DIY retailer B&Q has started the roll-out of an EPoS upgrade across its 320 Supercentre and Warehouse stores.
The contract to oversee the roll-out has been given to Paul Mason Consulting (PMC), and will continue at least until the end of the year.
Part of the project is to ensure B&Q is Chip and PIN compliant by January 1, 2005.
'B&Q has a 14-year-old legacy system that doesn't deal with Chip and PIN. They wanted something more flexible,' said PMC founder Paul Mason.
In a bold move, B&Q has opted to base its EPoS system on the Java operating system, in order to allow the head office to manage tills centrally. This should drive down the cost of maintaining the EPoS network.
The system also gives till operators the chance to use touch-sensitive screens, which will provide better functionality than keyboards. The retailer's core EPoS hardware, supplied by Wincor Nixdorf will be retained.
B&Q director of systems development Paul Yates said: 'This EPoS system will radically improve both the service we offer to our customers and the business information we retrieve.'
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