The document discusses how cloud computing is revolutionizing the retail industry. It describes how the cloud model provides retailers with cost efficiency through reduced IT costs, scalability to adapt to changing demand, and reliability through redundant resources and easy migration of services. The cloud allows retailers to focus on their core business instead of maintaining their own IT systems. It provides quick deployment of new software and services. Major retailers are seeing benefits such as increased revenue and profit margins from cloud-based systems.

1. How the Cloud is Revolutionizing
the Retail Industry

2. 01 | How the Cloud is Revolutionizing the Retail Industry
Over the past 10 years, the cloud has gone from
an obscure concept to a buzzword. By 2020, the
global market for cloud equipment will reach $90
billion, according to the latest forecast by Allied
Market Research. Even SMBs can readily opt for the
cloud model, taking into consideration the low costs
involved, the flexibility, the new services offered, and
the ease of adoption. Cloud Computing is up to 40
times more cost effective for an SMB, compared to
running its own IT system.
A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF CLOUD COMPUTING:
Cloud computing can be described as a way of ac-
cessing data and programs from the Internet rather
than directly from a computer or privately hosted
server. Essentially, cloud computing stores all data
on third party servers located at a separate location
from the company. The setup and maintenance of
these servers are the responsibility of the third party,
leaving the retailer free to worry about business
rather than software and hardware.
The term cloud is a metaphor for the Internet. Com-
puting refers to anything you do on a computer: ac-
cess programs, save and retrieve data and share files
with others. Cloud solutions are available on demand,
paid for on a subscription, and are able to scale as
usage increases.
How the Cloud is Revolutionizing
the Retail Industry
Copyright 2015 Raymark Xpert Business Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cloud Facts:
According to the Harvard
Business Review Analytics
Services Report, 40% of re-
spondents have found that
using cloud has increased
revenue, with 36% saying it
has increased profit mar-
gins. 12.5% of respondents
saw a return on investment
in less than one year while
5.1% saw a return on invest-
ment in less than three
years.
Cloud-based POS systems
have proven that they can
outperform old-fashioned
registers in any aspect.
Cloud makes innovation
easier and faster, with fewer
risks.

3. 02 | How the Cloud is Revolutionizing the Retail Industry
Copyright 2015 Raymark Xpert Business Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
1
COST EFFICIENCY
The top reason for deploying cloud is lowering IT costs. Cloud benefits
include hardware and software cost savings, and lower external main-
tenance costs. Retailers also save money on server maintenance by
moving to the cloud. The money saved from moving to the cloud can
be used for opening new stores or hiring more employees. Retailers
have long favored highly visible investments, such as store design or
advertising over spending on back-office IT systems.
2
SCALABILITY
Cloud computing offers a growing company easy access to more room
for data storage and application expansion without having to purchase
additional equipment. Retailers have periods of high demand spikes
during weekends and certain seasons, holidays and promotional cam-
paigns. Using traditional IT infrastructure to accommodate the peak
demand periods would mean idling the IT capacity for long periods.
One major advantage of cloud computing is that the IT infrastructure
can be designed for normal activity and additional compute resources
can be sourced on demand to handle the high demand periods.
3
RELIABILITY
With a managed service platform, cloud computing is much more reli-
able and consistent than in-house IT infrastructure. Many cloud pro-
viders provide 24/7/365 support and 99.99% availability to ensure that
any issues are dealt with quickly. Retailers can benefit from a massive
pool of redundant IT resources. Also, if a server fails, hosted applica-
tions and services can easily be moved to any other available server.
4
EFFICIENCY
5
QUICK
DEPLOYMENT TIME
Cloud computing options allow employees to work from anywhere in
the world at any time through devices that are able to have access to
the internet. Employees will always have access to data in real-time. IT
resources are delivered quickly and efficiently whenever and wherever
the retailer needs them at a cost-efficient price.
One of the biggest advantages of a cloud based system is that it can
be easily setup in a very short period of time. The addition of new
instances can be performed very quickly. In a cloud environment,
software can easily be integrated. Hence, minimum effort is required
to customize and integrate the applications.
TOP 5 ADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING

