FD plus - The Standard Application of Sales Audit in Retail

FDplus is Wincor Nixdorf's standard application for Sales Auditors in Retail. FDplus enables audit departments in retail to reduce losses due to shrinkage. Featuring a comprehensive set of dedicated analyses for sales audit operations FDplus is a powerful tool that covers to a large extent the requirements of analytical and statistical processing in the context of fraud and shrinkage management.

Comprehensive Analysis Library

500 plus Analyses
Graphical and Tabular View
Optimized for Sales Audit Analysis

Ease of Use

User Front End dedicated to Auditors
Navigation Personalization
Standard Of?ce Tool Integration i.e. Excel .

Security

Separate Rights Management
User Log
Web Application
Browser as User Front End
No Client Installation
Convenient Administration

Integration

TP.net Integration
Open T-Log Interface
Integration with Video Surveillance- Quadrox WebCCTV

Scalability

Optimized T-Log Processing
Online Analysis of large Data Volumes
Disconnected Analysis Processing

Technology Platform

Microsoft .net Framework 1.1
Windows Server 2003
IIS 6
SQL Server 2000 32 / 64 Bit

Due to ECR Board Europe Survey results retailers suffer from a significant problem. Shrinkage affects up to 1,75 % of total turnover.

FDplus is Wincor Nixdorf's application that enables retail organizations to reduce their losses attributed to shrinkage. It is dedicated to sales audit processes and provides a variety of analyses down the t-log level. Due to its open architecture FDplus is able to integrate the analysis of audit results as well as cash handler transactions. The FDplus Scorecard provides benchmarking information of risk evaluation hence delivers the hot spot of the sales organization from an audit point of view.

Comprehensive Analysis Library

FDplus features a great variety of analyses optimized for statistical and analytical data processing for audit departments in retail companies. They are organized along topics supporting the daily business of sales audit experts. Tabular and graphical views direct the user’s attention to parts of the organization who don’t perform according to specified rules or corporate policy.

FDplus Standard ANALYSIS

Cancellations
Ticket Cancellations
Line Item Cancellations

Discounts

% Discounts
Coupons
Virtual Items

Price Overrides

Manual Price Changes

Loyalty Card

Loyalty Points
Points Transfer to Cash
Points as Type of Payment

Type of Payment
Credit Cards
EC Cash
Cash
Combinations

Ticket Totals

Small Values
Large Values
Negative Totals

Staff Purchase
Incl. Staff Discounts

Empties

Returnable Bottles
Empties +/-
Reverse Vending Machine -Tickets
Replenishment Checks (Received vs. Returned)
Manual Inputs
PLU, Dept. Numbers
Scanning-Discipline

End of Day Processing

Cash Difference
Cash Pickup
Change

No Sales
0 Value Tickets

Bank Deposit
Comparison Store -Cash Handler
Comparison Cash Handler -Bank Account

Ticket Search

Interactive Property Oriented T-Log Search
Complex Combination of Ticket and Line Properties

Risk-Scorecard

Risk Profiling of Stores
Automated Scoring based on Custom Rules

Returns

Item Returns

Cash Dispensing

Store Internal Special Purpose Cash Pickups

Business Hours

Store Close Transactions

Ease of Use

Being a Browser application FDplus doesn't require a client installation. The front end has a clear dedication to the requirements of the professional audit user. The analyses are grouped into topics which provide analytical paths supporting the daily work model of auditors in retail. The application operates without complex menu structures. It rather features an icon based toolset that offers all functionality intuitively. Both, the table and the graph view are implemented as interactive reports which feature functions like filter, sort and drill. The use of traffic lighting throughout the application enable the user to focus on the relevant rule violations. Power users usually require a high degree of flexibility. As a standard feature FDplus allows the export of analysis results to Microsoft Excel hence leveraging FDplus with the rich features of the widespread standard of?ce application. The FDplus navigation bar can be personalized in such a way that “cases” are directly accessible.

Flexiblity

The predefined analysis facilities that are provided by FDplus can be extended easily and flexibly. For example, results can be exported from FDplus to Microsoft Excel where they can be linked to data from other sources in order to draw up new analyses. This means the entire functionality of MS Excel is available with its wealth of formatting features and ability to export data to other office applications. FDplus is also very flexible when it comes to importing data. It can import all data formats no matter whether ASCII, ODBC from a database or from standard applications such as MS Excel – and use them for further processing and analyses.

 

In addition, the individual analyses stored in the FDplus analysis library can be easily combined to form new modules. These new analysis modules are stored in FDplus and extend the library. For example, specifi c cases can be monitored simply by storing them as Favorites in the navigation.

Security

Due to security reasons FDplus features a dedicated rights management. It controls the access right of data and functions. Inactive users are logged off automatically to avoid unauthorized use of a workstation. In order to prove the usage of the system according to corporate policy FDplus features a user log. Recording user interactions such as function calls the like of export to Excel.

Scalability

FDplus is developed using Microsoft technology platforms. FDplus supports both the 32 bit and the 64 Bit data base server platform. FDplus was designed to deal with large data volumes usually seen in t-log analysis environments. In order to offer an optimized combintion of end user fl exibility with quick rsponse time user workloads are spread between the FDplus data base server.

Integration

As part of Wincor Nixdorf‘s strategic STORE VISION Application Suite, FDplus is integrated in the structures of TP Communication Manager (TPCM) and will integrate with TP.net, TPLinux and POSition. FDplus has open interfaces and supports the ARTS Standard IX Retail PosLog, making it easier to integrate additional third-party applications. As an option, FDplus can be integrated with IP-based digital video surveillance technology in the shape of WebCCTV from Quadrox. Any irregularities detected by FDplus can be associated directly with the corresponding sequences of a video recording. The imagery from the WebCCTV server is sent via the FDplus server straight to the client browser where it can be evaluated and stored locally as evidence.

FD plus - technical specification

FDplus Database Server

MS Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4)
MS Windows 2003 (32 / 64 Bit)
MS SQL Server 2000 (32 / 64 Bit) (Service Pack 3a)

FDplus Application Server

MS Windows 2003
MS IIS 6
.NET Framework 1.1(Service Pack 1)
MS Reporting Service (Service Pack 1)
.netCHARTING Release 3.0/3.1

Client System

MS Windows 2000 Professional (Service Pack 4)
MS Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2)
Internet Explorer 6 (Service Pack 1)
Acrobat Reader
MS Excel (Version 2000 & higher)
Optional MS Media Player (Version 7 & higher)