Sitting on the shore but with a toe in the sea, the award winning National Maritime Museum Cornwall is a landmark building on Falmouth’s waterfront. The Museum’s collection boasts a range of objects, boats, art, books and archives in support of its mission to promote an understanding of boats and their place in people’s lives, and of the maritime heritage of Cornwall.

But it’s much more than just a museum – the Maritime Museum is committed to conservation, research, education and entertainment. With a wide range of interactive exhibits, it’s welcomed around 160,000 visitors a year since opening in 2002. The museum even has a lecture theatre with state-of-the-art presentation facilities making it a popular venue for corporate events and hospitality.

photo credit: national maritime museum cornwall / bob berry

As you would expect, the museum also has a café where visitors can enjoy a snack or main meal (most of which is Cornish produce) over a view of Falmouth’s harbour, and a shop to pick-up a memento from a range of unusual souvenirs, books, postcards and posters. Even before opening, the Maritime Museum realised a need for an EPoS system that could manage all the different areas, including admissions, retail point of sale, corporate bookings, membership and stock control. As a registered charity, it also required a system that could process transactions that would comply with the Inland Revenue’s Gift Aid scheme. In addition, the museum’s finance department required accounting and payroll packages.

Peter Mason, Head of Trading, explains: “With so many elements to address, the criteria for our new EPoS system was that it must be fully integrated, reliable and enhance customer service. As a busy attraction with hundreds of visitors a day, we couldn’t risk any kind of system downtime and so having complete confidence in a solution that would be up and running at all times was crucial.”

The museum selected Gamma LeisurePOS from Gamma Dataware because, according to Peter Mason, of the company’s “reputation for delivering bespoke, tailor-made solutions and providing around the clock, hands-on support.” Gamma LeisurePOS was implemented throughout the museum’s entire front of house and back office management systems. A number of software modules were installed including Admissions, Ticketing and Gift Aid, Retail PoS, Intex Payroll and ACCPAC Advantage Series Financial modules.At the point of sale the software runs on Epson’s touchscreen Intelligent Registers (three in admissions, two in the retail store and one in the café). With Epson’s fast and reliable TM-T88III thermal printers built-in, the IRs enable the Museum to process admissions and retail transactions more quickly. For example, on average a cash sale can be processed in 20 seconds and a credit card transaction in around 35 seconds.

Behind the scenes, the solution runs the museum’s booking system. Advanced bookings, group visits, lectures and corporate events can all be scheduled online by museum staff using the intuitive Intelligent Register. The system also manages membership and staff files, and provides accurate stock management and reporting as it’s instantly updated whenever a retail transaction is made.

“We have been very impressed with the system – it’s provided us with a totally seamless solution,” commented Peter Mason. “The software was especially adapted to meet our needs and the touchscreens are so simple and easy-to-use – in no time staff were fully proficient and therefore able to offer visitors an even better experience.”

For further information contact
Peter Ferguson, Gamma Dataware, Tel: 01530 817 208