4. 03 | How the Cloud is Revolutionizing the Retail Industry
THE ECONOMICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING:
Proponents of cloud computing argue that one of the best rea-
sons to convert is that using it gives one the ability to save money
due to 4 reasons: allowing for more focus to occur on core activi-
ties, lowering the opportunity cost of running technology, allow-
ing for a shift from capital expenditure to operating expenditure
and lowering the total cost of ownership (TCO) of technology.
1. Allowing for More Focus to Occur on Core Activities
Most economic advantages are related to this concept. Studies
have suggested that as much as 80% of an IT department’s time
is engaged in activities not related to business, such as patching
systems or performing data backups, while only 20% of the time
is devoted to actually running applications. Since running applica-
tions is directly related to revenue-generating activities, cloud
computing can save money and improve productivity.
2. Lowering the Opportunity Cost of Running Technology
Opportunity cost is defined as:
“The added cost of using resources (as for production or specula-
tive investment) that is the difference between the actual value
resulting from such use and that of an alternative (as another use
of the same resources or an investment of equal risk but greater
return)”
In other words, determining an opportunity cost involves com-
paring the total economic gain or loss (including increasing
profits) of implementing a technology vs. the total economic gain
or loss of another technology.
In terms of cloud computing, this represents comparing imple-
menting a cloud computing software program vs. keeping a
large in-house IT department to maintain owned technology. The
opportunity cost of keeping in-house IT is done by calculating the
current profits and costs.
Determining the opportunity costs of cloud computing is an-
other matter. Since the mechanisms of in-house IT are already in
place, initially it may appear that cloud computing would increase
costs and therefore be inherently foolish to engage in. However,
after including the shift away from time devoted to technology
maintenance to running business applications, it quickly becomes
apparent that in most situations, cloud computing increases
productivity and therefore increases the amount of profit made
by a company.
3. Allowing for a Shift from Capital Expenditure to Operating
Expenditure
There are countless advantages to moving away from capital
expenditures towards operating expenditures. Cloud comput-
ing is a recurring expense. With in-house hosting, the server and
software purchased is fully committed to, and depreciates in
value over time.
Copyright 2015 Raymark Xpert Business Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
“Ultimately, the cloud
is the latest example
of Schumpeterian
creative destruction:
creating wealth for
those who exploit it;
and leading to the
demise of those that
don’t.”
- Joe Weinman,
author of the book
“Cloudonomics”

5. 04 | How the Cloud is Revolutionizing the Retail Industry
Regardless of how much it is being utilized, the ongoing costs (by
way of depreciation or financing costs) still need to be taken into
account.
Estimated costs of infrastructure for two application servers, two database servers and a load-balancer
across internal, managed and Cloud deployment models. Source O’Reilly Media: George Reese
Putting aside enough capital for a large purchase is difficult,
especially for small and medium size retailers. The cloud model
bypasses this limitation and allows software to be implemented
with minimal financial constraints.
4. Lowering the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of Technology
With the cloud model, most costs are up-front and readily calcu-
lated. Most importantly, retailer businesses can focus their time
and energy on their core business without the worries of own-
ing, maintaining and running a server with an internally hosted
retail platform and various software. The convenience of 24/7
IT support for head office infrastructure, network and software
upgrades, along with included remote backup services are also
important advantages. The retailer can now manage their us-
ers and products anytime and anywhere. Store inventory and
store statistics are available in real-time and accessible from any
device.
Lastly, a sometimes forgotten benefit of cloud technology is that
it enables collaboration through its omnipresence. Because the
cloud has the capacity to be everywhere at the same time, it en-
ables collaboration. In the past, this collaboration was more dif-
ficult to access with a traditional disconnected IT environments.
Cloud computing now makes it possible for retailers to meet their
consumers’ expectations during all phases of the omni-channel
shopping experience. There are significant economic benefits to
be gained from a move to cloud computing. Retailers benefit in
two distinct ways: directly through reduced costs and indirectly
by allowing for increased focus on core business functions.
“We are at the beginning of the age of planetary computing. Bil-
lions of people will be wirelessly interconnected, and the only way
to achieve that kind of massive scale usage is by massive scale,
brutally efficient cloud-based infrastructure.” - Dan Farber, Editor
in Chief CNET News
Copyright 2015 Raymark Xpert Business Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

