This article is from Firefly Marketing, a website providing marketing and advertising commentary primarily for the commercial real estate industry.

“Our vision is that all business operations shall be run in a way that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.”

That’s a quote from H & M’s website, summing up their company initiative to be a leader in sustainable fashion. I perused the H & M website, interested in learning more about the company’s Conscious Collection because I recently found myself involved in a on-line discussion (initiated by Daryl Warren, a P.R. strategist based in Vancouver, Canada) about whether H & M could pull off, as Darren called it, “ethical fashion”.

H & M is deemed a leader of current marketing trends – they’re establishing an emotional connection with their consumer by practicing Sustainability and embracing Cause Marketing.

Read the rest of the article here.

We want to thank PRSM for putting on another great conference with informative educational sessions. The “Retail Quick Connect,” “HVAC Benchmarking” and “Vendors and Partners” sessions were among our favorites. We’d  like to send a special thank you to everyone on the benchmarking committee. One of our favorite events was the welcome reception on Wednesday evening! The Hollywood theme was glamorous and fitting for the Southern California locale.

We got a lot of great feedback showing off some upcoming features, including our new iPad app and Business Intelligence Reports. We’re looking forward to making these features available in our upcoming 3.5 release.

Did you attend PRSM this year? Tell us what your favorite session, booth or event was!

At the PRSM2012 National Conference

We will also be holding a users group meeting during the convention that we invite all customers and contractors to attend. We will be covering FAQs, Analytic Reporting, Big Sky Mobile and more.

 For our Twitter followers, we will be using the #PRSM2012 tag for all related posts.

About PRSM2012

PRSM2012! is a convention and trade show that focuses on Retail Facility Maintenance. There is a great lineup of speakers and session tracks on team success, sustainability, technical operations, professional development and more.

If you are a retailer and would like to join us at the show, please contact us for complimentary day passes.

Location:

Anaheim Convention Center
800 West Katella Avenue
Anaheim, CA 92802

Exhibition Hours:

Thursday, April 19th from 1:30pm – 5:00pm
Friday, April 20th from 11:30am – 3:00pm

About PRSM

The Professional Retail Store Maintenance (PRSM) Association is focused on the needs of retail facilities professionals.  Take a look around  the website and don’t forget to log in to the members-only section to get the most out of your experience!

Big Sky’s developers were able to replace some older proprietary technology with a more open approach which takes advantage of XML formatting and conversions to achieve considerable performance improvements. In fact, we were able to achieve an 85 to 90% reduction in the time required to complete reports. For example, a large report that used to take 15 minutes to complete can now be generated in just 90 seconds.

An added benefit is that reports are now available in the newer Microsoft Excel .xlsx format in addition to .xls and .pdf formats, which can also save significant disk space.

This is just one example of the great work accomplished by our developers on a daily basis which benefits all of our customers. Way to go!

When:

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
10:00am – 12:00pm

Where:

Hilton Anaheim
Level 4 – Laguna Room 777
Convention Way
Anaheim, CA 92802

Agenda:

• Best Practices
• Asset Management Integration
• Vendor Score Cards and Analytic Reporting
• Troubleshooting Guides and AutoDispatch
• Upcoming Releases and Features
• Q&A

RSVP:

To quote Brad and Libby Birky, the founders of SAME Café, “Everyone, regardless of economic status, deserves the chance to eat healthy food while being treated with dignity. Good food for the Greater Good.” SAME Café offers a place where no matter who you are, or what you have, you can walk in, be greeted with a smile, and enjoy a wonderfully cooked, healthy meal. You give what you can, whether it’s money, time in the kitchen, supplies, or anything else that can help.

This is Big Sky’s first year of membership with RFMA, and when we heard about RFMA Gives, we wanted to help. Unfortunately, we don’t have technicians and equipment in house to help with a kitchen remodel, but we did notice that the SAME Café website was in serious need of repair. We immediately contacted RFMA Gives and SAME Café and the ball started rolling.

The resulting meetings, design and development have left SAME Café with a website that they can be proud of (hey, we’re proud of it too!). Patrons can follow their blog, check today’s menu, volunteer, donate and even buy supplies from the SAME Café Amazon Wishlist. We plan to provide ongoing support to Brad and Libby and hopefully, we’ll make it to Denver soon so we can try some of their great food.

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 traveling 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 or to help manage emergency situations at store location.

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.