Cha-ching! (1-24)

Not long ago, Lisa Campbell felt "stuck" with a point-of-sale system that wasn't garden-based and wasn't serviced particularly well. To make matters worse, the co-owner of Danville Gardens in Danville and Champaign, Ill., was running with something that wasn't compatible with the company's accounting system.

Actually "running" was a stretch. So Campbell started running a search for something that would serve her business needs better. "We wanted a new system that would be easy for employees to use," said Campbell. "It had to have a quick look-up function for plant materials. And we wanted to be able to use hand-held devices. We have a satellite location a few miles away, and only room for one computer. [We knew] hand-helds [would be] a great line buster."

Campbell's search ended with a call to SBI, which crafted the ideal multi-site setup for Danville Gardens. "We made the switch on the 8th or 9th of June," Campbell recalled. "We're closed starting July 3rd and through the month of August, so that gave us time to get up to speed."

"Speed" became the operative word for the new system, which suits Campbell's needs well now -- and which makes Danville Gardens a leaner operation all the way around. The evolutionary process from "then" to "now" was wrought with a few road bumps. Notably, SBI had to write a new program that would account for Danville Gardens' loyalty program. But once the garden center and the software company smoothed that wrinkle, the switch helped give the garden center a competitive advantage, technologically speaking.

And a competitive advantage of any type is always a big "Cha-ching!"

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