Vigilant is part of Metal Supermarkets unique training course for streamlining the franchisees businesses

The convenience stores of the metal industry have discovered control of their franchises. But not before making a "big and expensive mistake." When Metal Supermarkets commenced a successful journey into expansion, they knew they were in need of business automation. Joe Miller, Executive Vice President of the franchise, recalls this well. "Like a lot of growing companies, we thought our business was unique," he explains. "So we decided to develop proprietor software in-house. In addition to the development costs, the cost of supporting our software with all our franchises was going to become astronomical as we expanded."

Founded in 1985, Metal Supermarkets is located in Brampton, Ontario and specializes in small quantities of a variety of metals-from aluminum to titanium. By 1998, headquarters staff were overseeing 56 stores, with plans for hundreds more. They deal with over 600 suppliers to meet their unique requirements and as many as 1200 items may be in stock at any one time at each of the locations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe or Australia.

When taking this all into account, it is clear that each franchise's sales, tracking and reporting sales figures needed to be accurate and consistent. Unsatisfied with their in-house software, Joe Miller and Metal Supermarkets began their search for a product that could provide them with a solution to their current dilemmas. They discovered that four of the original franchisees were operating quite successfully with Vigilant Point of Sale and that they were extremely pleased with the software itself. "We were also delighted
to find out that Vigilant was already modified so that it would work not only in the United States, but also in Canada and the United Kingdom," Miller reveals. Shortly thereafter, the Metal Supermarkets franchise decided on the package. "So now we have all our original franchise holders and our own corporate stores either on or converting to Vigilant and all the new Metal Supermarket franchises will be supplied with the Vigilant package," adds Miller.

When a new Metal Supermarket franchise springs up, usually in industrial parks or malls, its holder receives initial instruction on Vigilant as part of a unique 10-day training session at Toronto's Centennial College. Once they set-up shop at their own franchise, an experienced local representative of Vigilant will provide training on-site, to install and fine tune the Vigilant package and add-ons. For Metal Supermarkets, these would include the Network version of the Point of Sale package, as well as the Purchase Order, Sales Order and Price Conversions add-ons.

According to Miller, however, the franchises are never in need of extensive help. "Vigilant software is extremely easy-to-use. But we supply the franchise holder with the Vigilant basics. They may choose to buy other Vigilant add-ons, depending on the nature of their business. And then they'll need a little more familiarizing."

Yet in terms of streamlining the franchising business, implementing the same Point of Sale, Inventory Control and Accounting systems in each one is a measure that can aid drastically. Gross monthly sales can be tracked consistently across the board, as well as uniform product coding eases the process of determining which products are selling well, where they are selling best and to whom.

What's more, is Vigilant provides Joe Miller and Metal Supermarkets with technical assistance. Joe has come to appreciate this, especially after their difficulties with their proprietor software. Technicians are available to aid each of their locations, even those outside of North America. "That's something we never could have managed if we had gone on developing and supporting our own software," Miller concludes.