A little bit about Love’s

The Love’s story started in 1964, when Tom and Judy Love opened a single gas station in far western Oklahoma. A few short years later, Love’s opened its first convenience store in Guymon, Oklahoma. In 1981, Love’s launched its first travel stop in Amarillo, Texas. Since then, Love’s chain of convenience stores and travel centers has expanded rapidly to more than 260 locations in more than 38 states nationwide.

We look forward to working with the Love’s team as we continue to grow and expand our solutions.

 For our Twitter followers, we will be using the #RFMA2012 tag for all related posts.

About the RFMA Annual Conference

The RFMA 2012 Annual Conference is open to:

• Restaurant Facility Professionals who can attend as association members or non-members.  All Restaurant attendees can attend the entire conference.
• Vendor and Supplier companies.  Vendors and suppliers who exhibit at the conference can access the exhibit hall.
• Non-exhibiting suppliers and vendors.  Can attend all conference events, but may not enter the exhibit hall.

The RFMA 2012 conference offers very affordable registration fees for all restaurateurs, however restaurant attendees must be able to provide proof of current employment status with a restaurant company in order to register in this category.

Location:

Las Vegas Mirage
3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Exhibition Hours:

Monday, March 5, 2012 11:15am-1:15pm and 4:30-6:30pm
Tuesday, March 6, 2012 11:45am-3:45pm

Approving the Request

In some cases a request must be approved before it can be submitted for processing. For example, a request for a coordinated Marketing Event may need the District Manager’s approval before the marketing department can start planning the event. In this case the Request is queued for approval by the corresponding District Manager, who can then approve (or reject) the request from their desktop browser, or their mobile device. In some cases the District Manager may need additional details from the Store Manager before approving the request. This is easily accomplished using a built-in messaging system.

Once the request is approved additional pre-processing can take place.

Assigning the Request to the Right Person

Store Managers may have the option of creating various types of requests that are managed by different departments. When the request is submitted, the system must select the appropriate person depending on the content of the request, and then assign the request to that user (or group of users). This will cause the request to be queued and displayed to the appropriate users so they can process the request.

Assignment may be based on the request type, store location, a specific category or trade specified within the request, and other information.

Sending Notifications

Adding the request to the queue of the assigned user will only be effective if the user is in front of their computer screen. Sometimes these users are away from their desks, and it’s not uncommon for these users to be travelling to store locations. In these cases, the users must be notified that a new request has been created. A built in notification system can be configured to send out e-mail or text messages to the user assigned to the new request.

Some users may want to be notified of all new requests while others may only want to know about emergency or high priority requests. Notifications may only be required after normal working hours, and to help manage emergency situations at a store locations.

Now that a new request has been created effectively, approved if necessary, assigned to the right user, and notifications have been sent, it’s time for the request to be processed. Stay tuned for our next installment on the life of a store request.

*Photos courtesy of Björn Laczay aka dustpuppy and allanparke

What does this mean for our customers?

It means that we continue to provide safe, secure services to our customers that relate to financial transactions (i.e. Work Orders, Electronic Invoicing, Cap-ex Projects). Our compliance with the SSAE 16 ensures that this transactional data is held in a secure computing environment that can only be accessed by authorized users. Furthermore, our compliance is required by most public companies using our software.

Read more about the SSAE 16 and Big Sky’s audit and compliance standards.

What exactly is the SSAE 16?

The SSAE 16 is an Independent Service Auditor’s Report on a Description of a Service Organization’s System and Suitability of the Design of Controls using the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). SSAE 16 = Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements 16.

New characteristics:

1. Management attestation – SSAE 16 is not an audit standard, but an attest standard. Going forward Big Sky’s management must attest in writing regarding the fair presentation and design of controls. SAS 70 was an audit standard and did not require the Big Sky’s management to attest in the report. Only the auditors attested. Big Sky provided a representation letter, which was not included in the audit report. Big Sky’s management has provided a description of the company’s service delivery system controls and control objectives and has attested in writing that: 1) the system description fairly represents the controls in place; 2) the described controls are suitably designed to meet their objectives; and 3) if it’s a Type II assessment, that the controls operated effectively. The auditors will examine the controls to form their own opinion, which they will report in the audit report. The attestation holds Big Sky’s management directly accountable.
2. Suitable criteria for evaluation – Big Sky’s management must use suitable criteria for evaluating the company’s service delivery system, specify in the attestation which criteria were used, and use criteria from a widely recognized standard or criteria developed with a reasonable level of rigor, i.e., objective, measurable, complete, relevant.
3. Evidence from prior engagements is disallowed – Auditors gather evidence for each internal control being assessed. Under SAS 70, auditors could use evidence gathered in prior audits to save time. SSAE 16 prohibits such use of prior evidence.
4. Disclosure of reliance on internal auditors – Under SAS 70, auditors could rely on the internal auditor’s tests of controls. Disclosure of such reliance was not required. SSAE 16 requires full disclosure of reliance on internal audits and the company will need to provide a detailed description of any internal audit activities, processes, tools and conclusions.
5. Restrictions on report use – SAS 70 restricted the use of the audit report to company management, customers, and financial statement auditors. SSAE 16 narrows the restrictions regarding customers to customers at the time of the report date for a Type I report, and for a Type II to customers during the report period. This is basically stopping the report being used for anyone who happens to be a customer to more narrow focus of customers in scope of time of the report.
6. Included vs. excluded subservice providers – If the inclusive method is chosen for reporting on sub-service organizations, under SSAE-16 it will now be required for the sub-service organization’s management to write their own attestation, which is included in the super-organization’s assessment.

