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James Allman — JA Technology Solutions LLC

GSS — Grocers Support Systems

Grocers Support Systems (GSS) is a grocery retail merchandising platform built on IBM AS/400 (IBM i). The system manages centralized retail pricing and cost control for supermarket chains and communicates with point-of-sale devices across all store locations. GSS serves chains ranging from a handful of stores to over a hundred, with the core platform — the Scan Support and Merchandising System (SSMS) — acting as the central database and host for all merchandising, inventory, and financial operations.

About GSS and SSMS

GSS operates on a centralized hosting model. The SSMS software runs on an IBM AS/400 and communicates with POS devices at each store location. This architecture allows a supermarket chain to manage pricing, item data, promotions, and cost information from a single central system, with changes distributed outward to the stores.

The platform has served approximately 50 supermarket chains across the United States, from regional independents to multi-state operations. The customer base spans a range of grocery formats including conventional supermarkets, ethnic and specialty grocers, warehouse-format stores, and commissary operations.

SSMS Modules

Core SSMS

Centralized retail pricing and cost control. Maintains the master item database including UPC/EAN codes, descriptions, department assignments, pricing, and cost. Communicates with nearly every type of point-of-sale device.

Inventory and Warehouse

Tracks quantity on hand and cost for selected items across store and warehouse locations. Handles inventory reduction via scan movement or store orders and transfers, with picking tickets and invoicing. Supports back-door receiving against open orders, shrink adjustments with count-to-book reporting, and full historical transaction tracking for period-level QOH and dollar balancing.

Direct Buy and Bill-Back Order Entry

On-line entry and reporting of item purchase orders for direct purchases, broker bill-backs, and future ad buys. Automatically retrieves cost, allowance, and descriptive data from the SSMS item database. Suggests order quantities for linked items using average weekly scan movement and can distribute orders across stores by movement or user-supplied percentages.

Bill-Back Tracking

Ensures collection of bill-back money owed by vendors and brokers. Processes wholesaler invoices electronically against bill-back requirements and handles DSD invoices. Includes safeguards against double-invoicing on items already covered by direct buy orders. Invoices are automatically transferred to accounts receivable for collection.

Frequent Shopper

Collects shopper information across all stores for analysis and targeted mailings. Maintains customer demographics, department-level order totals (store, date, time, register, cashier), and item-level purchase history (UPC, quantity, price, discount). Data is exportable to other database and word processing tools.

Direct Store Delivery (DSD)

Back-door receiving at the store level using an AS/400 terminal or portable RF device. Cost verification and item authorization happen directly against the central SSMS database. Items can be entered by UPC, vendor item code, or item lookup with scroll-through and quantity entry. Historical costs are available for invoice verification at any point in time.

Cashier Security

Captures cashier data daily and weekly from all stores and organizes it into reports that highlight potential front-end security and productivity issues. Metrics include sales, orders, items, refunds, voids, coupons, and no-sales per hour, plus over/short percentages, average order totals, and scan-versus-keyed item ratios. Ranking reports allow threshold-based targeting of cashiers whose metrics fall outside the norm.

Accounts Receivable

General-purpose open item receivables system. Invoices can be entered directly or transferred from other GSS applications such as broker bill-backs. Cash application supports partial payments, specific invoice payments, and balance-forward application. Includes on-line customer balance inquiry, aging reports, statements, and full transaction history.

Accounts Payable, General Ledger, and Financial Reporting

Financial management modules for payables processing, general ledger maintenance, and financial reporting across the organization.

My Work with GSS

I have worked with the GSS platform for many years as a developer and consultant. My contributions to the platform include CONNEX/400, a native AS/400 asynchronous communication package that supports Xmodem and Ymodem protocols and is scriptable via CL programs for interacting with remote devices. CONNEX/400 is used for POS communication, supplier data exchange, and other connectivity needs within GSS environments.

I also developed a number of the POS and backoffice interfaces available in GSS, including interfaces for the Encore/ISS45, ACR, and BASS systems, among others. As TCP/IP networking became more common, I developed network-based interfaces to complement or replace the earlier async communication paths.

Beyond platform development, I have performed many years of customization and enhancement of the GSS software to meet the specific needs of individual grocery chains. I continue to support GSS clients today, though many are in the process of transitioning to other systems.

Working with GSS Environments

Whether you are maintaining a GSS installation, extending it with new reporting or integration, or planning a transition to another platform, the value of working with someone who understands the system from the inside is difficult to replace. GSS environments are deeply tied to store operations, vendor relationships, and business processes that have been refined over years.

I provide grocery merchandising platform support including enhancement, reporting, integration, and migration planning. My broader IBM i consulting practice covers the AS/400 platform that GSS runs on, and I work with system integration, custom reporting, and ETL across a range of environments.

Free Grocery & Retail Tools

Grocery retail IT and operations teams can use these free browser-based tools for the everyday barcode, scale, identifier, and inventory-math tasks that come up across stores, distribution, and merchandising.

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