Since being founded in 1975, Day Lewis is now the largest independent pharmacy group in the UK.

As the company grows, it continues to balance the needs of operating as a large chain, whilst maintaining the feel of a family run business.

With its expansion over the years, Day Lewis was finding their current retail system; which was more suited for single outlets, was unable to keep up with the demands of a larger, multi-store retailer.

As more pharmacies opened throughout the country, it was essential for head office to have current and comprehensive management data to drive business decisions across the estate. Day Lewis was finding that management information was insufficient; their retail software was unable to grow alongside the business.

It was evident that a new retail management solution would have to be found.

Day Lewis set out to find a suitable system that could handle the unique attributes of the pharmacy sector and the business. They needed a retail system to not only support current store needs, but to be scalable for future expansion.

After considering a number of different retail management solutions, Day Lewis found the InControl Evolution suite through links to The Co-operative Healthcare; a current customer of InControl.

Raymond Barclay, Head of Sales and Marketing for Day Lewis, and Project Director for implementing the new retail system, found that InControl satisfied many of Day Lewis's requirements.

Some of the key factors that convinced Day Lewis to choose InControl over other retail software solutions were:

• Proven System
  InControl is already present in sizeable food and pharmacy stores across the Co-operative estates. Mr. Barclay explained: "It gave us confidence to know that the system was proven within our industry and scalable to handle a large number of stores; an area where our current system was having difficulty."

• Front End Functionality
  Day Lewis was keen to find a system that gave them the tools they needed to continue to provide an excellent point of sale service to their customers. The InControl retail software appealed because of its range of functionality and ease of use at the epos tills.

• Modern System
  InControl is not only developed for up-to-date industry and pharmacy needs, it has the flexibility to continue to adapt to shifting store and customer requirements. InControl was an attractive solution because of its ability to offer a long-term solution.

• Better Quality of Information
  Management and head office information is critical in forming strategies to accelerate business performance. The range of reporting available, coupled with the ease of access were essential features of the InControl Evolution suite that made it a perfect fit for the pharmacy chain.

Within just a few meetings, the InControl development team put together a configured plan to meet the necessary system specifications. Raymond Barclay pointed out that most of the necessary changes were cosmetic tweaks:

"We found that because of InControl's current and proven presence within the pharmaceutical sector, the solution they presented was almost off the shelf. Most of the changes required have been slight alterations concerning screen presentation as opposed to functionality."

The team were also on hand to guide and advise through all aspects of the integration process:

"InControl provided a helpful project management team to handle the integration. Their experience in integrating into large store chains has ensured that the pre-roll out phase has been very efficient. Within just 4 or 5 meetings we were able to cover a lot of ground about what was required. InControl also supplied us with advisors from operations who could offer valuable advice for an effective integration."

The pilot phase is anticipated to begin with one store by mid February 2010, with a further weekly roll out with the conversion of 1-5 stores a week.

Day Lewis is excited about having a system that will support their store operations and enable them to improve customer service whilst having access to improved management information. Some anticipated benefits are:

• Improved Management Information
  With InControl's central management of data and up to date, automated reporting, Day Lewis will have access to more information about their stores performance, viewable from the head office to the shop floor. Raymond Barclay expects this to have a significant positive impact on business decisions and operational strategies.

• Improved Stock Management
  With better information about product sales and promotions, store managers and head office will be able to better anticipate demand and manage their stock more effectively and anticipate an increase in gross margins.

• Increased Sales
  Day Lewis expects that the InControl epos system will enable them to increase overall sales. This can be achieved through a combination of improved point of sale processes as well as improved management information; enabling the business to take advantage of more sales and promotional opportunities.

“We are very excited about being able to roll out InControl across our branches next year. We have already benefited from the experience of the InControl development team and anticipate that there will be many more advantages to the business once InControl is present in all our pharmacies.”