Called QEW, the Queue Early Warning system uses Beonic’s advanced people counting sensors to track visitor traffic within large department stores or supermarkets while the system’s smart analytic software gives advance warning before queues begin to form.

Beonic’s breakthrough is the absolute simplicity of this system. Although it uses sophisticated calculations to estimate visitor movements, the system displays only two numbers to store managers. One is the number of employees rostered for cash register operation and the other is the number of extra cash register operators needed to meet anticipated customer demand.

The system is already in advanced customer testing in Australian commercial environments.

Beonic executive director Clyde McConaghy said QEW was a powerful tool to improve customer service. “To our knowledge, there’s no other application like this in the world,” he said. “While Tescos in the UK has a similar system, our system far exceeds what they can do.”

This latest milestone for Beonic comes weeks after its flagship people counting solution, Traffic Insight, won a prestigious iAward – from the Australian Information Industry Association – as Australia’s most innovative business technology application.

Beonic’s Traffic Insight Retail Intelligence system assists retailers to learn how to convert store visitors into actual customers. Beonic reports enable retailers to make more effective decisions about advertising, merchandising and cash register service levels, leading to happier customers, more sales and greater profit.

Clients using Beonic technology include IKEA, Hutchison ‘3’ stores, Angus & Robertson Bookshops, Jeans West and Adidas as well as Mirvac, AMP, Gandel and Centro shopping centres, the Sydney Opera House, Sydney's Queen Victoria Building and Melbourne’s Federation Square.

Beonic’s latest product was formally launched at the Retail Business Technology show, July 20-22, at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Mr. McConaghy said the QEW solution was aimed at enterprise retail clients. “It is designed to meet the needs of medium to large stores, such as department stores and supermarkets, where you can't see the true number of people in the building,” he said.

“The back-end calculations are incredibly complex, but we have delivered maximum simplicity with the software’s main screen. Two numbers show how many staff you have and how many more you need to meet customer demand and avoid having queues. The system even shows if you have too many staff at the cash registers, so you can redeploy them.

“It’s about giving store managers access to simple, actionable information that equips them to run their stores more efficiently. Head office management is also delivered data to calculate the daily and weekly value of the efficiency gains in dollars. We already have orders for the system and we expect a lot of interest once other major retailers become aware of it.”

For more information about Beonic, visit www.beonic.com. For media assistance, call John Harris at Impress Media Australia on 08 8431 4000 or email jharris@impress.com.au.