Having the right tools is crucial for success, especially in local small business retail. At Tower Systems, we believe that the best people to help us shape our Point of Sale (POS) software are the ones who use it every day: our customers. That’s why we’re proud to showcase our groundbreaking Software Ideas platform, a revolutionary tool that puts you in the driver’s seat of our software development.
Back in 2009, inspired by Jeff Jarvis’ book What Would Google Do?, we embarked on a mission to open up our software development process. The result was the launch of Software Ideas, a proprietary platform we created that empowers our Tower Systems POS software customers to suggest and vote on software changes. This world-first in the POS software space continues today in 2025 to be a cornerstone of our commitment to genuine and transparent cooperation with our small business retail customer community.
The Software Ideas platform is a simple yet powerful tool for collaboration. Here’s how it works:
- Suggest: Have an idea for a new feature, function, or report in our Retailer software? Submit it through the Software Ideas platform.
- Vote: Browse the ideas submitted by other users and vote for the ones you’d like to see implemented. Each customer has one vote, making every voice heard.
- Collaborate: Add your own notes and comments to existing ideas, fostering a community of innovation.
Our software development manager reviews every submission, combining similar ideas, contacting customers for further input, and putting them up for public voting. This transparent process allows us to prioritise the features and functions that are most requested by you, our valued customers.
We are proud to say that every update to our POS software includes enhancements suggested by our customers through the Software Ideas platform. In fact, our latest update, currently in the final stages of quality assurance, contains eight enhancements that originated from this very process. We make sure to identify these user-suggested enhancements in our update notes to demonstrate the power of your engagement.
Every idea is thoroughly costed and evaluated, and the list of live ideas is considered for each software update package we create. This is not just a suggestion box; it’s a dynamic and influential part of our development cycle.
The Software Ideas platform is more than just a feature; it’s a testament to our belief in a two-way partnership with our customers. It’s a unique service that encourages retailers to join our community, knowing that their voices will be heard and their needs will be met.
We are committed to acting on the will of our customer community, within the development budget funded from support fees and sales revenue. We are also committed to complete transparency. If a change request is not feasible for technical reasons, we will explain why.
Sixteen years on from its launch, we are proud to point to the valuable success of Software Ideas. It has not only enriched our POS software but has also strengthened our relationship with the retailers we serve. We want our customers to tell us what to do, to help us make our software better. The launch of Tower Systems Software Ideas is a direct result of trusting our customers to help us innovate and grow.
If you have an idea for how we can improve our software, we encourage you to visit our website and become a part of the conversation. Together, we can continue to build a POS system that is truly by retailers, for retailers.
Thank you to our customers for their ideas and encouragement – their engagement is the heart of Software Ideas.
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