Unchanged characteristics

1. Scope of the assessment – the service organization decides which controls are pertinent to service delivery.
2. System description – Like the SAS 70, SSAE 16 relies on management’s written description of system controls and the objectives the controls are designed to meet. For each objective, the activities must be described for each control. Auditors collect evidence for each activity claim.
3. Type I and Type II reports – Type I is point in time, while Type II covers a stated time period.
4. Basic Format of the Audit Report – contains an auditor’s opinion letter, system and controls description including control environment, risk assessment and management, information and communication systems, general controls, application controls and monitoring procedures. It also includes user control considerations (what is the user responsible for) and any other relevant information.
5. Assessment Process – auditors provide their opinion on the validity of the service organization’s description of controls. They review control objectives and activities to verify that they exist and are designed as described.

Big Sky has always taken our customer’s security and control requirements very seriously, and ensuring that our processes and controls are audited to rigorous standards provides a high level of comfort to both our customers and to the thousands of vendors and contractors who use our systems.

Read more about the SSAE 16 and Big Sky’s audit and compliance standards on our Audit and Compliance page.

Office Depot is known throughout the world as a company with a heart. Throughout our history, we have distinguished ourselves through our support of charitable organizations and worthy causes on a local and national scale.

Today, the independent Office Depot Foundation is continuing this tradition – and reflecting the values of Office Depot and its associates – by supporting programs that enhance quality of life for children, strengthen communities, encourage local and international economic growth, and empower schools and non-profit organizations.

We also continue our legacy of helping out when disasters strike, and doing what we can not only to speed the process of rebuilding, but also to mitigate the impact of future disasters.

The mission of the Foundation is Listen Learn Care. We invite you to learn more about our efforts on these pages – and to join us in fulfilling our vision.

You can help the Office Depot Foundation by contributing today!

Although we have had emergency power outages procedures in place for years now, it is rare that we get to test them out in real life scenarios. We are happy to announce, Big Sky passed with flying colors.

The home page or dashboard of Big Sky Mobile is designed to show you everything that needs your attention, including:

• New Messages
• New Work Orders
• Work Orders that are ready for Check-in/Out
• A searchable view of all Work Orders

Now, contractors can do the following tasks via their smartphones:

• Acknowledge new Work Orders
• Update Status
• Choose Delay Reasons
• Send and Receive Messages
• Add Notes
• View Store Details (including a map)
• View Attachments
• Mark Work Complete

This update comes as part of our 3.43 release and is subject to client configuration options. Big Sky Mobile has been tested on the following devices:

• iPhone
• Android
• Blackberry
• Windows Mobile
• Palm webOS
• Symbian
• and more

Please leave a comment if you have any difficulty accessing your documents via Big Sky Mobile.

After several months of hard work and testing, V3.43 is now ready to be released to our customers. We are very excited about the new features offered in this release and look forward to hearing your feedback. Some of the major new features in this release include a new Contractor Mobile Interface, the addition of clickable Links back into Big Sky from email messages generated by the system, a redesigned Store Form with Google Maps integration, redesigned Troubleshooting Guide, and more! Please contact us for more details and to schedule your upgrade.

• There is good communication between stores and corporate
• I know how my store is doing compared to other stores
• Technology helps me do my job better
• We are “going mobile” with many of our applications

Year after year, store managers are increasingly reporting that technology is playing an important role in their day to day activities. The report also asks store managers how they rate communication with their corporate office.

We have seen many of our customers improve their communication with store managers by using Big Sky as a single point of entry for any issues their stores may have. Bringing multiple departments online within the same system empowers store managers by giving them access to the people, processes and documents they need to get their job done quickly and efficiently.

For more information on the State of the Store Manager 2011, watch the webcast by navigating to the State of the Store Manager article, or download the report on the Integrated Solutions for Retailers website.

The Sephora Property Development team invites you to take a moment and watch their 2011 American Heart Association Heartwalk video on YouTube.

Laura Doan, Vice President – Sephora Property Development writes:

“Year after year, we are honored and humbled by the support we receive as we join with the American Heart Association in their Start! Heart Walk campaign. In 2011, we are coming together as one, rather than individually requesting your support. This year the event will take place on September 16. Sephora has been a passionate supporter of this cause for several years, and we would be unable to achieve that success without the generous contributions of each of you. If you have already made a contribution this year, please accept our heartfelt thanks. We’ll provide you with an update on our progress shortly before the event.”

For more information regarding this event and how you can help please follow this link:

American Heart Association Heart Walk Information