Notifications in iVend Retail

Effective communication across the retail landscape plays an important role in the smooth functioning of a retail organization. Notifications are messages (email, text or in-app) that are sent to different stakeholders in the retail setup.

This article explains how to set up the notifications in iVend Retail. There are two (2) parts to this article:

· Part 1 explains notifications in iVend Retail and iVend Terminal POS.

· Part 2 explains notifications in iVend Mobile POS.

Part 1

Let us consider a business case where the cashier at the POS requests permission for an additional discount (over and above the applicable limit) from the Manager. The Manager approves (or rejects) the request and the response is sent back to the cashier to complete the transaction.

iVend Retail provides three (3) modes of notifications in the application:

1. In-App Notifications

In this case, the notifications are sent within the application user interface and can be accessed both in the Management Console as well as on the POS terminal. The In-App notification setup is explained further.

2. Email Notifications

As the name implies, the notifications are sent via an email to the relevant user. The application utilizes the SMTP setup mentioned in Administration>System Initialization>Communication Settings>SMTP Details. The email of the user is set up in Administration>Human Resources>Employee

3. SMS (text) Notifications

These types of notifications are sent to users on their mobile phones as SMS / Text messages. The application utilizes the SMS gateway setup in Administration>System Initialization>Communication Settings>Messaging Settings. The phone number of the user is set up in Administration>Human Resources>Employee

Notification Setup

Notifications are setup in Administration>Application Setup>Alert Notification Setup

Figure 1 – Alert Notification Search View Screen

Some events are predefined in the system for which notifications can be set up. This means that the application can send notifications at the occurrence of any of the below following events:

· Query*

· Purchase Order

· Stock Transfer Request

· Stock Transfer Shipment

· Price List Change

· Coupon Creation

· Bonus Buy Creation

· Goods Receipt PO Creation

· Goods Return Creation

· Goods Issue Creation

· Goods Receipt Creation

· Gift Certificate Creation

· Transaction Request

· Transaction Response

· POS Going Offline

*For ‘Events’ not covered in the list, a SQL query can be written (Reports>Query Builder) and is referenced here, to send a notification whenever the query is executed. Queries can also be scheduled to be executed at a defined interval so that the notifications can be sent out. Queries and their scheduling is covered in a different article.

In the following examples, we have defined two (2) Notifications:

i. Approval Request – this will come from the Cashier to the Manager

ii. Transaction Response – this will go from the Manager to the Cashier

Figure 2 – Alert Notification Setup Screen

The SMS/Email template referenced in this image is created in Administration>Application Setup>Email SMS Template.

This is a simple editor where the subject and content of the Email / SMS can be defined.

Figure 3 – Email SMS Template

The following section explains the process to create a notification from the cashier at the POS to the manager who might be at a different location.

The cashier, in this case, wants to extend a discount of 25%, which is more than their permissible limit. The cashier selects the option Require Manager Approval from the User Menu (Click on the iVend Retail logo at the top left corner of the POS screen).

Figure 4 – POS User Menu Screen

Once the transaction has been marked as Require Manager Approval, the cashier mentions the discount percentage in the transaction screen. The application informs the cashier, that this transaction requires manager approval and will be suspended.

Figure 5 – Transaction Approval Screen

The transaction will now be available in the Notifications panel of the Manager, from where they can access the notification. The Notification panel can be accessed from the Notifications section at the bottom right corner of the Management Console.

Figure 6 – Notification Panel

The Notification center can also be accessed from Administration>Application Setup>Alert Notification View

Note: The Notification Centre lists ALL, UNREAD, READ messages. By default, Unread messages are listed.

Figure 7 – Alert Notifications Screen

The manager can now approve or reject the request by selecting the transaction from Operations>Business Transactions>POS Transaction Register

The manager can select and open the transaction. Note that you may need to set the filter as ‘Is Suspended’ to True. This filter is available in the search criteria panel of the screen.

Figure 8 – Transaction Search Screen

The transaction that has been sent for approval does not have a Transaction Code, because the transaction has not been posted yet.

The manager can either [Approve Request] or [Reject Request] by using the appropriate buttons.

Figure 9 – Transaction Details Screen

Once the manager sends the approval or rejection, the ‘transaction response’ can be accessed by the cashier on the POS terminal.

In the above example, we have only explained the setup for the Approval Request cycle. You should be able to set up the Transaction Response cycle in a similar way.

Once the Transaction Response cycle is set up, the cashier at the POS will receive a notification (In the notification section on the POS terminal) that the transaction request has been responded to.

Figure 10 – Alert Notifications Screen

The Notifications section on the POS terminal is usually found under the Miscellaneous Tab of the Apparel Template. This template can be located in Administration>POS Customization>Layout. It can be activated by referencing the template in the Retail Profile (Administration>Retail Profile> General >POS Layout).

Figure 11 – POS Layout Screen

This completes Part 1 of Notifications in iVend Retail and iVend Terminal POS, which explained how the notifications can be set up and accessed in iVend Retail.

Part 2

iVend Mobile POS can also be configured to receive notifications. In the case of Mobile POS, the notifications will alert the Mobile POS user to synchronize their Mobile POS with the Store or Enterprise.

The synchronize settings are defined and configured in Setup>Sync Settings.

· Set the Background Sync Option to OFF, and also set the Auto Sync option to OFF.

· Pull down the Sync time menu and switch OFF Fixed Time option.

This ensures that the Mobile POS will not synchronize at a specific time of the day. Now select the frequency at which you would like to synchronize the Mobile POS. In this example the Sync Interval is set to Every Minute.

The images below depict the Sync Settings on an iOS device as well as on an Android device.

Figure 12 – Sync Settings on iOS

                                                                 

Figure 13 – Sync Settings on Android

Once the settings are implied, the Mobile POS will start displaying the notifications.

Note: You may have to switch ON the notifications on your phone for these applications.

The images below show, how notifications will appear on the respective Mobile OS.

Figure 14 – Notifications on iOS

                                                                                                     Figure 15 – Notifications on Android

This completes the Notification setup in iVend Retail for both Terminal POS and Mobile POS