Retail Management Solutions (RMS), located in Olympia, Wash., has announced a subscription-based online option to its on-site enterprise-management systems. Pharmacies and health and nutrition retailers can now take advantage of advanced Web-based reporting, native Excel analytics, and powerful pricing and cost controls, without having to add hardware and support staff.

For pharmacies with multiple locations, the Star~Link Hosted Service extends the aggregation and centralized management advantages previously only available from RMS’s Star~Link Enterprise software. It includes centralized reporting of sales, product pricing, inventory control and wholesaler ordering, product promotions, and loyalty programs.

“We created this because it’s right for the times and because independent pharmacies, including multilocation ones, need all the competitive advantages they can get,” says Brad Jones, RMS CEO.

A few of the advantages for this software-as-a-service approach, notes Jones, include predictable budgeting and planning, no additional upgrade or support fees, access to the latest software version as soon as it is available, and storage of transactions off-site.