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Shortcuts Australia (HEAD OFFICE +61 7 3834 3232 )
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EVOLVE #10 ARTICLES
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Francesco GroupWhen The UK’s Francesco Group commenced their hunt for a new salon computer system, their expectations were high and their requirements endless. Not only were they looking for a powerful, easy to use salon software system with all the bells and whistles, but from a head office point of view, a central access database was crucial.The Francesco Group had been using Pegasus accounting and payroll software for ten years prior to introducing Shortcuts into their salons (which was able to seamlessly integrate within this existing package). This integration is an aspect of Shortcuts that founder and Technical Director of MJB Applications, Jon Berg, describes as hugely convenient, particularly for complex companies. “We work with several major franchise groups in the UK but in terms of requirements for a head office system, the Francesco Group is the most intricate,” Jon says. “This is because they need integration not only for management reporting but also for accounts and payroll. The situation is made even more complex by the group already having full payroll integration with the old MJB DOS based salon system. “We needed to install software that would not only provide full Pegasus integration but also import data from the old MJB database,” he says. Eunice Nixon manages Francesco Group’s payroll, a job she says is very complicated given the number of employees and varying pay and commission structures. “We are not just talking about stylists but everyone - technicians, juniors and even salon cleaners. “From our point of view, installing Shortcuts will help manage the complexity of this difficult process and hopefully make our job a lot less stressful!” she says. Francesco Group’s IT Manager, Corinne Barker, has the task of managing the whole process of installing Shortcuts. On top of that, her ‘day’ job is to train and support all the salons and to provide a series of sophisticated reports that the company uses to manage and control its operation. Corinne says the old system meant relying on the individual salons to email data to head office for payroll and accounts. Reports first had to be processed by the salons then finished off at head office by Corinne. “Just having all the data here at head office makes life so much easier now,” says Corinne. “The Shortcuts program produces all our specialised reports straight from the Head Office Database at the touch of a button. This gives me time to manage the changes to Shortcuts and really support the salons. “We use these reports to help control our business but they are also the basis of the trophies given out to salons and staff at our annual award night - so we need to trust that the figures are right!” As the Director of Financial Operations for the Francesco Group, Richard Stenson pointed out they act as bookkeepers for individual salons. So reporting procedures will now be made easier as the HOS data is on their premises. Ben Dellicompagni is the Francesco Group’s Managing Director and insists the group prides themselves on the service they give to the franchisees. He says the various components of that service are reflected in the different departments at head office - IT, marketing, accounts and wages. “Now we have Shortcuts, I want to make sure that all our departments make maximum use of having the salon data right here in the building,” he says. Ben says a huge area for development within the Francesco Group is marketing. Developing a sophisticated and focused marketing strategy with mail outs and promotions is made easy with all the client data available from the Head Office database “In my job I am almost like the conductor of an orchestra, with each department being a section of that orchestra. We may not yet be playing beautiful music, but with the new Shortcuts system, we do at least have all the instruments in the same room!”
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