-store processors and the point-of-sale. Lack of a comprehensive solution forced chains to piece together closed proprietary systems often based on disparate data models and data access techniques. The cost and complexity—and lack of certainty—in deploying such piecework solutions have slowed the growth of small and medium-sized chains.

Microsoft Retail Management System HeadQuarters is a direct response to the growing number of small to mid-sized stores/chains looking for software to grow as they grow and address immediate and future business goals. As an integrated, business-wide, point-of-sale and retail management solution, HeadQuarters allows mid-sized retail chains to take advantage of price and technical innovations in commodity hardware, software and Internet-enabling technologies. Now mid-sized retail chains can exploit the same technologies that reveal the most salable mixes of merchandise and shave dollars off big chain store prices.

HeadQuarters offers retailers a feature-set designed specifically for dynamic and growing companies:

	Integrated point-of-sale and in-store functions that trade data with Microsoft Retail Management System Store Operations
	Ability to create new items, set pricing and discounts, generate purchase orders and direct inter-store inventory transfer from the head office
	Automatic uploading of stores' inventory movement, financial transactions and sales data, then organizing the data into a comprehensive all-knowing database
	Ability to see, manage, price and control inventory across multiple locations and to make informed decisions based on up-to-date and reliable data
	A pre-packaged solution that offers low licensing costs and rapid investment returns
	Highly customizable features for individual needs
	Built-in security system to restrict employee access to sensitive information
	Open-standards access to all retail information stored in a Microsoft SQL Server™ database
	Detailed sales data for data warehousing, OLAP and business intelligence analyses
	Ability to view inventory levels at all the stores in the enterprise
	Support for virtually all forms of data communications between the head office and stores using a dial-up, virtual private network (VPN), the Internet, LAN and WAN

The required software components that enable you to successfully manage your multi-store operations are:

	Store Operations
	HeadQuarters Remote Client and HeadQuarters Communications Server Programs
	HeadQuarters Manager Program

Microsoft Retail Management System Store Operations
Store Operations software is sold separately from HeadQuarters. It operates at each store in the retail enterprise and maintains sales data in a local database. Store Operations automates each store's back-office operations (inventory, pricing, tracking customers and suppliers, etc.) and handles all sales transactions at the checkout lane.

Key information contained in the Store Operations database is regularly uploaded to the head office. At the same time, HeadQuarters downloads management's changes made at the head office to each store's database.

HeadQuarters Remote Client and HeadQuarters Communications Server Programs
The HeadQuarters Remote Client and HeadQuarters Communications Server programs are parts of the Store Operations HeadQuarters software package. HeadQuarters Client is installed at each remote store and automatically initiates a connection to the head office based on a schedule specified by the head office. The connection can be made via the Internet, virtual private network (VPN), or dial-up access to the HeadQuarters Communication Server. Once connected, HeadQuarters Client receives instructions to upload sales and inventory data or other information requested by HeadQuarters. It also updates the store's database to reflect any changes made at HeadQuarters that need to be propagated to the store.

The HeadQuarters Communications Server is installed on a machine at the head office and is responsible for exchanging data between the HeadQuarters database and remote stores. It listens for incoming messages from remote stores, processes and records the data in the HeadQuarters database, then forwards HeadQuarters' directives to remote stores as defined in HeadQuarters worksheets.

HeadQuarters Manager Program
At the head office, the HeadQuarters Manager program provides the user interface and management of retail information in the HeadQuarters database. Functions necessary to manage a retail chain are provided. HeadQuarters Manager lets you create new inventory items or update the data (items, suppliers, prices, costs, etc.) that keep your retail chain running smoothly. HeadQuarters Manager enables you to set policies and procedures for each store to follow, then enforces those rules applicably throughout the enterprise. Specially tailored, multi-level reports let you sort and combine business data—even drill down to modify your database directly from the reports.

HeadQuarters employs the widely understood worksheet to implement management changes. You can use a number of different HeadQuarters worksheets to plan and execute changes to the HeadQuarters database and remote store databases. Worksheets initiate and control data exchanges between the head office and stores. Through worksheets, the head office can command any store, group of stores, or all stores to perform specific tasks that affect the local database, and then to report back processing statuses. Each worksheet contains built-in mechanisms to help you properly plan desired changes, obtain approval for changes, and track actual changes for audit purposes.