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Shortcuts USA (866 678 7324)
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PRODUCT INFORMATION
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Client PortfolioQuick Jump: Aveda | Stefan | Haircolorxperts | Caci | Francesco | hob salons
Profile Aveda salons, spas and stores can be found in 22 countries around the world. Escape to places where beauty and well-being converge: spas and salons devoted to bringing you back to balance with products and services based on Aveda's pure flower and plant essences. Sensory experiences for your mind, body, skin and hair. So you become the peace you seek. Client Brief Shortcuts 2000 was installed at each site (2003 was at one), but none had internet. Their own IT technician took care of upgrading all hardware and installing WAN so that Shortcuts Enterprise could be incorporated into their business. Customisation and Integration Shortcuts Enterprise was integrated with Jiwa accounting package. Customised procedures guide was developed for both managers and reception staff. Aveda in the News Leading beauty and spa product wholesaler, Aveda, have recently committed to installing Shortcuts Head Office Server and Enterprise Live to form the Enterprise solution - Shortcuts complete product suite, to seamlessly connect ten company owned concept stores. Each of the Aveda owned stores currently operate Shortcuts Point of Sale (POS). Having experienced the benefits and functionality that POS has delivered to the stores, Aveda made the decision to implement the Enterprise solution in January of this year. Aveda’s General Manager of Finance and Operations, Nella Ranno, says the main attraction of the Enterprise Solution for Aveda is the fact it is a consolidated control and reporting device. “The Enterprise solution will provide consolidated sales trends and performance analysis, online real time data, enhanced stock control, improved reporting, global CRM and marketing, global employee management and increased security and site management”, said Ranno. This implementation, with a ‘go live’ date of 1 May 2004, is closely aligned to some of Aveda’s core beliefs. Aveda believes in:
Aveda is ranked number one in the spa industry and number three in the hair industry, wholesaling to hair and spa/beauty salons. Aveda’s products have an abundance of luscious ingredients, blended with pure flower and plant essences which result in succulent formulas. The recent signing is a sign of Shortcuts product suite’s strength as it is the only true enterprise system designed specifically for the salon and spa industry.
Profile Stefan came to Australia as a teenager speaking no English and today 55 salons, 500 staff and 1 restaurant later, caters for over 1.5 million people each year. Stefan salons are located in every major shopping centre in Queensland and 4 in New South Wales. Client Brief Shortcuts 2000 was installed at each site on a dialup WAN. They had written their own head office solution, but wanted to receive the new features and benefits of Shortcuts Salon 2004, which had a different database structure, deeming their existing head office solution redundant. Their own IT technician took care of upgrading all hardware and installing WAN so that Shortcuts Enterprise could be incorporated into their business. Stefan’s own IT technician is responsible for rolling out Enterprise, with Shortcuts rollout technicians on hand if required. Customisation and integration Customised procedures guides were developed for both managers and reception staff. Before each salon is rolled out, the salon staff attend refresher training sessions at Shortcuts head office. Key Challenges Stefan’s POS site databases were 7 years old and held a lot of archaic information. Shortcuts developed a custom rollout tool to remove old information and bring across clients and their visit notes only.
