Defining retail trends for the next decade

After two years of interruption due to the pandemic, this year the tradition of organising the Magister Conference, an event well known to all our partners, was resumed.

Conferinta Nationala Magister 2022

We were glad that this year, the year in which Magister is celebrating its 20th anniversary, we have discovered among our partners, alongside experienced colleagues, young, dynamic companies, at the beginning of their journey, where young and valuable people are working.

In short, in figures, this year the number of companies included in the Authorized Dealer program is 62, and in the Certified Partner program the number is 35, up from last year.

Among our new colleagues are companies:

• Aldav Fiscal Online SRL – based in Braila, operating in Braila and Tulcea counties;
• ECR Masters SRL – based in Timisoara, operating in Arad, Timis, Hunedoara and Caras Severin counties;
• IRUC ECR & Software SRL – based in Braila, operating in Braila, Galati, Constanta and Tulcea counties;
• Necunoscutu Service SRL – based in Botosani, operating in Suceava and Potosani counties;
• Selco SRL – based in Resita, operating in Caras Severin county;

As always, we were happy to recognize their effort and reward the best dealers of the past period with diplomas.

Top 10 of the strongest Magister solution distributors and integrators in 2022

• 1st place – ECR Systems SRL from Craiova, represented by Mr. Alex Opri. This year’s success is due to the solutions implemented for large retail formats, cash & carry networks that have expanded from Craiova throughout the country;
• 2nd place – Rel Syspro SRL from Constanta, represented by our colleague Gabriel Ceara. Second place was won thanks to the implementation of ERP, SFA and WMS solutions provided by Magister, together with SmartCash RMS in a fully integrated business model;
• 3rd place – Velvet Com SRL from Bacau, represented by Mrs. Adriana and Mr. Florin Nastase. A regular presence on the podium, Velvet Com is one of Magister’s most dynamic solution integrators, again this year tackling all possible formats, from small, independent shops to retail networks or ERP and eCommerce solutions;
• 4th place – Simon Electronics SRL from Satu Mare, represented by Mr. Simon Stefan, made it to the top this year thanks to the great efforts of implementing Magister solutions in the western part of the country, addressing different formats, both for independent retailers and for well-known franchises such as CBA franchise or Metro La Doi Pasi;
• 5th place – Senior Software SRL from Bucharest. This year’s position is due to successful implementations with the Senior ERP platform, Senior Software being one of the most important partners in the Magister Integrator program;
• 6th place – GB Service SRL from Rm. Valcea, represented by Mrs Gabriela Botea. This year its leading position has been ensured by the constant collaboration with existing companies in its portfolio, by continuously developing them using the new SmartCash RMS functionalities;
• 7th place – Ram-Tech Datanetwork SRL from Galati. This year, the company was again at the top thanks to its efforts to implement Magister solutions in complex chains of stores and restaurants;
• 8th place – Cyber Knowledge SRL from Deva represented by Mr. Vlad Ion. A new, young and dynamic partner, which has distinguished itself by developing solutions for networks of convenience stores distributed throughout the counties of Hunedoara and Alba;
• 9th place – Inita 1996 SRL from Iasi represented by Mrs. Violeta Tucaliuc and Mr. Mugurel Lupoaie. Long-standing partners, present in the top year after year and this year Inita confirms the high quality of the solutions provided;
• 10th place – IIRUC Service SRL from Bucharest represented by Mr. Dobrica Lefter.

Here are some pictures of our award-winning colleagues:

What’s tomorrow? Prospects for Magister’s development in the next decade

In his presentation, Mr. Dor Bujor Padureanu, CEO of Magister, listed the four main challenges identified for retail worldwide in the next 10 years.

These are:

• Staff unavailability and volatility;
• Pressure on trade margins due to geopolitical turmoil;
• The pressure of the “online” generation, rushed and lacking the desire for human contact in the commercial process;
• Increasingly tight and aggressive fiscal control of commercial transactions.

To meet these challenges tomorrow’s retail solutions need to be fully digital and operating costs need to be lowered by fully automating processes.

From this perspective, Magister SmartCash RMS software platform benefits from an important technological advance compared to other solutions available on the domestic market.

Internally Magister company, starting this year, all processes related to licensing, software updates, maintenance and protection of SmartCash RMS platform operated store databases have been fully automated.

Thus, the my.smartcash.ro portal was launched for customers of our software platform, through which they can centrally manage their entire SmartCash RMS license portfolio.

