The POS Software Blog

News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.

ArchiveMarch 2016

THE EASY WAY TO BOOK FOR A TOWER POS SOFTWARE USER MEETING

March 31, 2016

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Retailers using our POS software can book for any other twenty face to face user meetings in the current series by using our online facility. There, we show all addresses and times and parking details. We demonstrate ease of doing business, transparency and certainty – all important things to small business retailers. With all bookings, loading to your calendar is fast and easy.

Take our Gold Coast meeting Tuesday next week. We have twenty-four businesses booked to participate. Here are the publicly accessible details:

Free Training: Gold Coast User Meeting

Time: Tuesday, 05 April 2016 08:00am

Training Type: Face to face

Duration: 3 Hours

Location: Mantra Twin Towns – Wharf St Tweed Heads NSW

Join us to learn how you can drive more value from the Tower Systems POS software. We will share business management, strategic planning and operational insights that will be sure to help you make more money in your business as a result.

These sessions are 100% free. Tower System provides the room, catering and access to senior management from our company.

The sessions provide an excellent business owner networking opportunity as well as an opportunity to speak with us. Indeed, a key reason for running these sessions is to get your feedback.

At the sessions we will launch a brand new cloud based product that leverages the data retailers collect in every transaction through our Retailer POS software.

Anyone can announce user meetings. It is another thing entirely to list the actual dress details and go through with it.

We think you can assess a software company by its frequency of user meetings, transparency of details and ease of booking.

The same is true for our weekly free online workshops. Our customers can book online anytime they choose.

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TAGS CHANGE THE WAY SMALL BUSINESS RETAILERS TRACK INVENTORY

March 31, 2016

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The introduction of tags in the Tower Systems POS software last year added to an already powerful reporting suite for our retail customers.

Using tags our retailers can take a horizontal slice through their business data across departments, categories and suppliers, linking items based on a licence or sole other connection relevant to the business.

Tagging is smart easy and powerful, providing small business retailers a fresh view of their businesses, one unique to Tower Systems.

We have been demonstrating the value of tags in our user meetings, [providing our customers with ah ha moments when they see it, get it and realise the power for their businesses through the unique view of business performance available to them.

Tagging inventory items is another point of difference we have been able to leverage for growth among our small business retail user community.

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ACCESSIBILITY TO POS SOFTWARE ARCHITECTS IS KEY TO SMALL BUSINESS RETAILERS

March 30, 2016

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Hey small business retailers: When as the last time you got to speak directly with those responsible for the POS software you use? When were you able to influence the decisions they make on the design of the software?

Here at Tower Systems that happens daily. Access to the decision makers in our business is easy for any of our small business retailer customers.

Such access is important to us as it helps us make more useful software, the kind of software retailers love.

At our current national user meeting tour where we are vuisiting more than twenty locations our customers can directly and one on one talk with our decision makers. They can share suggestions and find out wh6y we do what we do.

We get as much out of this dialogue as our customers. Indeed, it is a thrill to have ah ha moment when we discover opportunities for our software beyond what we may have been thinking.

Beyond the current user meetings our customers have access to the development team through our open door policy of end user contact. We don’t believe in hiding those creating our software from those who use it.

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SMALL BUSINESS POS SOFTWARE HELP DESK OPEN AFTER EASTER BREAK

March 29, 2016

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We hope all our customers using our small business POS software had a good Easter break whether they were open or closed all through.

Our help desk is minutes away from reopening after four days off. While our after hours team were up and running all through Easter, there is nothing like the office based service that has access to even more resources with which to help retailers.

Our full suite of services is available this week including support, access to software updates, free training and other business management help beyond our POS software itself.

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SUNDAY SMALL BUSINESS RETAIL MANAGEMENT ADVICE: 6 WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR POINT OF DIFFERENCE THIS WINTER

March 27, 2016

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Winter can be tough for some people. It can be tough for retail too as traffic is often down. Independent retailers have an opportunity to leverage the season, to make it more enjoyable for you and your customers.