Profile haircolorxperts is going to give you perfect hair color and hair style! The artists at haircolorxperts have received advanced training in all aspects of hair color, hair cuts, and hair care using only the most exclusive product lines. At haircolorxperts, a team of dedicated artists will discover the appropriate color and style that makes your hair come alive! Client Brief haircolorxperts salons converted from a custom-written web-based application to Shortcuts Enterprise. Their own IT and Support technicians were heavily involved in the rollouts and provided first level support and assistance to the salons. This made the transition easier for the salon staff who were already comfortable with the support personnel. Customisation and Integration All client information was imported from the previous software via a custom method during implementation to ensure the migration had minimal impact to the salon staff. Client Testimonial "The power of information within Shortcuts has enabled us to increase business efficiency and form long lasting relationships with our clients. Forecasting, marketing and employee incentive programs are made easier with Shortcuts reports. Inventory control and ordering is now almost effortless, removing manual systems and procedures. Behind the software is the support team, which for a new user of salon software, is critical. The helpdesk team is available when we need them, and are always courteous and patient. Shortcuts Enterprise makes a busy day more manageable." Robin Forbes, Front Desk Manager
Client testimonial "Starting a new franchise chain presents its own set of unique challenges. We required a solution that was reliable and accurate, yet flexible enough to provide us with benchmarking information, ensuring franchisees can achieve their maximum potential. From an accounting and marketing point of view, the information we have at the head office and franchisee level is our point of difference over competitors. Enterprise came to our rescue for our Paintbox nail kiosks, and was the only choice for our CACI clinics which required more sophisticated features. We can now not operate without Shortcuts and franchisees are continually impressed with the ease of use and flexibility. Perhaps the biggest endorsement of Shortcuts has come from the strategic decision taken at our annual CACI franchise conference to convert all the clinics in our other Franchise chain to Shortcuts immediately. The implementation was trouble free and the support was amazing. We have now undertaken to rollout one new clinic every three weeks until all have been converted. Our franchise manager is buzzing with anticipation with all the information available. It is fair to say that we now cannot operate without Shortcuts – plain and simple." David Robinson, Group Financial Controller As everyone knows, beauty is big business these days; what is surprising then is the lack of franchise opportunities for motivated operators. Enter the CACI clinics… The established CACI Clinic model is based around specialist high performance skin treatments, appearance medicine and laser hair removal. However the recent introduction of the latest IPL (Intense Pulse Light) technology, which emulates many of the same functions, does not require a registered nurse and is considerably less costly to operate. This means that a franchisee could now set up a CACI Clinic in an area that was previously less financially rewarding for the specialist model. The other new concept, Paintbox, is off to a flying start, with the first four kiosks up and running and more in the pipeline. This is an award winning retail franchise in the fast growing nail market. According to Nails Magazine, the US professional nail industry has service sales of $US6.4 billion a year and employs more than 360,000 nail technicians. Where the Australian and New Zealand industries fall behind the US is the lack of branded or collectively marketed nail operators, reducing overall market potential compared to other beauty segments. Glenice Whittle, Franchise Manager for the CACI Group, says an IPL-based CACI Clinic can be set-up from scratch for as little as NZD$80k plus fit out costs. Or an existing beauty clinic can convert to a CACI Clinic for even less! On the other hand the set-up cost of a Paintbox kiosk is less than NZD$50K. The investment in either a CACI Clinic or Paintbox kiosk covers assistance establishing the premises, stock, initial training, Shortcuts computer system, and ongoing support. Computer skills are not a prerequisite as Shortcuts was originally designed for hairdressers and beauty therapists, and with a large color touchscreen interface, is a perfect match for the salon or kiosk. Backed by the powerful Shortcuts Enterprise system, the Franchisor receives daily updates to monitor the growth of the chain, and the franchisee sees significantly reduced administrative workload, with automatic product updates and both centralised and local marketing and client relationship abilities. Franchise owners can also easily monitor best business practice by comparing their performance to others in the chain. Glenice says the ideal franchise owner is someone who enjoys dealing with the public, is passionate about the beauty industry, and thrives in a fast-paced and dynamic environment. With more Paintbox kiosks and CACI Clinics planned, the CACI Group will play a large part in the ongoing growth and consolidation for the whole NZ beauty market.
