As small start-up retailers evolve into full-fledged industry players, it’s often difficult for them to find hardware to support their growing needs. So when Play N Trade, the largest and fastest-growing video game franchise in the world, needed to move from its homegrown POS to one that could handle the needs of its more than 250 locations, it went looking for a company that could fill the void in a simple but robust manner.
Marcos Moura, vice president of technology at Play N Trade, said HP’s rp5700 Point-of-Sale systems fit the company’s hardware needs in two ways. “The package was different from those we saw from Dell or other smaller hardware providers,” said Moura. “HP understood the system needed to be fast to keep customer flow churning, especially during the holidays, but it also had to be battle-hardened so our franchisees wouldn’t have to replace their systems very often.”
HP’s rp5700 hardware has a five-year lifecycle, comes with a three-year warranty, and was built specifically for the difficult and harsh environment of retail. Tate Davis, North America senior product manager for point of sale at HP, said the reason the rp5700 was such a good fit for Play N Trade, as the company looked to standardize its systems was that the hardware was built to handle the needs of retailers large and small.
“It runs at higher temperatures, has beefier components, and can handle a small franchise or a leading global retailer,” said Davis. “No matter the size of the business, retailers can trust and depend on HP for that mission critical usage model because there is nothing more mission critical than the checkout.”
The rp5700 also came ready to use, which made it easy for Play N Trade to bring its franchisees into the mix without adding unnecessary complications. “We didn’t have to fool around with the system or increase the RAM, and in the franchise business, you need that simplicity,” said Moura.
“We were able to tell our franchisees, ‘Okay, you’ve done your build-out. You’re going to open in 60 days. You need to go to this Web site,’” Moura continued. “We were never able to get that simplicity from the other companies we spoke to.”
In addition, as Play N Trade transitioned to Teamwork Retail’s POS software system, which included demand planning, replenishment, and CRM capabilities—practically an entire ERP system—it needed a more robust computer to support it. “Having HP doesn’t impact our ability to sell Halo 3, but it absolutely impacted our ability to have a more robust POS software,” said Moura.
From the base platform to the individual HP retail peripherals, including touch screens, receipt printers, barcode scanners, and keyboards, HP offers an easy one-stop-shop experience for retailers and franchisees. Financially, HP’s Financial Services department offers leasing options for franchisees needing help as they build a new store or upgrade for an existing franchise and need to upgrade existing hardware.
“Robust design for retail hardware partnered, or in tandem, with a very simple and easy buying experience—that’s the power of HP’s rp5700,” said Davis.
Better Way to Play
