ArchiveAugust 2015

Years ago we launched our weekly (FREE) online training workshops. We still run them today. They are popular.

We are proud we are able to continue to be true to this commitment, to demonstrate that we back our words with actions our POS software customers can trust.

POS software help desks come in for belting from some retailers. We ensure this is not us by providing access to a range of help desk and service touch points delivering personal in the moment service based on real conversations from customers to someone not following a script. This is also true for our workshops where we always offer a Q&A session at the end to encourage engagement.

Tower Systems is thrilled to be engaged with a range of our customers photographic them in their businesses and bringing to life their relationship with our software- in a way we and they can use.

Professionally photographed, the images reflect a pride in locally owned businesses. They also provide us an opportunity to connect ourselves back at the office with these businesses we serve.

The photos are part of a project within Tower Systems to shine a light on wonderful small business retailers.

Tower Systems released more new training videos to retailers using its POS software this past week demonstrating its commitment to providing up to date video based training reflecting its up to date software.

The latest published video training is longer form videos, taking people deep into the discount voucher function from setup to use. It is perfect training for a retailer getting started with this powerful set of business growth tools.

Like all our videos, it is professionally produced with excellent representation of the software running live.

Retailers can judge a POS software company based on the content it publishes. Tower Systems through its regular public and private content refresh reflects modern software designed for retail today.

We think this is far more important than trotting out an old video from years ago as they are of historic value only and no reflection on the content we offer today.

The cloud is a marketing term used by technology companies to describe the accessing of software through a browser in one location where the actual software and data are stored in another location.

The cloud is not new. The first versions of this were running in the 1970s in the early days of computing.

In a small business retail sense, there were retailers in the 1990s operating this way. Indeed, Tower Systems had customers as early 1999 running in the cloud.

While technology has refined, the principles have not.

On a server located away from your business runs your software with your data. From your retail location you access this through a web browser. Around ten years ago, in 2005, we ran four of our own shops in the cloud – none of the shops had our Retailer POS software or data on their computers. This was before the term cloud became a marketing term.

While the marketing of the cloud has been excellent, the business benefits have not been so great, especially for small business.

The cloud seems cheaper because there usually is no up front cost. Add up all costs over three years and a cloud based solution will in almost every case cost you more. This is not necessarily a bad thing. We mention it in case you prefer the cloud as a cost saving measure.

In terms of business commercial outcomes, a cloud based solution may not deliver you better business outcomes. Business outcomes depend on your engagement with the data collected and managed by your software. This is on you and has nothing to do with where your software and data are hosted.

You get out of your software what you put in and not because of how you access it.

To run in the cloud, you need a good and reliable host with quality data backup, speedy access and 24/7 support from your country of location. Too often this is not the case.