RMS FIRST NATION POS PROJECT

RMS, together with Alberta Treasury Tax and Revenue Administration, Province of Alberta ("TRA") jointly committed in 1996 to the development of a Point-of-Sale (POS) system to assist retailers located on Native (Indian) reservations in the Province of Alberta with the reporting of tobacco and fuel tax refund claims. The SRO POS system developed by RMS collects tobacco and fuel tax exemption claims during the day based upon sales to Alberta Indian Tax Exemption ("AITE") members. These claims are then transmitted to TRA via a single batch submission at the end of the day utilizing an NT communications WAN. TRA is then in a position to audit and expedite the refund claims.

In order for the SRO POS system to operate efficiently RMS and TRA recognized that the process could not disrupt day to day operations of the retailer. Accordingly AITE members are provided with bar coded laminated cards that can be scanned to validate AITE members and numbers. This ease of input in the accumulation of tobacco and fuel tax credits for transmission daily is of great benefit to the retailer and TRA.

RMS has also worked with independent food and confectionery distributors to add another dimension to the project. RMS incorporated online ordering to distribution centers across Canada for the purpose of automating current in-store reordering processes. The Native retail stores can now gather item movement information by SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) and replenish stock based on actual sales which in turn increases volume and margins to individual stores. The distributors also accumulates First Nations stores purchases nationally which will be a benefit to the stores in discount pricing because of the volume of product ordered across the country.
 

For the Native retailer that decides to purchase his hardware and software, Aboriginal Business Canada will pay up to 50% of the total price of the system for approved stores.