Mainebiz

V O L . X X I N O. V M A R C H 9 , 2 0 1 5 22 T E C H N O L O G Y F O C U S FieldStack now has full-time employees, a number Wickard hopes will grow by this year. Revenue in was in the million to million range, which he expects to rise this year. e company is self-financed. e company also is selling its software and ser- vices to retail, web and wholesale industry clients that handle large volumes of transactions. It installs the software on their point-of-sale computers, and then uses the customer's inventory information to custom- ize the installed software so it can predict and order new products. e software looks at the product type, size, shape, cost-to-shelve, cost-to-store, pricing, demand and other nuances. e system is cloud- based, so FieldStack can offer service to custom- ers without having to be on-site. Customers pay a monthly service fee based on their revenues. "It is very custom," says Michael Stefanakos, vice president of strategic partnerships at FieldStack. "We consult with [customers] to spend time before we do the implementation, for flow and resource efficiency. A lot of what we do is help them understand what to buy, how much, how to sell it and the labor involved." He said FieldStack helps customers analyze data and steer their business direction to make more money. Since the system is in the cloud, it can auto- matically check prices at Amazon, eBay and other websites to help price products. Wickard says the addition of an e-commerce component to the soft- ware made a dramatic impact on lean retail at Bull Moose and at other customers. "We help them grow their business," adds Wickard. "We find a lot of clients are not making money in areas they thought they were. Our system helps them get what their customers are looking for into the store before they [know they] want to buy it." e software takes into account the geography of the customers and local preferences. In one case, Wickard says, a client ended up increasing shipping costs, but made more money from other savings, including labor, because the system looks at the overall picture for a customer. "Looking only at expenses is a narrow way to look at things," he says. Wickard describes the company's lean retail approach as the intersection of resource efficiency and flow efficiency. Lean retail e FieldStack system works from a retailer's stor- age room to the store aisles to most efficiently track and reorder inventory, and even to help identify the best locations to sell items within each store. "e system reorders based on what people buy," says Verrill. "Vinyl [record sales] are through the roof in downtown stores in Portland and Portsmouth, N.H. Sales rose two to three times in the last year or two." But since vinyl records take up more space than DVDs or CDs, their sales bump is caus- ing Bull Moose to change some store layouts. In Portsmouth, the store is being totally revamped to handle displays of vinyl records. Sometimes Verrill looks across multiple stores to see why a certain item isn't selling in one store, and then suggests changing its location. He also looks at local trends, for example, the Sanford store sells a lot of video so more of that inventory goes to that location. e system works best with used or older items previously sold at Bull Moose. For example, if a famous musician or actor dies, sales of their music or movies typically spike. e system senses the increase in sales and orders more. e same is true if a movie is taken out of print, which is something Disney does occasion- ally with its cartoon movies to increase their value. "e system looks at a couple million items each night to see how many people are selling an item and the prices," says Verrill. "If people are selling it at compared to people selling it at , the latter is in the price range where it should be. e system is very good at pricing used items by looking at the last time it came in and how much it sells for right now online in places like eBay and Amazon.com." Bull Moose stores average , to , SKUs, or stock keeping units, in the nine Maine and two New Hampshire locations. Verrill would not comment on company revenue. He says one of the biggest savings has been on payroll, by trimming the upwards of four people per store who spent hours choosing and reordering items to four people and the system now. People are needed to look for mistakes, for example, if the software flags an inventory glitch at a store that says it received one Robin Williams movie, but the computer counts at the store. Another aberration can be individual customers, like a library, suddenly buying copies of an item. e people recognize this is a one-time event and keep the system from reordering a lot of copies based on that one unusual order, Verrill says. e system also handles individual items bet- ter than cases, as it may not know a particular item comes by the case. It's an issue Verrill says FieldStack is addressing now. "Pet Life is a new client of FieldStack, and a lot of their needs are reordering cases [pet food, etc.]. Trading cards, soda and candy also come in cases." Competitors include JDA Software Group Inc., which helps clients with retail and supply chain planning and is based in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Manhattan Associates Inc., a supply chain and warehouse-management software company based in Manhattan Beach, Calif. Wickard says one distinction for FieldStack is it's an all-Maine company, meaning its employees and technology are in the state, and it offers cus- tomization and consulting along with its product. e company does not want to outsource work. It does want to be a technical service provider with its resources in Maine. "Part of the vision is to build a big software company in Maine," adds Stefanakos of FieldStack. "is can be successful. We'd like to quit losing our most talented folks out of state." Says Wickard, "We're want to make it work in Maine. We love it here. Maine has an opportunity to push way forward on technology." L V , M a i n e b i z s e n i o r w r i t e r , c a n b e r e a c h e d a t @ . Providing solutions for diverse hiring needs for Maine companies Call us today! Direct Personnel / Project Staffing / Project Staffing / / Project Flagging / Project Flagging / 207-854-2422 directpersonnel.net 800-639-8802 mainestaff.com • Finance/ accounting professionals • Skilled laborers •Flaggers • Administrative experts • Health Care professionals •Engineers Subscribe online or call 845.267.3008 Get access Business news Industry trends Feature stories In-depth analysis Subscribe today! » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E

• Cover