MRU Consulting

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Director of Retail Operations - Our company is a retail store inside a shopping centre with over hundreds of Cubes within the shop displaying a vast range of innovative, fun products. ​

All these Cubes are mini shopfronts for entrepreneurs who use them as a platform to start their retail business at premium shopping centres around Australia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MRU Consulting?

We required a completely customised design and implementation of an independent barcoding system, client sales and POS integration system. Due to our complicated backend processes, these systems had to be designed from scratch.

We needed:

• POS for the shopfront
• Barcode creation and printing for both shopfront and remotely for clients
• Retail Dashboard for clients
• Android and Apple
• Dashboard for backend use
• Software integration with Xero

What were your goals for this project?

We needed all of our clients (vendors) to be able to create unique barcodes for each of the products across multiple shop locations. Sales data created at the shopfront needed to be accessed easily by not only the client but at the store level and backend level too.

Due to the number of clients and products and multiple store locations this was very complicated and no other software existed. Furthermore, different data needed to be shown to the different levels of access. Clients were also required to create, edit and print barcodes remotely and easily.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

MRU was the only vendor who completely understood what was required and had no hesitation in completing this project. They were the only vendor to be able to come up with a solution. We interviewed countless companies including companies outside of Australia - some who said it couldn't be done.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

MRU Consulting designed, developed and implemented an integrated POS system unique to our business. This system is a powerful tool preventing copycat companies trying to duplicate our processes. Because of MRU, no other company can do what we do.

What was the team composition?

We dealt with two people during the project, enabling us to quickly build and test the software. Definitely preferred it this way as we always had someone we knew and trusted that was reliable and quick to respond to us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

This project fundamentally impacted our business for the better. This software enables us to have only one full-time accounts officer remotely looking after stores across Australia. Without this software, we would need to set up multiple offices and not just work from one Head Office. Obviously this drastically reduces operation costs.

We are now able to offer our clients the option of creating, editing and printing their own barcodes from the convenience of their own home, plus the ability to access their sales data from their phone. This was not possible before MRU created our software.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Deadlines were always met with each step along the way. Any teething issues were overcome due to their quick responsiveness and reliability. Even when unforeseen issues occurred that were out of their hands, they were still quick to rectify the issues.

Never did we have any problems communicating with the team whether it was in person, Skype, or email.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their confidence in getting the project done. We thought our requirements were almost impossible due to all the complicated factors. MRU knew they could get it done in which they did and exceeded our expectations.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not applicable

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a multi-residential and small commercial developer and I was a Project Manager at the time

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MRU Consulting?

MRU Consulting was hired to integrate our estimating / purchase order system with our Vista by Viewpoint Construction ERP

What were your goals for this project?

For residential projects we could easily have thousands of Purchase orders and we needed all of the in our ERP from the estimating software and quickly. So our primary goal was to automate the transfers from the estimating software to Viewpoint

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

MRU was refereed to us in at a Viewpoint Conference

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They demonstrated a successful transfer of PO's on our test system. From there they added logging so we they could find issues if they occurred in the future. We also had daily automated emails that let us compare the qty of purchase orders in both systems per project. So basically we could automatically tell if there where any missing PO's

What was the team composition?

Myself and our IT manager and they had 1 consultant on-site when needed

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We successfully moved all Purchases orders on an hourly basis and had a tool to reconcile that it had been done

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They were within the estimated time frame and it was a fixed cost. We had no variations so the project scope was good.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were easy to work with and didn't use technical jargon. We go handed the full source code at the end and some basic documentation.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder & CEO, Enlab Software Co., Ltd.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MRU Consulting, and what were your goals?

We worked on developing a custom procurement portal for a construction company where we need to leverage their existing ERP system with a complex SQL database, Viewpoint. MRU Consulting helped us with the SQL programming and optimization, which was a real challenge.

SOLUTION

How did you select MRU Consulting and what were the deciding factors?

We worked with MRU Consulting for a long time and know that they are expert in SQL and Viewpoint.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

MRU Consulting help us designing the database, develop SQL code, and SQL optimization.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

One senior SQL developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Stored procedures developed by MRU Consulting in the project was delivered on time, stable, and very efficient, that helped us overcome the project's challenge and meet the deadline.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

We use email, Skype for communication, and Github for source control

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their speed of delivery and quality of work was impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing till this moment