Client Testimonial "At Francesco Group we are currently implementing Shortcuts Enterprise into all of our 30 salons and two Academies. The benefits are immediate in terms of salon business and from a marketing and head office perspective - it has provided us with up to the minute data at the touch of a button." Ben Dellicompagni, Managing Director Francesco Group, UK Fracesco's in the News When The UK’s Francesco Group commenced their hunt for a new salon computer system, their expectations were high and their requirements endless. Not only were they looking for a powerful, easy to use salon software system with all the bells and whistles, but from a head office point of view, a central access database was crucial. The Francesco Group had been using Pegasus accounting and payroll software for ten years prior to introducing Shortcuts into their salons (which was able to seamlessly integrate within this existing package). This integration is an aspect of Shortcuts that founder and Technical Director of MJB Applications, Jon Berg, describes as hugely convenient, particularly for complex companies. “We work with several major franchise groups in the UK but in terms of requirements for a head office system, the Francesco Group is the most intricate,” Jon says. “This is because they need integration not only for management reporting but also for accounts and payroll. The situation is made even more complex by the group already having full payroll integration with the old MJB DOS based salon system. We needed to install software that would not only provide full Pegasus integration but also import data from the old MJB database,” he says. Eunice Nixon manages Francesco Group’s payroll, a job she says is very complicated given the number of employees and varying pay and commission structures. “We are not just talking about stylists but everyone - technicians, juniors and even salon cleaners. From our point of view, installing Shortcuts will help manage the complexity of this difficult process and hopefully make our job a lot less stressful!” she says. Francesco Group’s IT Manager, Corinne Barker, has the task of managing the whole process of installing Shortcuts. On top of that, her ‘day’ job is to train and support all the salons and to provide a series of sophisticated reports that the company uses to manage and control its operation. Corinne says the old system meant relying on the individual salons to email data to head office for payroll and accounts. Reports first had to be processed by the salons then finished off at head office by Corinne. “Just having all the data here at head office makes life so much easier now,” says Corinne. “The Shortcuts program produces all our specialized reports straight from the Head Office Database at the touch of a button. This gives me time to manage the changes to Shortcuts and really support the salons. “We use these reports to help control our business but they are also the basis of the trophies given out to salons and staff at our annual award night - so we need to trust that the figures are right!” As the Director of Financial Operations for the Francesco Group, Richard Stenson pointed out they act as bookkeepers for individual salons. So reporting procedures will now be made easier as the HOS data is on their premises. Ben Dellicompagni is the Francesco Group’s Managing Director and insists the group prides themselves on the service they give to the franchisees. He says the various components of that service are reflected in the different departments at head office - IT, marketing, accounts and wages. “Now we have Shortcuts, I want to make sure that all our departments make maximum use of having the salon data right here in the building,” he says. Ben says a huge area for development within the Francesco Group is marketing. Developing a sophisticated and focused marketing strategy with mail outs and promotions is made easy with all the client data available from the Head Office database. “In my job I am almost like the conductor of an orchestra, with each department being a section of that orchestra. We may not yet be playing beautiful music, but with the new Shortcuts system, we do at least have all the instruments in the same room!”
Client Testimonial "Having worked in a salon that turned over in excess of 450 clients per week using a manual based system, running a computerised system from day one in my own salon has saved me hours and hours of frustration. We now have a clean desk to work on no loose pieces of paper and no more lost client records. The system is easy to use and I love it. My staff find it easy to use and they would be lost without it. At the end of the week I print out a report that tells me the staff's commission and all I need to do is write out the cheques. This feature alone saves me at least two hours per week. I can go home and enjoy myself......" Ben Scott, Managerhob, London hob in the News Award winning UK Salon group hob have contracted to install Shortcuts Salon & Spa software in all ten of it's branches, following a trial at hob's Loughton, Essex franchise and successful negotiations between Speed e-Serve Ltd, the North London reseller for Shortcuts, and hob. The hob salon group is one of the UK's leading hair groups. Synonymous with cutting edge style and award-winning excellence, the hob salon group required a business management solution to support their continuous growth. "Shortcuts is way ahead of any of its UK rivals in the industry at present", said Clive Collins, co-director of hob salons. "Its innovative head office system gives us up-to-the-minute information, allowing us to manage the business much more effectively and enabling us to take a pro-active rather than re-active approach". Manager of hob's Loughton salon, Ben Scott says of Shortcuts, "The benefits this system offers are endless, providing me with lots of useful information at the touch of a button. As well as saving time, the system is a great marketing tool as it records all client information from their contact details, to how they heard about us, and it even lets us know their birthdays so we can send them a card and discount voucher". To all those apprehensive about switching from a manual to a computer based system, Ben says, "The key advantage is that the system is user friendly. With the training we received from [Shortcuts] all my staff are efficient in using the Shortcuts system". Multiple award nominations are testament to hob's reputation as the future of British Hairdressing. Nominated four times and already a winner of the ''Eastern Hairdresser of the Year 2001/2'' title at the prestigious British Hairdressing Awards, Artistic Director of hob, Akin Konizi is touted as one of the industry''s biggest talents. He is currently nominated for the coveted title of ''London Hairdresser of the Year'' at this year's British Hairdressing Awards held on November 24th. Not only are the hob salon group recognized for their artistic achievements, the three partners, Clive Collins, Paul Simbler and Akin Konizi were also finalists for the ''Business Director of the Year'' title at this year's British Hairdressing Business Awards. The hob salon group started their franchising operation in October 2002 with plans to expand their network of premier salons across the country. |
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