Based in North Yorkshire, Flamingo Land has over 1.5 million visitors a year and is one of the regions biggest attractions, featuring a theme park, zoo and holiday village. Datasym (UK) Ltd in partnership with Toshiba and Medoc Computers have installed a solution that not only saves money but also manages staffing numbers and stock.
The Flamingo Land site, which has a mixture of retail and hospitality outlets, was running an outdated stand-alone system where the sales data was collected manually. Flamingo Land looked for a solution that could wirelessly integrate the tills in all outlets within the park, to a back-office, to centrally collate all sales information.
The project was originally planned in two phases – with the retail tills updated first followed by tills in the hospitality outlets. Working together, Datasym, Toshiba and Medoc Computers were able to merge the two phases. Roll out began in February 2009 with the team installing 26 tills in 13 different outlets in time for Flamingo Lands 2009 season opening, at Easter. All terminals linking to a central hub and provide ‘real-time’ sales information, hour by hour, allowing Flamingo Land the flexibility to manage their operations in a more efficient manner.
“All of our outlets are very different with varying requirements, for example, we use a variety of menu screen layouts. So we were looking for a solution which would provide the right balance of features to meet our needs without facing an exorbitant bill.” said Nick Buckley, Park Executive at Flamingo Land. “The hospitality outlets can plan menus and avoid wastage and the retail outlets can compare best selling merchandise. With pricing controlled centrally the park can react quickly to peaks and troughs.”, “We also have the ability to analyse sales data, and manage our staffing requirements, which is essential during our busiest times of year, like the school holidays Nick continued.”
The Toshiba ST-A10 terminals supplied by Medoc Computers have a small footprint which can fit into compact counter spaces, are easily adaptable to different environments and use simple to use touch screen technology with fingerprint ID for staff sign on. As each till is linked wirelessly to a back office system staff can see real-time sales data, ensuring that the park is managed efficiently. With up to 9000 visitors moving through the park at peak periods, outlets in different sections can be opened or closed as necessary with staff moved to busy areas and queues reduced in peak periods.
The functionality of the Toshiba ST-A10 terminals running Datasym.POS software and linked to Datasym Stockade back-office, will allow Flamingo Land to make substantial time and money savings. The Park has already reported an increase in turnover for the 2009 season and with plans for additional terminals to be installed over the winter period, the potential for 2010 revenue looks very promising.
“We have been extremely impressed with the way this project has worked. The reliability, price and features of the solution couldn’t be beaten,” continued Nick, at Flamingo Land. “Medoc Computers ensured a smooth implementation and post sales support, while Datasym supplied us with innovative and flexible software, with all the functionality required to run a theme park with diverse need like ours.”
Flamingo Land’s plans for the future, include loyalty programmes, linked to a cashless system, further till installations and a queue busting kiosk.
