ECRS and NCGA Join Forces to Create POS-Based Membership Management Solution for NCGA Member Stores

August 29, 2006 - Today ECR Software Corporation (ECRS) and the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) announced the release of a strategic software product designed to deliver comprehensive membership account management at the point of sale for NCGA member cooperatives. ECRS designed and developed the Catapult Membership Server^TM (CMS), an innovative, de-coupled software server that plugs into the Catapult^TM Enterprise POS system. CMS features a graphical user interface (GUI) situated conveniently within Catapult's POS environment so that cashiers can quickly and easily process and monitor all membership activities at the point of sale.

According to Karen Zimbelman, Development Director of NCGA's Western Corridor, "ECRS came to the table and addressed the complexities and uniqueness associated with our organization's need for a viable membership management solution." Zimbelman added, "Historically speaking, our member stores have tried many different strategies to manage membership processes over the years, but have had little success finding a sustainable solution. With CMS, ECRS has created a product that can solve this long existing operational challenge. From tracking patronage, to calculating equity, to managing accounts right down to the individual family member level, CMS consolidates vital membership management processes into a powerful but simple package."

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Catapult Membership Server.

Hendersonville Community Food Co-op was the first NCGA member store to install and use CMS with Catapult. According to Shane Remington, IT Director at Hendersonville, "Prior to Catapult and CMS, keeping track of our membership required hours and hours of labor every week for our back office staff. By automating and replacing most of our manual processes, CMS shaves away hours of work for our store and dollars from our labor budget. Because CMS automatically self-manages our membership data, we can sign up a new member at the register, accept fees, begin tracking equity, and ring out a full shopping cart in a snap. And, there's no wait time - new members begin receiving their benefits on the spot."

Johnscott Lee, IT/POS Director of Skagit Valley Food Co-op, looks ahead to the operational efficiencies that CMS and Catapult will bring to his store upon their mid-September installation. "CMS is a carefully designed product with a very user-friendly POS interface," commented Lee. "It will be a significant benefit to co-ops and other membership based stores."

CMS fully automates retail membership tracking. Once a member is associated with a transaction, CMS automatically charges all the required fees and provides the member with the assigned price levels and discounts. “We’re very pleased that the NCGA community could play an early and important role in this exciting product,” stated Pete Catoe, President and Founder of ECRS. “ECRS is committed to working with retailers to develop software and hardware solutions that solve real-world business problems. By partnering closely with NCGA, we have developed a powerful automation tool that is built to last.

About NCGA

The National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) is a business services cooperative for consumer-owned natural food co-ops located throughout the United States. NCGA (www.ncga.coop) helps unify natural food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere. NCGA is owned by 109 food co-ops operating 133 stores in 32 states with combined annual sales of almost $800 million.

About ECRS

ECRS has been providing best-of-breed automation solutions to the retail industry since 1989. The ECRS retail framework includes point of sale, self-checkout, back office, inventory management, reporting and analytics, order forecasting, membership management, supplier integration, fuel pump interface, integrated video surveillance, digital customer billboard, gift card, signature capture, wireless hand-held terminal, and a range of other retail automation components. ECRS products are delivered directly and through a global partner network. Visit ECRS on the web at www.ecrsoft.com.