At the SmartCash RMS software platform level, with version 2022, customers have access to a level of process automation superior to all previous versions.

Thus most time-consuming operations, which required repetitive operations and were subject to human error, were fully automated.

Next, new technologies proposed by Magister for retail in the coming years were presented.

Magister ECO self-checkout systems

Marketed under the name ECO (from Easy Checkout) the self checkout systems are designed and manufactured by Magister, being the only hard & soft systems of this type manufactured entirely in Romania.

ECO self-checkout systems benefit from the most modern protection and automatic validation technologies, by weighing scanned products. The system also uses an intelligent system of distributed self-learning of specific weights, thus reducing the implementation time to the maximum.

Equipped with automatic recognition of people over 18 years old, using a video camera incorporated in the screen, Magister ECO systems were one of the attractions of the conference, arousing the interest of all our partners.

The company’s estimates are in line with global developments, estimating a 60% share of self-checkout systems in total checkout points in modern retail over the next 5 years.

The advantages of the Magister solution are primarily related to much lower implementation costs compared to similar systems usually manufactured overseas.

Last but not least, the SmartCash POS Enterprise SelfCheckout solution available for these systems promises a high speed of adaptation to the particular needs of stores in our country.

SmartCash eCommerce Framework

After almost 2 years of development and testing, SmartCash eCommerce Framework becomes a standard product within the SmartCash RMS suite.

This recognizes the role of online commerce as an important sales channel alongside physical stores in the omnichannel retail concept supported by Magister.

The SmartCash eCommerce Framework concept includes a data exchange automation component called SmartCash eCommerce Connector, between a SmartCash RMS ecosystem and an unlimited number of sites hosted in the SmartCash eCommerce Framework cloud.

Thus eCommerce websites become a natural extension of customers own network of stores, being managed as one, like any other physical store in the network.

The platform of course includes custom hosting services, optimized for high speed, using Google cloud environment as well as the permanent assistance a website needs to evolve permanently in the modern internet (SEO, product feeds, etc).

ESL electronic automated labelling system

In October, Magister announces the integration of the Newton electronic labelling system produced by Solum, the most advanced electronic labeling system of the moment.

Thus, electronic labeling becomes a component part of the SmartCash RMS platform, being part of its core functions, thus giving our customers access to this state-of-the-art technology at low implementation costs.

The Solum systems presented allow the programming of more than 5000 electronic labels in a few minutes, a capacity unmatched by other equivalent systems on the market.

At the SmartCash RMS level, automation processes ensure that product changes, whether prices or promotions, are propagated to shelf labels within minutes, with the appropriate display mode automatically selected.

At the same time, on-shelf warning functions when stock alert thresholds are reached, via Solum’s unique colour-coded LED system, are also available.

Electronic card payment system integrated into SmartCash POS systems

Using Viva Wallet’s revolutionary card payment solution and state-of-the-art PAX Q30 payment terminals, Magister is the only complete provider of retail IT solutions, offering in addition to sales hardware and software the systems and technology for card payments in one bundle and at low cost.

Viva Wallet system performance is excellent, ensuring payment transaction processing times of less than one second.

Magister partners presentations

The second part of the event belonged to Magister partners and integrators.

The topics addressed in the presentations were the following:

• Card payments in the age of accelerated digitisation. Viva-Magister Partnership – Paul Popa, Viva Wallet Country Manager Romania
• Mago Cloud and the future of Zucchetti ERP platforms – Bogdan Bratu, Zucchetti Worldwide Business Operations
• SAFT, eInvoice and eTransport in Mago ERP – Claudiu Stanciulescu, CEO Softwizard SRL – Magister Integrator
• Memo SFA – Strategic component for Magister distribution solutions – Razvan Hiru, CEO Next IT Solutions – Magister Integrator

In conclusion, Mr. Marian Anghelescu, vice-president of the Patronage of Romanian Cash Registers, addressed the topic of digitalization in modern retail from the perspective of modernizing tax administrations.

Conclusions

As most of the participants told us, the Magister 2022 Conference was the most successful event of the long series of conferences organised so far.

The success of the event was due, besides the fabulous location, Grand Hotel Teleferic in Poiana Brasov, to the extraordinary quality of the participants, specialists and guests, together with the collegial atmosphere of the “Magister family”.

We therefore thank all participants equally for the success of this event.

See you in 2023!