Here are six suggestions to get you thinking abut winter differently:

Reach out to retirement villages and nursing homes. Pack up key items from your shop and tele it on the road – go to those customers who can’t come to you because of the cold.
Offer free delivery. If option one does not work for you promote a delivery service so people shut in can still get their fix. Be the retailer who goes the extra mile.
Add to your customer service. have somewhere people can place their umbrellas and raincoats when they enter.
Keep your shop warm. Offer hot coffee, tea or hot chocolate. Maybe have a slow cooker with some delicious home cooked vegetable soup using a recipe from a magazine you have in-store.
Have a summer sale. In the middle of winter, at the coldest, have a blow-out sale and call it something like a SIZZLING SALE. Get people warm with great prices.
Change your music playlist. If you’re using an online music service, select brighter, warmer music.

If your shop is in a really cold area consider an outer door to keep the warmth in. They do this a lot in Europe and the US in Winter.

Winter is a seasoning which you can show off your point of difference and get people seeing your retail business differently.

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HELPING A SMALL BUSINESS RETAILER CONFRONT THE WORST TYPE OF THEFT

March 26, 2016

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The worst type of theft any small business retailer can encounter is that by a business partner. It can be challenging to detect as a smart partner can know processes and opportunities to steal without detection. A well run business, however, has checks and balances, checkpoint opportunities to indicate theft that can be investigated and proven.

We have been working on this for a customer through this Easter period, helping to gather evidence that will resolve the matter.

While we offer excellent theft mitigation opportunities in our POS software, retailers can choose the level to which these are used. Offering local choice is something retailers want. We confront the risk of choice in our training and support of retailers as we want them to choose what is best for their business, to keep the cost low.

We are proud to offer management level business assistance and advice to help retailers uncover evidence of theft and to take appropriate steps to recover stolen funds and bring perpetrators to justice.

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EASTER POS SOFTWARE HELP DESK COVERAGE

March 24, 2016

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While our main offices will be closed over the Easter break, our after hours and emergency numbers will be accessible to our customers to ensure support for any time-sensitive issues encountered through the period.

We take the provision of support through extended public holiday periods seriously and have ensured all of our customers have contact details for after hours coverage. We have mailed and emailed details.

To all our customers – we hope you have good trading the Easter days you are open. We are here if you need us.

Through the Easter break we will publish our customer weekly comms as usual and maintain easy access to our knowledge base and other online resources.

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TERRIFIC NEWSXPRESS TRADE SHOW AND CONFERENCE

March 23, 2016

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Tower Systems connected with many small business newsagents in the proactive newsXpress newsagency marketing group at their national conference yesterday. As well as shown off new newsagency software, our team at the conference engaged in valuable business building discussions aimed at building more successful and valuable newsagency businesses. Our team also got to have good discussions with suppliers about deeper retailer / supplier engagement through smart new technology.

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POS SOFTWARE WEBSITE INTEGRATION HELPING SMALL BUSINESS RETAILERS INCREASE ONLINE SALES

March 23, 2016

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We are thrilled with the growing revenue being achieved by small business retailers using websites we have created, websites that seamlessly connect with the bricks and mortar POS software used in retail businesses that we serve.

While some retailers we are working with are new to online retail, for others our involvement in second and third generation for them. In each situation we are able to bring diverse experience to the table to help all sorts of small independent retailers to enhance their online e-commerce situation, attract new shoppers and drive the value of the retail business.

Our diverse experience in several retail channels sets us up to be able to help retailers reach beyond what is traditional for their specific channel.

With our Tower created website pool growing we have excellent reference sites to share to show indie retailers what is possible.

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WONDERFUL MELBOURNE TOY FAIR EXPERIENCE

March 22, 2016

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We are thrilled with our experience at the Melbourne Toy fair over the last four days, showing off our latest Toy Shop Software. During the four days we got to meet plenty of toy retailers as well as gift shop owners and newsagents.

