BHD shares Customer Stories

Every Big Hairy Dog customer has its own story to tell. We are amazed at the history, success and generosity of so many of them. We have recently developed some marketing flyers which feature customers whose stories we'd like to share. BHD takes pride in the way Retail Pro and the support of Big Hairy Dog have benefited their retail operations. Here are a few of our flyers.

BHD is Available for Support 363 Days a Year

BHD is open and available to its customers on traditional holidays when most service providers are closed. That's right, on New Years Day, Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day, BHD is here to support you from 8am to 5pm. When you call us, you will be answered by a person, not a machine - every time!

There are only 2 days a year we close our doors - Thanksgiving and Christmas, the same days most retailers are closed.

Our regular business hours are:
Monday - Friday: 6am to 6pm
Weekends - 9am to 2pm

Now that is service you just can't beat!

Another Day In Tech

One of our remote techs was walking his backyard in Eastern Washington, when he came upon a neighbor.

Hard Drive Partitioning and Data Storage

Like most computer companies, Big Hairy Dog uses a restoration disk in order to get their customers computers back up and running in case of a major failure, i.e., corruption in the OS, infection by a virus, etc. Most computer companies supply a restore disk that will completely restore the computer to the way that it looked from their factory.

BHD uses a software program called Ghost that allows us to restore ONLY the partition where the operating system is located. This allows us to retain one of the partitions in the PC as it was before the restoration, KEEPING THE CUSTOMERS DATA THOROUGHLY INTACT. The hard drives in our machines are partitioned in the following manner:

1. The C: drive (20 GB) is where the operating system is located, and where all of the critical programs for Windows are located.



2. The Q: drive (10 GB) serves a dual purpose.


• It stores the page file for Windows, helping to reduce the used space on the C: drive, and speeds up the operating system.


• It is used as the location for the Ghost File, which BHD uses to make a complete backup of the C: drive.



3. The Data Drive (50GB) is given two different monikers.


• Either the D: drive if RPRO is NOT installed locally on that PC, but rather the PC is being used as a workstation.


• Or the R: drive if RPRO IS installed locally on that PC, and is acting as a server on a peer-to- peer network

In either case, this drive is where all data should be saved, and non-essential programs (to the operation of the PC) installed.

Creating the ghost image allows us to restore the operating system very quickly without touching the data located on the D: or R: drive. In the event the PC needs to be restored to its ghost image, any data or programs installed on the C: drive will be lost. Therefore to prevent the potential loss of your data, PLEASE INSTALL ALL PROGRAMS ON THE D: OR R: DRIVE.

NOTE: While any programs or data on these two drives will not be affected by restoration, any programs installed after the restoration will need to be re-installed in order to run correctly. This is due to the way that the PC registers installed programs.

In the event restoration is required, it is the responsibility of BHD to wipe any computer clean and reinstall the Operating System on the C: drive. This assures both BHD and the customer know that the system is setup correctly and also guarantees that no conflicts exist with software that may have been preloaded on the system prior to restoration.

It is important to schedule a backup of any data and installed programs on a daily basis. It is CRITICAL to backup your data before you send a PC into BHD for restoration. BHD will not be held responsible for any lost data.

Demonstration Videos are available to step you through the following tasks:
1. How to install programs to the correct drive
2. How to move My Documents to a larger drive
3. How to move your emails to the correct drive
4. How to move your temporary internet files
5. How to schedule a disk cleanup

Big Hairy Dog wants to provide every opportunity to educate our customers not just on Retail Pro software, but also on our hardware components. We know the importance of preventing a problem BEFORE it occurs, and hope this information and the demonstration videos above will be helpful in keeping your company running smoothly.

Retail Pro Offers Customized Plug-Ins

Big Hairy Dog has a number of customers who, due to their distinctive business needs, require specialized functionality. Big Hairy Dog makes an ongoing effort to provide each customer with the customized software that is essential to the technological needs of their business.

If Retail Pro does not currently provide functionality in an area of your operation that would increase your productivity, please let us know. In most instances, we are able to write customized plug-ins for a perfect fit to your company’s needs. All plug-ins are available in Retail Pro v8 and some in v9. Below is a list of some of the customized plug-ins that we have developed for our customers:

Agilysys, Lodging Management System (LMS)
IntegrationAgilysys LMS is recognized as one of the hospitality industry’s premier property management software solutions. Retail Pro provides integration with Agilysys LMS and supports most available LMS transactions.

Customer Loyalty Program
This integration gives the retailer the ability to accumulate and track loyalty points for their customers. Points are redeemed at the POS station based a configurable percentage (single and multi-store versions available).

Shipper Integration
This plug-in provides a 2-in-1 package.
Ship-it works with UPS WorldShip and Fed-Ex. Track-it includes USPS and DSL.

Multiple Price Level Management
Integration provides an automatic calculation of prices for all price levels in an item, based on the first input price level of the item.

Multiple ‘Ship-To’ Customer Addresses
This plug-in allows a user to set up multiple shipping addresses for any selected customer with Retail Pro.

Sales Order Extract Tool
This tool can run as a plug-in or a standalone and gives the retailer the ability to extract all sales orders either new or with changes since the last time the process ran. Orders are extracted into a Microsoft Access database or text file.

Auto-create Serial numbers during Voucher
For stores that sell unique items requiring a serial number per item, this plug-in will auto-generate the serial number for them.

Please contact your Big Hairy Dog Sales Rep for more information on any of these customized plug-ins. And don't forget to call us if you have an idea for a plug-in that would improve your business operation. Meeting EVERY need of our customers is our Number One priority.