By Ike Suarez
A Philippine software house founded by tech guru Winston Damarillo has launched an end-to-end retail software solution designed for small and medium-sized companies in the country.
The solution, the Anahaw Retail Enterprise System developed by Filipino-owned Exist Software Labs, was officially launched last October 23 in Ortigas, Pasig City.
The solution was built using Java software on an open source platform and comes in three product offerings: a Basic POS Solution, Enterprise Retail Suite, and a Custom Developed software.
At the launch, Exist Software Labs chief executive Mike Lim told the audience that Anahaw is not only an integrated solution but is also scalable and can be centrally managed.
Because it runs on open source, retailers who use the solution enjoy the freedom to add applications suited for their needs at any time and from any other provider, according to Lim.
The absence of proprietary technology would mean companies could quickly and cost effectively scale up their system to take advantage of new opportunities.
This would be in contrast to many large retail outfits that had earlier acquired proprietary solutions and now find themselves hobbled by these legacy systems in their bid to remain competitive.
On the other hand, even small retailers ? outfits with only one to five POS terminals ? could now be able to streamline operations and improve customer services.
And when the time finally came for them to expand their retail operations as a result of earlier successes, they would be able to quickly do so with little technical difficulty and pain on their finances.
Exist Software Labs vice president for product innovation Cata Pineda added that Anahaw offers point-of-sale, inventory and merchandising management, CRM (customer relationship management) and marketing, reporting and analytics and financial management capabilities in an end-to-end manner.
This integrated approach would do away with the need by retailers to use several and different IT systems for their operations, Pineda said.
The solution is ideal for retail shops, restaurants and food service providers, convenience stores and shops in ship/consignment outfits, the executives said.
In an interview, Lim that the Basic POS software would cost P45,000. However, other packages would be flexibly priced according to the retailer?s needs and preferences.
He disclosed that plans for the near future call for the solution to be offered by way of cloud-based software as a service (SaaS).
This, he said, would enable even micro retailers in the Philippines such as sari-sari stores and eateries to computerize their operations. Making this possible would be the drop in prices of smartphones that are Internet capable.
Exist Software labs has offices in Manila and Cebu as well as a workforce of over 150. It has clients in the Asia Pacific, Australia, and the United States.
Anahaw Retail Solution from Exist on Vimeo.