With toys being an important category across several retail channels, this proved to be a valuable trade show for us to support and participate in. The diversity in retailers suited us.

We also enjoyed connecting with more toy suppliers with good discussion around supplying electronic invoices.

As the only POS software company at the fair we had a terrific advantage for which we are grateful.

Total attendance was thousands – from around Australia, large and small retailers and, as we noted, from several retail channels.

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ALL POS SOFTWARE HAS BUGS, IT IS HOW YOU HANDLE THEM THAT MATTERS

March 22, 2016

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The Tower Systems POS software has bugs, not deliberate bugs, not bugs left in the software forever to frustrate customers.

What matters most about any software bug is how the software company reacts.

Tower Systems has a structured process to deal with with a report of a bug.

We check that the bug is real, that we can recreate it at will.
We research the bug to understand the cause.
We unpack the programming code to track down a cause.
We discuss resolution.
We code resolution.
We test the resolution in house.
We test the resolution in the field.
We advise those reporting the bug of correction.

This whole process is undertaken in partnership with our customers. This transparency builds confidence and demonstrates our commitment to engaged service of the businesses we serve.

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THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLOUD BACKUP SERVCIES FOR SMALL BUSINESS RETAILERS

March 21, 2016

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The cloud backup service offered by Tower Systems to its small business retailer customers is best practice, offering the ultimate in protection for our customers.

The features of the service include:

Whole of PC backup. This is crucial.
Local copy storage.
Cloud based storage in a secure independent server farm location.
Speedy recovery back to a selected data.
Certainty over the management of the processes.
No user triggered backup activity required.

While there are free cloud based backup services, when it comes to protecting your business data a free service is most likely not the best.

Your business data needs to be treated with the respect it deserves.

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NEW FREE POS SOFTWARE TRAINING ANNOUNCED FOR APRIL, MAY AND JUNE

March 21, 2016

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Tower Systems is pleased to announce new free training opportunities for retailers using our POS software. Come a participate in as many of these free training workshops as you would like.

APRIL

Meeting Name: Understanding the End of Shift Reports.
Date: Wednesday 6th April
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Why is the End of Shift important? How do I check my settings are correct? What do the reports mean? And what parts of the report do I need to use for my accounting.

Meeting Name: Trouble free handling of Cartons and Boxes in your retail business using Tower Systems
Date: Wednesday 13th April
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Handle Cartons and Boxes of stock simply and easily. Especially useful if you sell singles and cartons of stock.

Meeting Name: How to handle non EDI invoices to keep stock accurate.
Date: Wednesday 20th April
Time: 2:00PM
Description: See how easy it is to process invoice’s manually for suppliers that do not send electronic invoices to help keep your stock figures accurate.

Meeting Name: Retailer software settings you will be shocked you have access to.
Date: Wednesday 27th April
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Help desk expert Colin Harris will show you settings you most likely don’t know exist that can help your enjoyment of the software

MAY

Meeting Name: Reports that will change your business
Date: Wednesday 4th May
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Reports in retailer that will help you drive sales and increase profit.

Meeting Name: How to Cut Theft in Your business
Date: Wednesday 11th May
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Protect yourself from the high costs associated with Staff and Customer Theft. Make the most of security features available in Retailer. Owners and Manager only.

Meeting Name: Getting Ready for EOFY
Date: Wednesday 18th May
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Get ready for End of Financial Year now. What you need to do and the reports you need to run.

Meeting Name: Stocktaking for EOFY
Date: Wednesday 25th May
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Doing a stocktake in retailer and what option works best for you.

JUNE

Meeting Name: How to discount easily for Seasonal Sales
Date: Wednesday 1st June
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Quickly and easily setup automatic discounts for seasonal sales using catalogues

Meeting Name: Getting Ready for EOFY
Date: Tuesday 7th June
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Get ready for End of Financial Year now. What you need to do and the reports you need to run.