6. 05 | How the Cloud is Revolutionizing the Retail Industry
GENERAL
1. What’s the difference between Raymark’s cloud solutions?
Raymark’s cloud solutions offer retailers a great package to get
started quickly using the newest mobile retail technology with
no upfront investment, no long-term commitment and minimal
setup. The software, features and user experience are the same
whether you decide to host the solutions yourself or let Raymark
take care of it.
HARDWARE
2. Which devices/operating systems can I use?
The solution provides full device-agnostic functionality enabling
you to run completely wireless stores. Raymark’s cloud solutions
for retail can be accessed on PC, iPad, Android or Windows Tab-
lets. Its real-time capabilities make it a must-have for up-to-the
second access to product and customer information.
PLANS
3. What services are included with the plans?
• 24/7 applications usage
• Daily import of account data
• Data & apps servers hosting
• Managed services
• 24/7 help desk & maintenance
• 24/7 access to online documentation
• 24/7 access to RITS (Raymark Issue Tracking System)
4. Which features are included?
For a full feature listing, please consult the Raymark website. The
full suite of Raymark applications is available on a host server or
hosted in the cloud. Our solutions are available as single mod-
ules or as an end-to-end suite.
IMPLEMENTATION AND DATA INTEGRATION
5. What’s the implementation time?
Some retailers can get up and running within 3 weeks. This
largely depends on the number and complexity of integrations
with third party systems you will require.
6. Can the data in the solution be integrated with current
software?
Raymark’s easy-to-use integration tool can be used to map
existing data stores for elements such as associates, customers,
products, stores and transactions.
7. What is the downtime needed for maintenance?
Minimal. If ever required, a time would be selected when the
business activities would be least affected.
STORE OPERATIONS
8. What changes do I need to make in the store in order to imple-
ment Raymark Cloud?
All you need is a secure wireless internet connection to use Ray-
mark Cloud in your stores. Most often, no changes to the existing
hardware infrastructure are required.
9. What happens if there’s a lost internet connection?
In the event of a lost internet connection, you can continue to
run Mosaic Point of Sale by connecting with Raymark’s stand-
alone solution, installed on any PC in the local network. The
standalone solution includes a subset of the centralized data-
base stored locally, with minimal information in order to keep
the store operating in the case of an outage. When internet is
restored, data will automatically by synchronized with the central-
ized database.
Copyright 2015 Raymark Xpert Business Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

7. Raymark meets the needs of retailers searching for a rapidly deployed, fully-integrated retail
software suite with our cloud-based hosted and managed services. Reliable and affordable,
all Raymark solutions are available as a subscription-based service (Software as a Service, or
SaaS) that reduces the upfront capital investment associated with retail enterprise software.
Focused on responsive customer support and dependable, dedicated server management,
Raymark ensures the security and scalability of your applications and data, providing you with
reliable hosting services throughout your enterprise.
What can Raymark Cloud do for you?
Data Access and Control
You retain ownership and control of all your data: customer,
product, transaction, etc. Your data is 100% secure and will never
be accessed or shared with anyone.
Minimize Onsite IT Support
24/7 help desk support, service management of your new data
center, software maintenance and server management.
Centralized
A centralized database for all store and head office functions and
centralized hosting.
Minimize Total Cost of Ownership
No large upfront capital investment or complicated
infrastructure.
Simple and Rapid Deployment
Get back to the business of retail and let us take care of the
technical tasks.
Training and Documentation
Learn best practices for efficient use of Raymark solutions with
access to user documentation, release notes and customer
forums through Raymark’s Customer Portal. Additional
individualized training is always available upon request.
Retail Business Challenge
We need software to manage our business, but don’t want
to implement a large infrastructure or undertake high
upfront costs.
Raymark Solution
For a single monthly fee, a web-based, hosted solution
provides full retail functionality while eliminating the
need for large upfront capital investment or complicated
infrastructure.
Proven Retail Benefit
Most organizations devote 80% of IT resources to simply
maintaining the status-quo. Implementing Raymark Cloud
provides the benefits of an in-house IT department without
all of the costs.
Copyright 2015 Raymark Xpert Business Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Raymark Services
Raymark Cloud
EMPOWERING RETAIL

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Features
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Business Intelligence
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Management
Customer-Centric
Retailing
Web Services API
Store Operations
Data Model Business Logic Workflows Integration
Solution Framework
point of sale &
store operations
associate
management
mobile e-payment
consumer
mobile
mobile
clienteling
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merchandising replenishment
warehousing
& distribution
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T: 1-800-346-7296
F: 1-514-737-0014
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international retailers optimize stock turns, build customer loyalty, and
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