Proactive POS Support

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Proactive POS Support

• Ron Ferri
• Sr. POS Programmer Analyst
• Miami, May 2003

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Giant Eagle at a Glance

• Growth Oriented
• 230 Stores
• Store Types
• 127 Corporate Stores
• 87 Independent Stores
• 18 Other (Non Banner, Fuel, Convenience)

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Giant Eagle Vendor Agreement

• Partnership
• A relationship of two or more entities conducting
  business for mutual benefit
• Benefits
• Shared Expertise, resulting in leading edge
  advancements
• Shared cost/risk of new development
• Joint marketing efforts
• Long term, successful, committed relationship

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Support Structure

• Corporate vs- Independent
• Corporate stores are controlled and only allowed
  into certain areas of the system.
• Independent stores own their systems and are
  allowed more access.
• Creates more of a maintenance effort when access
  is granted more freely.

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Support Structure

• Level 1
• Help Center
• Network Operations Center
• Levels 2 and 3
• Retail Systems Support
• POS Systems Support

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Support Methods

• The Days of Old

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Support Methods

• Remote Operator
• Unreliable
• Slow
• Busy Signals
• No Answer
• Disconnects

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Support Methods

• Go Onsite

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Support Methods

• The Days of New

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Support Methods

• Wide Area, High Speed Network
• Telnet
• And

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Support Methods
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StoreGazer Architecture

• 4690 Background Agent
• Windows Client
• Windows Server
• StoreGazer Server Agent
• SQL Database
• Email Client

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Giant Eagle Approach

• Let the system notify us of problems.
• Investigate the problem by gathering asmuch
  information as needed.
• Solve the situation, or escalate to the
  appropriate group in Giant Eagle.
• Update the message database with user text if
  appropriate for future occurrences.

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Giant Eagle Email Alert

• Store Close Bypass Messages

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GACE8500 Program
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Giant Eagle Email Alert

• Store Close FailureMessages

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StoreGazer Components

• Alerts for performance issues.
• Filters for 4690 messages.
• Actions to do what needs to be done.
• Client for user access and action.
• Server database for analysis.

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Alert Monitor

• Controllers use an alert file to recognize and
  report conditions that do not match the normal
  operations expected in the store.

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Message Monitor
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System Messages

• Double click on the message to bring up its
  IBM explanation, instead ofcarrying the IBM
  manualaround.

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System Messages

• We add in helpful tips and more meaningful
  explanations for other support teamswho also
  usethe system.

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Systems Message Report

• We can find out howmany othertimes
  themessageoccurredat a store.

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Store Controller Status
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Utilization Graphs

• Utilization graphs letus visually see the
  performance of our memory, disk, and CPU.
• Information updated every 15 minutes.
• We can see spikes as well as trends.

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Vital Product Data Report

• All information from SQL Database.
• Microsoft Access reports can easily be
  generated.
• Maintenance invoices can be matched to the
  actual terminals in the store.

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Register Information

• A list and status of all registersby store
  can be displayed.

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Register Actions

• Signing off or reloading a register is as
  simple as a mouse click.

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System Status

• Help desk personnel can see the statusand
  setup of asystem.

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System Configuration View
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User Permission Setup

• User access is easy to configure and maintain.

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Giant Eagle Reports

• Disk Drive Report created in Microsoft
  Accessfrom thedatabase.

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Giant Eagle Reports
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Multiple Store Control

• A tool that we use to remotely manage stores
  by pushing, pulling, starting, stopping,
  anddeleting files.

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Multiple Store Control

• Managing Groups is easy. Selecting the store
  nodes is also easy.
• Type instructionsonce, execute theprograms in a
  list of stores almostsimultaneously.

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Giant Eagle Uses

• SA to ACE Conversion Project
• Pages us on exception log full conditions
• Helps prove the volume of messages related to a
  store problem
• Helps find hardware service provider errors
• The list goes on and on

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Future StoreGazer Enhancements

• ASM Support
• Guaranteed File Delivery
• Full Scheduler
• Scripting Capabilities
• Citrix (Thin Client) Support
• Client Side Alert, Action, and Event Files

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Contact Information

• Ron Ferri (Giant Eagle)
• ron.ferri_at_gianteagle.com
• [phone] ext 22129
• Dave Courtney (EDJ Enterprises)
• dcourtney_at_edj.com
• [phone]
• www.edj.com