Meeting Name: Stocktaking for EOFY
Date: Wednesday 8th June
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Doing a stocktake in retailer and what option works best for you.

Meeting Name: Getting Ready for EOFY
Date: Wednesday 15th June
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Get ready for End of Financial Year now. What you need to do and the reports you need to run.

Meeting Name: Stocktaking for EOFY
Date: Thursday 16th June
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Doing a stocktake in retailer and what option works best for you.

Meeting Name: Increase Sales Now! Start using Discount Vouchers.
Date: Tuesday 21st June
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Start using Discount Vouchers to grow your business. A great introduction to this great feature.

Meeting Name: Getting Ready for EOFY
Date: Wednesday 22nd June
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Get ready for End of Financial Year now. What you need to do and the reports you need to run.

Meeting Name: Stocktaking for EOFY
Date: Wednesday 29th June
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Doing a stocktake in retailer and what option works best for you.

Meeting Name: Getting Ready for EOFY
Date: Thursday 30th June
Time: 2:00PM
Description: Get ready for End of Financial Year now. What you need to do and the reports you need to run.

We will add more sessions as any of these fill up.

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SUNDAY RETAIL MANAGEMENT ADVICE: HOW TO CHOOSE POS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR RETAIL BUSINESS

March 20, 2016

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TERRIFIC FIRST DAY AT THE MELBOURNE TOY FAIR FOR OUR TOY SHOP SOFTWARE

March 19, 2016

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We are thrilled with the engagement on our stand during the first day of the Melbourne Toy Fair trade show today. There was plenty of interest in our Toy Shop software as well as our speciality software for gift shops and newsagents as they were well represented in attendees today.

Plenty of business owners stopped by to learn more about what our software does and how it can help an independent toy retailer computer with mass retailers.

Our competitive price and loyalty tools are especially useful in helping retailers to engage commercially and competitively.

We have another three days at this trade show. Based on today we are excited for the opportunities they will bring.

With more than 1,000 attendees on day one this is set to be a terrific show.

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TOY SHOP SOFTWARE ON SHOW AT 2016 TOY FAIR STARTING TODAY

March 19, 2016

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We are thrilled to be showing off our latest Toy Shop Software at the Toy Fair in Melbourne. With many toy retailers already partnering with us we are enjoying the opportunity to catch up as well as to make new connections.

In our latest software we are helping toy retailers to be smart in how they compete with the big end of town. Toy retailers in particular love our software for:

Catalogue management.
Shopper loyalty tools.
Easy LayBy facilities.
Age checking and protection.
Warranty support.
Serial number tracking and management.
Product bundling for hampers and other packages.
Collectibles management. Special orders.
Special customer service.
Multi-buy tools.
Major supplier integrations.
Tagging – enabling easier licence sales tracking and management.

Our work with toy manufacturers and retailers in Australia and overseas is delivering terrific outcomes for our retail partners and for us. We are thrilled with what we are seeing achieved.

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PERTH POS SOFTWARE USER MEETING

March 17, 2016

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This morning we hosted a POS software user meeting and training session providing group wide and one on one training opportunities for our customers. We are grateful our WA customers love our commitment to regular live open training opportunities like this.

What is interesting about these sessions is the supplier assistance we provide – answering questions other suppliers ought to answer but cannot as they do not make themselves accessible.

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TOWER SYSTEMS EMPOWERS SMALL BUSINESS RETAILERS WHEN IT COMES TO POS SOFTWARE CHANGES

March 17, 2016

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Retailers using our small business POS software are voting on changes to the software. We launched this initiative, Software Ideas, years ago and remain as committed today as we were at launch. We appreciate the active engagement of our customers in suggesting enhancements and those in voting for enhancements.

Software Idease is unique, transparent and engaging for our customers. Every idea is responded to in a transparent way. We are thrilled to be able to do this for our customers and are grateful for the opportunity for this dialogue. The result is better, user driven, software.

This engagement focuses our attention.

It is hard work to create and manage a public facing portal for customer change suggestion. That we are still doing this years on and that it is appreciated by so many of our customers is a delight.

This is another example of Tower Systems living up to its promises. We appreciate the point of difference we are able to demonstrate.

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CANBERRA AREA RETAILERS POS SOFTWARE USER MEETING

March 16, 2016

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Plenty of retailers using our Tower Systems POS software got together with us today at the Mercure Hotel for a POS software user meeting and networking session. In addition to covering new facilities and delivering appreciated training, we also connected with prospective users keen for a new solution.

From our side at the Canberra session we had our software development manager, COO, national sales manager and CEO all present and engaged in the session.

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SMALL BUSINESS POS SOFTWARE USER MEETING FEEDBACK

March 16, 2016

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We are thrilled with the reactions we are receiving to our national tour of capital cities and major regional centres where we are hosting our POS software user meetings.

Retailers are loving their direct access to senior management within the company from the owner to our COO to our Software Development Manager to our State Managers.

This direct contact is uncommon between retailers and their POS software company. We are grateful to be in a position to provide this point of difference experience.

From being able to access additional training through to having how to questions answered to discussing a suggested enhancement to talking about business process improvements through using the software, we are using these sessions to focus 100% on the experience of our customers.

The appreciation we are receiving in return is inspiring. It encourages to do this more often.

The overarching mood of the meetings is optimistic – retailers being optimistic about retail, their own situation and their relationship with us.

We are loving it.

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POS SOFTWARE SYDNEY USER MEETING A HIT

March 15, 2016

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We had a terrific POS software user meeting in Sydney today, at the Novotel in Homebush. There was an excellent business building discussion around loyalty options – selecting what is right for your specific circumstances. This discussion was in addition to training on the latest release.

Having the leadership team of the company at these sessions is proving to be appreciated by our customers. It demonstrates our commitment to excellent customer service.

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WHEN CHOOSING POS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR RETAIL BUSINESS, VISITING THE HEAD OFFICE OF A POS SOFTWARE COMPANY IS IMPORTANT

March 15, 2016

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We won another customer earlier this month when they visited our office to compare for themselves who we are and what we do. They had been told plenty by others. They soon saw that our support was local, our help desk team genuinely engaged, our developers working on practical retail solutions and our management team keen to help beyond the POS software itself.

They also saw the facilities we use for our weekly live online training workshops, our professional studio where we shoot our training videos and other state of the art resources we have in order to better serve our small business retail customers.

We are thrilled to welcome any small business retailers considering using or already using our software to our office to look first-hand behind the scenes at Tower Systems.

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MORE FREE POS SOFTWARE TRAINING FOR SMALL BUSINESS RETAILERS

March 14, 2016

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Here are more free training opportunities for small business retailers using the Tower Systems POS software. Each of these sessions is live, interactive, accessible online from anywhere in the world and, free.

Free up cash in your Business today. Wednesday, 16 March 2016 2PM.
Stocktaking in Retailer for EOFY (New Zealand). Thursday, 17 March 2016 1PM.
Make your Customer Display shine and drive sales. Wednesday, 23 March 2016 1PM.
Getting Ready for EOFY (New Zealand) Thursday. 24 March 2016 1PM.
Using Catalogues for seasonal sales. Wednesday, 30 March 2016 2PM.

Tower Systems runs these POS software training workshops weekly, sometimes two or three times weekly – all in service of our customers. We provide this free training to any of our customers at absolutely no cost to them.

In addition to the structured training, there is time in each session for questions. This can lead to some terrific online user networking.

We have been running these workshops for years. This is our actions being true to our words. It is one thing to announce training and another entirely to deliver on the training week in and week out.

All times noted are Australian easter Summer Time.

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